Second leg of long haul cancelled and rebooked by airline, 5 hour delay, can we get compensation

SausageChopsFace

We flew from London Heathrow to Bangkok July 2024. Air traffic control issues meant flight took off 2 hours late, but we only landed in Hong Kong 45 minutes late. Our airline (Cathay Pacific) cancelled our second leg flight (due to take off 50 minutes after we landed with delay) 6 hours before we even arrived in Hong Kong - we have email confirmation of this. They took our original second leg boarding passes from us (even though we asked if we could try to make the flight) and issued us with reissued boarding passes for a flight 5 hours later than originally booked.

We entered airport and could actually have made our original 2nd leg flight as we walked past the boarding gate as boarding was still happening, but we were told we weren’t allowed on as we had been cancelled from this flight. 

We accept air traffic control caused original delay, but we think we should have been allowed to try and make the flight (we could have made it) and therefore the 5 hours before delay we ended up with was actually the airline’s fault. We have filed a claim with airline, which they originally rejected, but I am trying again.

Before we go to ombudsman, does anyone know if this is a valid claim, as the specifics that happened to us don’t seem to be on any of the forums or information sites i have viewed?

Caz3121

what was the actual arrival time of the delayed flight and scheduled departure time of the onward flight. Sounds like Cathay assumed that the delayed arrival would take you under the 'minimum connection time' (believe they use 50mins or 1hour depending on destination) so the actual times would be useful to see if they were correct or got it wrong.

Ayr_Rage

Sounds like a normal scenario when the first flight is delayed, that then triggers an "unable to connect" timing and automatic rebooking to a later fight and as you noticed that happened well before you got to HK.

Whilst you may have been able to make the connection there would be no guarantee your checked baggage would do so.

It's not the airline's fault, it is just the way the system works.

eskbanker

SausageChopsFace said:

Before we go to ombudsman...

There isn't an ombudsman that covers this - I don't know if Cathay Pacific supports any ADR though.

Westin

Ayr_Rage said:

Sounds like a normal scenario when the first flight is delayed, that then triggers an "unable to connect" timing and automatic rebooking to a later fight and as you noticed that happened well before you got to HK.

Whilst you may have been able to make the connection there would be no guarantee your checked baggage would do so.

It's not the airline's fault, it is just the way the system works.

Exactly this.

Perhaps credit Cathy Pacific for their proactive approach in securing you seats on the next flight so that you could reach your destination without too much inconvenience. 

I wonder what the OP's view point might have been had they turned up at HKG and nothing had been sorted out for them, or that they made the original flight but had no luggage at their final destination.  Would there have been some complaining that the airline 'knew we were delayed, had 12 hrs to sort something out, yet did nothing about it and we just had to queue at a CX desk for help after our long flight'....

No compo.

TELLIT01

I would actually be praising the airline for being pro-active and ensuring you would be able to get on the later flight.  The airline couldn't be sure how much of the 2 hour delay would be made up during the flight.  Had the flight not made up time the OP would have missed the earlier flight, and possibly not got on the later flight either.  I can't see that any compensation is due.

SausageChopsFace

Thanks for comments so far, it is useful to hear opinions.  Just to add a little extra information. There was 50 minutes exactly between us landing (doors of plane opening) and the time our 2nd leg was due to leave.  We also were not booked on to the next flight leaving HK to Bangkok - there were 3 HK-BK flights in the 5 hours before our changed flight was scheduled, and we weren’t put on any of these earlier flights.

eskbanker

SausageChopsFace said:

We also were not booked on to the next flight leaving HK to Bangkok - there were 3 HK-BK flights in the 5 hours before our changed flight was scheduled, and we weren’t put on any of these earlier flights.

Were there seats available on any of those?

SausageChopsFace

eskbanker said:

SausageChopsFace said:

We also were not booked on to the next flight leaving HK to Bangkok - there were 3 HK-BK flights in the 5 hours before our changed flight was scheduled, and we weren’t put on any of these earlier flights.

Were there seats available on any of those?

There is unfortunately absolutely no way of us knowing this.

SausageChopsFace

eskbanker said:

SausageChopsFace said:

Before we go to ombudsman...

There isn't an ombudsman that covers this - I don't know if Cathay Pacific supports any ADR though.

eskbanker said:

SausageChopsFace said:

Before we go to ombudsman...

There isn't an ombudsman that covers this - I don't know if Cathay Pacific supports any ADR though.

There is an ADR that Cathay supports

TELLIT01

At what time would you have landed if the plane hadn't caught up time en-route (i.e. 2 hours later than scheduled)?

What were the departure times of the 3 flights you mention that you were not moved to?