Flight delayed, compensation denied (shocker) but ...

jimi_man

Grumpy_chap said:

There seem to be some odd decisions taken along the way.

The inbound flight was delayed by the weather so the OP's flight from Lanzarote was delayed.  The airline will justifiably consider the root cause is the weather so outside their control.

1
The delayed flight took off but was diverted to Tenerife due to the crew exceeding permitted flying hours.  This resulted in the overnight delay.  Assume the OP was provided suitable board in Tenerife.
This part does not make sense to me.  A flight from Lanzarote to Cardiff will take around 4 hours.  The airline will have known prior to departure that this is the case and that the 4-hour duration would exceed crew hours.  I am confused as to why the airline would depart Lanzarote knowing the crew could not complete the journey.  The diversion to Tenerife is further from Cardiff (or certainly no nearer) than the start point.

Then the next day, there was a further delay in the departure from Tenerife apparently because of a passport control issue related to some of the crew.This part also does not make sense to me.

2
Everyone on that plane, whether passenger or crew, presumably had the correct paperwork and permissions to enter Lanzarote - hence, Spain - and the entry requirements for Tenerife - also Spain - are the same so far as I am aware.

Although I think the OP has limited chance of a successful claim, a query to seek clarification on the statements that appear to have been made by the airline seems reasonable.

1. In relation to this, what would be the alternative, bearing in mind the flight was delayed anyway? Stay at Lanzarote? Maybe there were no rooms at Lanzarote or the airline thought that initially the crew would be just within their hours. Looking at the times of the flight schedule, it stays for 1 hour on the ground under normal circumstances. However in this case, as well as being late, it spent 2 hours and 25 minutes on the ground at ACE which coupled with the initial delay, put them out of hours. It's possible that they were taxying and spent a long time waiting for takeoff. Tbh it doesn't really matter whether they are in Lanzarote or Tenerife - they are still delayed. 

2. Not necessarily. Don't forget that the crew don't enter Lanzarote, they just stay on the plane and turn round to go home again normally. So when they enter Tenerife it would be for the first time. Some of the crew may not have UK/EU passports and so that takes longer. That wouldn't be an issue under normal circumstances. 

Of course the main point is that in relation to this second flight, a separate EU261 claim, it wasn't over 3 hours delay and so doesn't result in a compensation claim anyway so it's irrelevant.

To address some of the other points in the thread about spare planes and/or standby crews, these are only available at the home base generally. They don't keep spare crews and planes at outstations for obvious reasons  - it's an expensive waste of money. AFAIK the crew and plane departed CWL more or less on time - it was the first diversion to Arrecife that caused the delay so there wouldn't have been a need to use a fresh crew. 

la531983

brianposter said:

mdann52 said:

There's no harm putting the claim in, as it's the airlines burden to prove this point, not the passengers

I cannot see much point in wasting everybodys time.

This. I've had to spend an extra 24 hours in the Canaries as the inbound flight got diverted to another island due to weather conditions (calima).

Didn't enter my mind once to attempt to claim compo.