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Last month I was due LHR-ORD on AA. The flight was postponed 20 hours until the next day with just a few hours notice. I think it is clear that had I hung on for that flight then I would have been owed duty of care at LHR and for EU261 compensation owing to the late departure (unless for exceptional circumstances)
However I needed to be in ORD earlier than the postponed flight. There were no seats in any class on any airline on the day (my travel agent checked) so I re-routed on BA through Baltimore, with an overnight stay and an early morning flight to ORD. All of these flights were on time.
Do I still have a claim under 261? I have read the guidance, but it still seems ambiguous in my mind. The re-routed flight was on time, yet of course I still arrived at my final destination 14 hours or so later than intended. Natural justice would suggest the same compensation due as if the original flight was so delayed, yet I see similar, but not identical, cases discussed here where 261 is not applicable. Could I also have insisted on duty of care for the forced layover in BWI? I’m not intending to pursue this as I was not out of pocket vs the hotel in Chicago, but curious.
So far I submitted a 261 claim to AA, but just four weeks of automated ‘we will get to you’ messages. I was about to send an escalation, but now I am not so sure of what is due.
Thanks
- This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I think I have seen other posters on here mention that you’d only be entitled to delay compensation if you had taken the original flight, and were delayed due to that. It seems a bit convoluted but possibly to protect your 261 rights you would have had to contact BA/AA, request re-routing on another airline nearer the time you wanted to travel, then if they refused to book it for you, find your own flight which would get you to ORD near to the original time and claim the cost of that back!
Hopefully someone will clarify.
The flight was cancelled within a few hours of departure (postponement of 4 hours and more is considered cancellation under UK261), depending on the reason, cancellation compensation is due regardless whether you took the offered flight or not.
You would be entitled to re-route and duty of care if you contacted the airline and requested the assistance and they refused. It is not clear if you did. If you did and they refused, duty or care and the difference in costs should be covered by the airline.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I didn’t know about the 4 hours, @meta, thanks for another useful tip! I did skim the HFP article the other day but would re-read it (and all the info here!) if we got a delay/cancellation in future.
Though if the OP has claimed for delay, rather than cancellation compo, the airline may try refusing due to the technicality!
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Thanks for the info, I had not recognised a delay of 4hr+ is the same as a cancellation. The re-routing onto BA was done through AA, so I am not out of pocket there. They did not proactively offer BA as an option, but in fairness there were no direct flights available. I found the LHR-BWI-ORD option online and then my travel agent called them and asked/told them to rebook me, as it got me to destination closer to the original flight time.
Duty of care was never really needed, I am close enough to LHR to prefer staying at home for the extra night if needed and in this case the overnight in BWI was cost neutral to the overnight I would have had in Chicago. But curious for academic interest whether I could/should have argued for the overnight duty of care in transit in addition to the re-route?
I will badger on with the 261 claim. Official reason was “delayed-inbound”. However the originally scheduled inbound landed on time, so I guess it was a cascade switch around of available planes. I assume AA will point to some extraordinary circumstance stateside as the root cause, but there is an argument to make about maintaining network resilience. In any case I expect it will be weeks before I get a reply.
Knock on effect is not extraordinary circumstance.
I didn’t know about the 4 hours, @meta, thanks for another useful tip! I did skim the HFP article the other day but would re-read it (and all the info here!) if we got a delay/cancellation in future.
Though if the OP has claimed for delay, rather than cancellation compo, the airline may try refusing due to the technicality!
It’s not technically a cancellation, but there is a right to abandon, claim compo and demand re-route in accordance with Article 8.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Thanks for the info, I had not recognised a delay of 4hr+ is the same as a cancellation. The re-routing onto BA was done through AA, so I am not out of pocket there. They did not proactively offer BA as an option, but in fairness there were no direct flights available. I found the LHR-BWI-ORD option online and then my travel agent called them and asked/told them to rebook me, as it got me to destination closer to the original flight time.
Duty of care was never really needed, I am close enough to LHR to prefer staying at home for the extra night if needed and in this case the overnight in BWI was cost neutral to the overnight I would have had in Chicago. But curious for academic interest whether I could/should have argued for the overnight duty of care in transit in addition to the re-route?
I will badger on with the 261 claim. Official reason was “delayed-inbound”. However the originally scheduled inbound landed on time, so I guess it was a cascade switch around of available planes. I assume AA will point to some extraordinary circumstance stateside as the root cause, but there is an argument to make about maintaining network resilience. In any case I expect it will be weeks before I get a reply.
Ah, ok so a bit more of a context here. You could say this could fall also under delay compensation rather than cancellation. You arrived at your destination 14 hours later despite the re-route. Can’t remember now on top of my head, but there is pre-Brexit ruling on this (Finnair I believe was the airline in question).
If your flight is cancelled and you are put on another one that arrives on time but still late vs the original flight then you get UK261 compensation.
Can’t remember now on top of my head, but there is pre-Brexit ruling on this (Finnair I believe was the airline in question).
Would that be Sturgeon v Condor and Bock v Air France – referenced in a recent HFP article. This is weirdly interesting – so the original text of EU261 does not give right to compensation for delayed flights (Article 6) which I had erroneously thought was a key clause. Hopefully this case law carried over to the post Brexit UK implementation.
UPDATE: After submitting a claim through resolver I had 8 weeks of auto-reply “we are busy” emails. Then yesterday they replied with acceptance of claim. Should be getting the £520 shortly.
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