Thanks for the replies gents. The reason was a 'crew change' possibly at the origin of the incoming flight. The crew got to the outbound gate in 2hrs 55mins.....Family member missed all ground transpport and had to fork out a wedge for a taxi. Are the regs deliberately obtuse to confuse Joe Public, or to allow wiggle room for the airlines ? I can understand the airlines not wanting to be hit with compensation payments that might wipe out any profit on a sector, but at the same time they have a responsibility to their customers and the money spent for a service.