Missed Connection
 

Recently I flew to from LHR to Kochi via Dubai with the same airline.

The flight was late leaving London due to a technical fault, so we missed the connection and eventually arrived at our destination the following day.

The airline says that the two flights are not connected and as the first flight was less than three hours late and the connecting flight departed outside the EU, no compensation is payable.

Is this correct? I believe that the airline are trying to avoid paying compensation but I haven't been able to find anything specific about split flights. I did have a prepaid itinerary of events arranged for the day I missed, so I am out of pocket.

As an aside, we were put up overnight in an airport hotel with only our hand baggage. This included duty free alcohol purchased at LHR. Therefore checking back in the following day, the alcohol was over the 100ml limit and was confiscated. Security were sympathetic but said that it happens all the time. You would think that the airlines would have some sort of system to store these items airside so you could collect them on your return.

The airline is correct that no compensation is payable. In fact the first leg would have needed to be over 4 hours late to be eligible.

Flight Compensation Regulation 261/2004

I have been looking a bit deeper and as I understand it, it is the arrival time at the final destination that is relevant. Most of the information I have found refers to a single flight and this is quite clear. It's the connecting flight where it is a bit grey.

EUR-Lex - 32004R0261 - EN - EUR-Lex

Article 2 para (h) refers

Were both sectors on the same ticket?

Your original post made it sound as if they weren't:

Well yes and no.

We were travelling to Kochin, but were given one flight to Dubai and one from Dubai to Kochin. You could argue that they were two separate flights, but as you cannot fly direct, you have to take two flights. As far as we were concerned, we were only going on one journey and the change at Dubai should have been get off one aircraft and (just about) get on the next.

On our return, we stopped off at Dubai for a few days. That is what I would consider two separate flights.

Saintsman. When you purchased the flights did you make one payment for one flight and a separate payment for the second or was it a single payment?

Then look at the documentation you got from whoever you purchased the ticket(s) from. Somewhere on there you will find a 13 digit number. If both flights have the same 13 digit number I reckon you're covered but if they were diffeernt numbers for London/Dubai and Dubai Kochi then that's not an "official connectiion" and you are not covered.

One single payment, with the same airline reference number for all legs.

I have two e-ticket numbers, which I assume is one for the out journey and the other for the return. xxxxxxxxxxx94/95 and the other xxxxxxxxxxx96/97

It sounds to me your itinerary was LHR - Dubai - Kochi. If this was purchased as such, it seems to me your contract was to get to Kochi and the planned change in Dubai is immaterial. You arrived more than 4 hours late, your departed from the EU and there were no extraordinary circumstances. Seems simple to me and​ bear in mind pretty much all airlines will initially reject claims.

Push back on them and if necessary use the usual methods to get them to pay up.

I've e-mailed the airline and will await their response.

Thanks to those who responded.

You use the term "I" which I take to mean only you travelled.. An airline ticket has space for up to 4 flights. Thus ticket xxxxxxxxxxx94 can contain London/Dubai/Kochi/Dubai/ London. You appear to have had four ticket numbers although the way you group them suggests they were each for between 5 and 8 flights (2 sets of four issued "in conjunction". Your grouping could mean there were two of you and the tickets included flights before London and/or after Kochi or that you (alone) had four separate tickets; 94 for London/Dubai 95 for Dubai/Kochi 96 for Kochi/Dubai and 97 for Dubai/London. That can have a significant effect on how the EU regulation applies.

Missed connection (outside EU) shortly to go to CoP ...


Court of Appeal to Settle the Question of Delay and Missed Connections | Blog


Any claims likely to be stayed until result. Have provided explanation rather than actual wording for ease of interpretation.

I just hope that non-EU airline are treated the same as EU airlines. If you start a journey in the EU to travel from A to B, then every service provider has to meet exactly the same standards. If it means you transit through one, two or three intermediate points then so be it. But the basic fact is that you bought a ticket to go from A to B. That it means a change of aircraft and flight numbers at various points along the route is immaterial. The method of delivery is up to the provider. The same should also apply to rail, bus and ferry public transport services.

Due to be heard by the Court of Appeal at the end of July. Watch this space.

PM, for flights from the EU the rules reply regardless of the airline's nationality. To the EU it is a different story. The EU regulation does not apply to non-EU airlines. Their own national rules and regulations apply, whatever they may be.

ExXB, I think we have discussed that previously but any airline flying into the EU is to respect 261/2004 regardless of where is based.

Happy to be corrected though.

The Regulation makes it clear that it doesn't apply to non-EU airlines flying into the EU, as the previous post pointed out.

Regulation text:

So to UA or DL operated flights, the regulation does not apply. If a third country has rules in place for flights departing their country, said rules override the regulation for community carriers as well.

If you are unhappy, vote with your feet. I haven't flown BA, on a revenue ticket, in over 8 years because I was so angry with them. I did, however, burn all my FF miles before I abandoned them.

Ask some of their competitors if they will match your status if you join their program.

ExXB

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I would use the underlined part to claim under 261 for a flight to the EU and refuse to accept what is offered under the third country regulation.

One of the smartest suggestion in this forum since a long long time.

That would still be dependent on the part that you omitted from your quote:

If you've flown into the EU on a non-EU carrier, you have no claim under 261.