4hr+ delay on short hall flight - compensation?
Discussion
Hi, short story - unfortunately last Thursday we encountered a 4hr delay to our BA flight from Heathrow to Hamburg, I assume we are able to claim some form of compensation? If so, do we go direct via BA or an alternative organisation?
Long story - Flight due at 11am. We boarded the plan and were told immediately that there was an issue with the plane that engineers were trying to solve, 30mins later we were told that the issue could be fixed and that they were now trying to find a replacement plane, and we would disembark once one had been found. A further half an hour later we were asked to disembark and go back to the terminal and await further instructions.....
Upon arriving at the terminal we were told to immediate head to Gate 10d (downstairs, no cafes). We were getting hungry and I asked whether I had time to nip back upstairs to grab some sandwiches, but I was advised this wasn't an option. We then get put on a transfer bus, but rather than pull away when it was full, it just sat idling for another 30mins! We then got going and arrive at the replacement plane, and then rather then get off we are kept waiting for another 20mins...
We finally get on the plane, we all found out seats, however this plane was far larger than the original, which resulted in the rear 3rd of the plane being empty. Due to the balancing issues, there then proceeded to be 1.5hrs of musical chairs as the staff (inc co pilot) moved people around!
At 3.10pm we finally started taxiing! Some 4hrs late and about 5 hours since anyone had eaten. Unfortunately, due to the late change of plane, no food was on board apart from snacks, which we were charged full price for. Although we did get 'one' complimentary drink!
All in all an utter shambles.
Icing on the cake, it was my 11 year old sons birthday, so he lost 4hrs being stuck on planes and hungry! This obviously impacted on our plans in Hamburg, including his dinner! Grrrt
Rant over.
Long story - Flight due at 11am. We boarded the plan and were told immediately that there was an issue with the plane that engineers were trying to solve, 30mins later we were told that the issue could be fixed and that they were now trying to find a replacement plane, and we would disembark once one had been found. A further half an hour later we were asked to disembark and go back to the terminal and await further instructions.....
Upon arriving at the terminal we were told to immediate head to Gate 10d (downstairs, no cafes). We were getting hungry and I asked whether I had time to nip back upstairs to grab some sandwiches, but I was advised this wasn't an option. We then get put on a transfer bus, but rather than pull away when it was full, it just sat idling for another 30mins! We then got going and arrive at the replacement plane, and then rather then get off we are kept waiting for another 20mins...
We finally get on the plane, we all found out seats, however this plane was far larger than the original, which resulted in the rear 3rd of the plane being empty. Due to the balancing issues, there then proceeded to be 1.5hrs of musical chairs as the staff (inc co pilot) moved people around!
At 3.10pm we finally started taxiing! Some 4hrs late and about 5 hours since anyone had eaten. Unfortunately, due to the late change of plane, no food was on board apart from snacks, which we were charged full price for. Although we did get 'one' complimentary drink!
All in all an utter shambles.
Icing on the cake, it was my 11 year old sons birthday, so he lost 4hrs being stuck on planes and hungry! This obviously impacted on our plans in Hamburg, including his dinner! Grrrt
Rant over.
Dr Murdoch said:
All in all an utter shambles..
It does appear so at the time but in the scheme of things, it's better to have technical issues on the ground rather that at 35,000ft. Better to be four hours late than four decades early!You were also fortunate this happened at Heathrow - BA's hub airport. Anywhere else and that four hours could easily have been 14 or more.
Puggit said:
Truckosaurus said:
You can claim it via the BA website.
Be prepared to wait months for a reply though.
Yes, the problem with UK261 is there are no set timescales. Be prepared to wait months for a reply though.
I had a similar issue flying BA from Heathrow to Frankfurt a few weeks ago, the original flight was cancelled the morning of the flight and an alternate later flight was offered, the cancelled flight was 1500 the new flight was 1900, I claimed through BA (there was a link at the bottom of the email they sent telling me about the cancellation) while at Heathrow the same day, be warned they don't make it easy to find the right link!
Claim logged Friday 22nd March, I got an email the following Tuesday 26th saying it had been checked and confirmed I was entitled for compensation which was £220 per passenger, the money arrived in my bank Tuesday 2nd April.
Claim logged Friday 22nd March, I got an email the following Tuesday 26th saying it had been checked and confirmed I was entitled for compensation which was £220 per passenger, the money arrived in my bank Tuesday 2nd April.
StevieBee said:
It does appear so at the time but in the scheme of things, it's better to have technical issues on the ground rather that at 35,000ft. Better to be four hours late than four decades early!
You were also fortunate this happened at Heathrow - BA's hub airport. Anywhere else and that four hours could easily have been 14 or more.
I had no issue with grounding that plane, its more with the 3.5hrs after that decision was taken that I have an issue with (being kept on plane, on buses, no food and then another 1.5hrs on a plane whist they figured out who should sit where (should/could that have not been done whilst passengers waited in the terminal?). You were also fortunate this happened at Heathrow - BA's hub airport. Anywhere else and that four hours could easily have been 14 or more.
Same as above, my TPA > LGW flight home was delayed 6+ hours in september due to faulty aircraft..then a broken tug, supposed to leave Tampa 7pm, plane arrived in to take us home past 1am. Claimed through BA's website, claim got accepted a day or two later and got the full £520 compensation a week later. Didn't help my rental car drop off time was 4pm....9 hours in an airport is..boring.
75Black said:
Same as above, my TPA > LGW flight home was delayed 6+ hours in september due to faulty aircraft..then a broken tug, supposed to leave Tampa 7pm, plane arrived in to take us home past 1am. Claimed through BA's website, claim got accepted a day or two later and got the full £520 compensation a week later. Didn't help my rental car drop off time was 4pm....9 hours in an airport is..boring.
That was the annoying thing when our flight was delayed 5 hours - it would have been great to get a message saying ‘flight delayed, don’t bother turning up for a while’ but we had to sit in the airport for ages.Still, £350 each paid for the weekend away!
Watch out for scams when applying for compensation. We applied via the TAP website for a 5 hour delay at Lisbon and received a 'time-limited' offer of 250€ compensation, which sounded very scammy and indeed was a scam (we googled the wording of the email).
After applying a second time and phoning TAP to make sure everything was kosher we received 1200€ for flights which cost 1150€, which was nice.
After applying a second time and phoning TAP to make sure everything was kosher we received 1200€ for flights which cost 1150€, which was nice.
As mentioned, you should be able to claim but be prepared to wait. We had a huge issue last year getting back from Geneva albeit with KLM not BA. We had a long and frustrating battle with our case but stuck it out and persevered. Ended up getting 250 Euros per person (so 750 Euros). We could have had the equivalent of 1050 Euros if we had taken the KLM voucher alternative, but we decided after some awful issues on the last 2 trips with them, we'd never use them again so took the money. Paid for a city break to Wroclaw so worth the fight.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff