BA short haul flight delay – advice appreciated

[AJA]

Hi, just received an email and text from BA informing me that my flight back from Lisbon today is delayed (BA 519 scheduled departure 15:55 arr LHR 18:55).

It is now expected to depart LIS at 18:30 and arrive at 21:10.

I assume EC261 delay compensation only kicks in if arrival and door open at stand is more than 3 hours later than scheduled ie 21:55?

But right to care still applies? But as I’m flying Club I guess lounge access covers food and drink vouchers?

[Lady London]

You will need dinner on the ground given how long you’ll be flying for and your new much latee time of arrival.

I’d have a proper meal at a restaurant in the Terminal or nearby.

[Lady London]

Oops looks like Lisbon to London in gcmap is just over 1500km so that puts the expected delay up to 3 hours departure later than scheduled to allow a meal claim – so looks like until the delay shown is 3 hours later no meal.

[ChrisC]

So a delay of 2 1/2 hours. Hard to justify a full meal claim especially as you have access to the lounge and will be fed on board.

[AJA]

Am in the lounge at LIS. We were given two vouchers for €15 each but choices in the departure area is very poor. Have had several sandwiches in the lounge so far. I am hoping they offer a hot meal.

Flight now estimated to depart after 19:25 and arrive at LHR at 22:03 so now in scope for delay compensation if it does arrive at that time.

The BA518 outbound has just left LHR 7 mins ago. I just hope they don’t cancel tonight’s return as that’s a whole other level of pain. The last flight of the day has already been cancelled.

[AJA]

Now updated again to say departing at 19:40 arriving 22:18.

Lounge just brought out some rather nice snacks so being looked after by Aena lounge staff.

[AJA]

Have great view of the runway so should see the inbound aircraft arrive. Could be worse, could be sitting in the general departure lounge area.

[Lady London]

AJA wrote:

Am in the lounge at LIS. We were given two vouchers for €15 each but choices in the departure area is very poor. Have had several sandwiches in the lounge so far. I am hoping they offer a hot meal.

Flight now estimated to depart after 19:25 and arrive at LHR at 22:03 so now in scope for delay compensation if it does arrive at that time.

The BA518 outbound has just left LHR 7 mins ago. I just hope they don’t cancel tonight’s return as that’s a whole other level of pain. The last flight of the day has already been cancelled.

You don’t have to be content with vouchers. You can spend what it takes reasonably in the location, to have a proper meal.

And generally I would never count what BA serves on a short haul plane to be sufficient as a meal. Particularly as the original flight wouldn’t have flown at a time which BA would consider eligible as a time when they would serve a meal – remember how restricted BA timings are so that many flights where you’d not get time to eat before checkin and too late to eat where landing – and yet BA loads a chocolate bar or a pack of crisps as the flight timing just escapes BA’s narrow definition of a mealtime.

Plus I’ve never been on seriously delayed flight – whether it’s still the same aircraft or another one that’s been flown in – when there wasn’t an announcement shortly after takeoff apologising for zero or practically no food on board.

[AJA]

Thanks LL. I will go see what is on offer elsewhere in the departure area. If nothing else it will allow me to stretch my legs.

[AJA]

Eventually flight departed Lisbon at 19 38 and arrived at LHR at 22:09 (according to the BA flight status website).

Captain announced on board that the delay was down to staff shortages with at least 4 separate departments in BA because of staff leaving since 2020 and not being replaced.

So now I can put in a flight delay compensation claim.

I didn’t buy food in the terminal as I kept eating sandwiches and snacks provided in the lounge. Did go have a look but nothing appealed. The meal on board was rather good, a Thai prawn curry. The crew onboard was great.

[meta]

I am not sure if you know, but you could have probably spent in the duty free.

[AJA]

Actually no. I tried that, queued to buy two bars of toblerone and was told the £15 voucher was only for use at “selected” restaurants. I never found out which restaurants they were.

[gustavo]

I was on the same flight, but I couldn’t find any representative from BA because the lounge was before passport control. My wife didn’t fancy the sandwiches in the lounge so I ended up just buying a sandwich at Paul. What sort of compensation would we qualify for? I thought it would just be some sort of reimbursement for food? Is there any link to claim flight compensation delay from BA? I only found the information on this link https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/delayed-or-cancelled-flights

Thanks

[gustavo]

Found the link thanks https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/delayed-or-cancelled-flights/compensation
Anyone could share the timeline for these complaints?

[AJA]

Did you use the €15 voucher at Paul? If not you can claim the cost of what you spent though BA might argue that the fact they gave you the voucher means you don’t get anything extra. As for the flight delay It’s over 1500km so quite significant at £350 per passenger.

[gustavo]

I didn’t get a voucher at all cause I didn’t know where to go to get it. I couldn’t find the BA area in order to speak to them. I saved the receipt just in case, but I am much more interested in the claim compensation form. Do you have a template for the authorised signed letter for other passengers? I found one from aviation adr that I can amend to my needs.

[AJA]

You didn’t get given a voucher at check in? That’s where I received mine.

[gustavo]

We checked in online and we went straight to security because we didn’t have any checked luggage.

[NorthernLass]

@AJA and @gustavo – make a written record of what the captain said, as close to his actual words as you can recall, with the date and time. This is what I had to rely on for a delay due to broken air con on a flight from LFK in 2019. Also of what was said via any announcements prior to boarding. When I submitted my claim to BA they tried to say the problem was that the airbridge had been unavailable and therefore they were not liable! I had to go to CEDR to get my compensation but BA backed down after that and paid up. Being able to show the reason for the delay is crucial for a successful claim.

[gustavo]

@NorthernLass I just made the claim after your message. I do remember the captain saying words along shortage on staffing due to covid, people who have left the company and roles were not fullfilled. I am typing here as well to see if @AJA remembers anything else.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[NorthernLass]

It’s interesting that he/she gave out that much detail, almost like they were giving you extra evidence for a compo claim …

[yonasl]

NorthernLass wrote:

It’s interesting that he/she gave out that much detail, almost like they were giving you extra evidence for a compo claim …

Arrived from LAX to LHR last week. We had 1.5hr delay and then had to be rerouted to CHI because of a passenger being ill (allegedly).

While all this may not be BA’s fault, many on the flight were going to miss their connections. As we finally arrived to LHR nobody could operate the jet bridge. Captain lost it then and started publicly bashing BA for having too little employees. As they knew we were coming late there was no reason not to have a team ready there. He insisted we take it with BA and put complains.

[AJA]

@NorthernLass The wording as mentioned by me above about staff shortages in 4 departments and staff leaving BA since 2020 and not being replaced is what the captain said. It suggested very much that he was being open and honest about the reasons for the delay which I appreciate. It must be soul-destroying to be an employee facing irate customers when BA can and should do better. Far better to be honest about short-comings rather than obfuscate and hide from responsibility.

The inbound flight was even later (close to or even over 4 hours late). The interesting thing is that I also posted on FlyerTalk about the delay and a FT legend and Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club,Corporate-Wage-Slave even gave me the registration of the plane and a head’s up of the likely reason for delay.

He wrote:

“Since the aircraft (G-TTNN) was 30 minutes ahead of schedule from its other service this morning, LCA-LHR, this very much suggests a lack of flight or cabin crew.”

So the captain’s comments reinforced that viewpoint.

The other thing I will mention is that there was an on board announcement while taxiing to gate that local time at LHR is 22:05. So captain did well to make up time but didn’t beat 3 hour limit. We should have been at the gate at 21:55 to be within the 3 hour limit.

I shall also use that in my claim. Yet to submit it but will do.

It’s a sad state of affairs as my first experience of BA in over 2 years as the check in experience at T5 last Monday wasn’t great either despite being helped by a lovely member of staff who prioritised us and took us to the head of the queue because my OH has mobility issues.

I had a lovely holiday in Lisbon but getting through the airport was anything but pleasurable. The thing is the staff I interacted with are all lovely and pleased to see me back and couldn’t do enough for me. The onboard experience was lovely and the food was great (except my 1st choice on the way out ran out at row 8 and i was in row 9 of a completely full 12 row club cabin!).That’s fantastic but if you can’t check in in the first place and then face over 3 hour long delays on the actual flight it means very little and it potentially means people will vote with their feet.

[Lady London]

The delay time that matters for compensation part of 261 is the amount of delay of the actual landing, after the acheduled landing. Be aware lots of routes have padding in that scbeduled arrival time now.

The delay time that matters for the different part of 261 which is duty of care (meals, hotels and transport to/from hotel if needed due delay, 2 phone calls or internet), is the delay in departure time.

Different basis for when the delay clock starts for each of these different parts

[AJA]

@LL Great advice as always. The flight officially departed at 19:38 whereas scheduled departure time was supposed to be 15:55. This is a delay of 3 hours 43 minutes

Actual arrival time was recorded as 22:09 but scheduled arrival time was supposed to be 18:55, a delay of 3 hours 14 minutes.