Compensation if initial small flight delay led to connecting flight miss

[bhav]

Hi,

Just wanted to check my thinking before I spend time claiming compensation.

I had a journey yesterday/today booked on a single ticket with BA: BA55 LHR to Joburg (supposed to depart 19:05, landing 07:00), then 4Z553 South Africa Airlink from Joburg to Durban (supposed to depart 09:05, landing 10:20).

The BA55 was delayed c.44mins taking off (due to two issues: having to load bags bags manually due to a technical hitch, and having to bring dry ice on-board due to a separate technical hitch on cooling systems), which meant by the time we landed BA had determined we’d miss the SA Airlink flight and moved us to South African Airways SA551 at 12.45, due to land at 13:55.
We boarded this SAA flight which then sat on the runway for quite some time with its own technical issue (plane change, re-registering something with air traffic control etc). So we eventually landed in Durban at 14:43.

Therefore, I am comparing my original expected time of landing in Durban of 10:20 with actual of 14:43 – i.e. 4 hours 23mins.

Am I entitled to claim compensation from BA? I think I am…?! And I believe it’s the full amount? Curious for any thoughts..! Thank you.

[Blindman67]

Not an expert by far but I think you have this wrong.

The Ba flight would be the only one you could claim IF it arrived 4 hours or more at ITS destination as its flying from UK and is a EU carrier.

The others are not flying from UK or EU carriers and neither arrived 3 hours late at THEIR destination.

I could be wrong…

[NorthernLass]

I think you might be eligible if it was all on one ticket and your eventual arrival time was late enough. But there’s nothing to stop you putting in a claim – it’s a very straightforward form to fill in on the BA website and they may just pay up without a quibble!

[Richie]

There was a case Gahan v Emirates and Buckley v Emirates.

Also Air France v Folkerts.

[JDB]

@bhav – yes, if you were on a single booking through to Durban, you are entitled to the full £520pp delay compensation for a 4h23 delay, even though the last leg was on a third country carrier on a third country domestic flight and the BA flight itself wasn’t unduly late. BA won’t be too happy, but those are the rules for the time being.

[AJA]

I agree with @JDB on this. BA sold you a ticket from London to Durban. So it’s the time you arrived in Durban compared to original scheduled arrival that counts. The fact that this meant you flew via JNB and connected on to a separate airline which suffered a technical issue is unfortunate for BA but the late arrival of the BA flight caused the initial misconnect to your original SA domestic flight.