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Nightmare situation…. Belfast to LHR flight was delayed and we have arrived in and told we won’t make our flight to Cape Town. We are flying on an avios 241 in club world. What are our rights? The staff on our Belfast flight said we would be out on tomorrow nights flight to Cape Town. What are our entitlements? We are going to lose a night in our hotel/ car hire etc. plus we are in London with no luggage. Also our PCR tests are going to be outside of the time scale for entry to South Africa as we had done them on Wednesday night. Where do we stand and what should I be asking for at customer service desk?
Realistically, is the BA flight tomorrow going to be the soonest you can get there (I’ve no idea what other services are currently running)? If so, you may be owed EU/UK261 delay compensation (make sure you find out what the delay was down to). You are definitely owed duty of care, so accommodation and meals at LHR until you can get on another flight, plus new covid tests (should be able to get them done at LHR).
Re the lost hotel & car hire, this might have to be claimed on your insurance, but other readers may know better than me. Try and contact them though or they may cancel your bookings.
Good luck – let us know how you get on.Hotels etc missed are one for insurance. I hope you’ve emailed them to say you’ll be delayed so they don’t mark you down as a no show and cancel the rest of the booking
Nww covid tests are again down to you / insurance. You could try and claim from BA but I don’t see them paying up.
At customer serives you should be asking if they have arranged a hotel for you tonight. If not book it yourself then claim from BA on your return along with costs of any meals and transport to / from it. They can’t (and won’t) deal with any compensation claims – those are for later.
With no luggage then buy and claim for basic toiletries – tooth brush / paste / deoderants etc. Plus clothing basics so perhaps clean socks, pants and t-shirt type items.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Oh no! That’s not good news. Firstly don’t panic.
Was your Belfast to LHR flight on a separate booking? It sounds like it isn’t since you mention you have no luggage which means it must have been booked through to CPT. If you have definitely missed the flight then your luggage should have been offloaded so you should be able to retrieve it. If not go to the nearest Tesco in Feltham – take the tube to Hatton Cross and get either the 90 (preferrably) or the H25, 285 or 490 buses and buy some clothes (keep the receipts for the claim off BA)
BA should put you up in a hotel for the night and book you onto the next flight to CPT. They should also pay for dinner tonight and breakfast and lunch tomorrow (excluding alcohol). If not book yourself in and keep the receipts.
I would also contact the Hotel and the car hire place in Cape Town to let them know you missed your flight. I am sure that they will be able to keep your room and the car hire place might be able to make sure there is a car for the following day.
Tomorrow morning go for a PCR test. There is an in=terminal test at LHR with results in 4 hours
Book here: https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/fly-safe/covid-19-test
Claim that cost from BA too.
Good luck!
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
We were told That we could get our luggage off loaded, so we went for that, but clearly it’s not lost in the system. Flight staff said we would get out up in the Sofitel, but told its not available and had to take the renaissance. The whole thing has been A nightmare. In terms of compensation how do you even do this? What sort of compensation (ie is it worth the hassle as BA are invariably a nightmare to deal with). Thanks for all the help so far!
Also we were told that BA has an agreement that we have 24 hour flexibility on our PCR results in this scenario. I have no idea as I’ve never heard of this happening before
Yes that’s correct. Many countries do allow a grace period when things like this happen because it’s not your fault.
Netherlands will allow it as well as long as the airlineprovides documentation saying that it was their fault.
Leave any claims until you come back. But keep receipts etc.
Revert back here when you come to do it and you’ll get lots of help.
@tazzy – compensation unfortunately will depend on why your first flight was delayed – so technical problems are included, for example, but not the weather. Did they give you a reason for the delay? This is really important as you will need to cite it in the event of any claim. After your trip, read up on EU/UK261 on here as BA has a history of denying it even where it’s clearly merited. It also assumes that your flight was on one PNR, but it sounds as though it was.
Hope you get your flight today!Our flight was delayed as the inbound flight from Heathrow to Belfast was delayed due to an IT issue with Heathrow’s biometrics, resulting in a delayed departure to Belfast and subsequently our flight was delayed.
That sounds like it would be eligible for the delay compo IMO, try and get it in writing, or if that’s not possible, make comprehensive notes about what was said, when and by whom. BA may try to deny they ever said it (this happened to me!) so you may have to go to CEDR or MCOL with your claim, but it would be the full amount (£500ish each) so worth it.
I think the officially filed reason for flight delay is findable on expertflyer for 48 hrs after the flight?
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