A late flight delayed our connection, can we claim?

Q I have read what you’ve been writing about compensation for delayed flights, and I wondered if our case would qualify? In May we flew home from a Florida holiday on British Airways from Tampa to London Gatwick, with a bus transfer to Heathrow and another flight from there to Aberdeen. A day ahead of our trip we were told our first flight would be delayed by an hour. When we checked in at Tampa we were given boarding passes for a later second flight to Aberdeen. As a result we spent five hours at Heathrow hanging around for this flight. Would we be entitled to compensation?

Lesley B

A Let me first observe that any journey involving a transfer between Gatwick and Heathrow is by definition sub-optimal. British Airways says you need to leave at least three hours between arriving at one and departing from the other. It appears BA saw your late arrival would jeopardise the connection, and therefore rebooked you on the later flight.

Compensation is decided on the delay to your final destination. If your aircraft from Heathrow reached the gate at Aberdeen between three and four hours after your original scheduled arrival time, the presumption is that you qualify for £260 in compensation. If arrival was four hours or more later than planned, that payout doubles to £520 (yes, I agree, the law is mad and arbitrary). The fact that the first flight was “only” an hour late is not relevant. So go ahead and claim.

Two months on, you may not recall the exact times, but if you seek compensation and the delay was below three hours, I can assure you British Airways will promptly let you know.

Even if your times qualify, BA may reject the claim. Airlines can do that if they are able to show “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible for the delay. Since the airline knew ahead of time that you were going to be late, it will be a tough one for British Airways to argue. You have the right to a detailed explanation of the delay, and if you think you are still due a payout you can go to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or Money Claim Online.

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Q My daughter booked a return ticket from Geneva to Birmingham with Lufthansa. It was non-refundable and could not be switched to alternative flights. But then circumstances changed, and she didn’t use the outward leg. She made the journey a different way. So Lufthansa have unilaterally cancelled the return leg. Can they do this?

Mick R

A I am sorry to hear that your daughter is among the many travellers who are caught out by this policy of almost all “legacy” airlines – traditional network carriers, such as Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa.

Their terms all say, basically, that you must use all the flights that are included in your ticket. Leave out one or more segments and the whole itinerary will be cancelled. Why should they have such a strict and apparently unfair policy? It all comes down to “tariff abuse”. This is the airline term for passengers who take advantage of anomalies in air fares.

For example, I recently bought a ticket from London Heathrow via Atlanta to Louisville, Kentucky, for around £600. Had I booked only as far as Atlanta, the fare would have been 50 per cent higher – reflecting the premium that people will pay for non-stop flights. Less travel is often more money. Without an airline restriction, anyone heading to Atlanta would rationally buy a ticket to somewhere random in the southern US. They would simply end the journey in Atlanta and not use the portions beyond.

Understandably, the airlines don’t want this to happen. Within Europe, the “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose everything” rule is increasingly archaic – something of a hangover from the days when passengers travelling only one way could save money by booking a return ticket (yes, pricing in aviation has long been bizarre).

But the legacy airlines persist in imposing the rules. The budget carriers, in contrast, don’t mind if you fail to use the outbound part of a return ticket; the inbound portion remains “live”.

It sounds to me as though Lufthansa did something right: notifying your daughter that her booking had been cancelled as soon as she was a “no-show” for the first flight. Even worse is when the airline doesn’t warn the passenger: they turn up, blissfully unaware of the rule, and then find they have to spend hundreds of pounds on a last-minute ticket.

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Q What’s your advice about travelling to and around Georgia? We’re thinking of spending a week based in Tbilisi at New Year, but the Foreign Office advice is discouraging.

Roger F

A Georgia is one of my favourite countries and Tbilisi one of my top cities, and I look forward to returning there soon – despite the current Foreign Office advice. The most salient part of the official warning is against travel to the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as areas adjoining the “administrative boundary lines” that separate them from the remainder of Georgia. A tourist would not normally venture into these Kremlin-supported regions, and you can have a perfectly enjoyable time exploring the rest of Georgia.

Tbilisi is a spectacular capital city. It has a superb natural setting beneath the mountains and astride the Kura river – the main waterway through Georgia. The old town at the heart of Tbilisi is charming (and touristy), with medieval buildings, but only part of a fascinating repertoire of architecture that also includes Art Nouveau and Soviet-era structures.

Tbilisi is also an excellent base for exploring the east of Georgia, including the magnificent monastery at Mtskheta to the north and the fascinating city of Gori – Stalin’s home town – to the west. For more extensive touring of the rest of the country, though, the western city of Kutaisi is the best urban location. You could happily split a week between Tbilisi and Kutaisi, and even add a few days relaxing by the Black Sea at Batumi, close to the Turkish border.

Please, though, let me try to persuade you not to visit in the depths of winter. Like so many nations and regions in the latitudes around 40 degrees north, Georgia is too hot in high summer and too cold (and damp) in deep winter. April and May, September and the first half of October are the times you will find me there.

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