GrahamR

Flying UKtoUSA we had a 2. Hour window for our connection. With only 4 officials checking passports we we're not going to make it, making ourselves known to other officials we were told if we miss our flight we will get the next one, our baggage did indeed make the flight however we didn't we were told to try to make the next flight with seat request boarding passes for the next flight, and the next and the next 8 flights later a total of 22 hours waiting on a flight we finally took off. Is there any claim possible for that delay.

NoFlyZone

Who would even be in a position to consider compensation? The airline will not as they did nothing wrong, and did accommodate you on the next available flight, which is all they are required to do (and I'm not 100% sure about "required" but most airlines tend to).

Immigration? Ha! Not this government.

It should be noted (for others reading this in the future) that if you are not US citizens a 2 hour connection upon arrival into the US, especially JFK, is insufficient by at least another one or two hours.

GrahamR

Yet Manchester were asking flyers in the security queue any early flights and were being taken through quicker channels, but how does baggage fly without the owners on board I thought that was well out of order.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

I agree. No one is going to compensate you. The airline did nothing wrong. Your missed connection was not their fault. The airline is obligated to get you on the flight with available seats. "Available" is the key word here. The U.S. government under any administration will not pay for your delay.

NoFlyZone is right: A two-hour international-to-domestic connection at JFK was a bad idea.

janisj

>>we had a 2. Hour window for our connection<<

Which airport? 2 hours is REALLY is cutting things close entering the US at most any airport, but some are generally worse.

(it wasn't customs BTW -- that would be immigration/passport control. Customs is the luggage bit)


Hopefully they gave you some food vouchers, but I don't see a claim. Maybe others know something.

janisj

we were all posting the same time

GrahamR

No food vouchers, no hotel no special room to get some rest, so it's a case then of receiving nothing. I would love to post here though that we got some thing

NoFlyZone

>but how does baggage fly without the owners on board I thought that was well out of order.

Generally true for international flights; less so for domestic. But having said that, although a bag's owner cannot opt to fly on a different plane from their luggage, airlines have the discretion to fly bags on separate flights.

This is actually fairly common and will happen if, as two examples, they need to offload some bags to a later flight or if a bag failed to get loaded (for whatever reason) and they put it on a following flight.

thursdaysd

Did a TA book that connection, or did you do it yourself?

Jeff_Costa_Rica

If the problem is the airline's fault (say, something mechanical), then they will provide you with a food voucher and lodging if needed. The airline was not at fault here, so you get nothing except their promise to get you to your final destination on the next flight that has available space. Things are more generous in the EU, but not in the US.

NewbE

Just the right sort of travel insurance policy might have covered the OP for monetary losses, but there weren't any. There's nothing in life that covers one for inconvenience, lol, more's the pity!

doug_stallings

Unfortunately, there's no way you'll get compensation. It just doesn't work that way. You may not even have booked your connection within the legal connection window. I would NEVER book a flight with less than 3 hours between an international and an ongoing domestic flight in the US (4 hours if you had to change terminals).

A travel insurance policy can compensate you for luggage and flight delays.

Cowboy1968

It's a bit more complicated as you cannot (IMO) claim compensation under the EU passenger rights Directive.
This only covers the case when the first flight had been delayed (excl. force majeur), leading to a missed connection in New York.

If I was interested in starting legal action (which I would not be in this case) I would argue:

> Airline/alliance did not perform due dilligence when selling ticket UK-US via JFK re. MCT/legal connection window: If even regular travellers here 'know' that 2 hours connecting time in JFK is 'too short' (well, legally it might not be, by the way), why does the airline sell a product which cannot perform as advertised?

> Reason might be that customers prefer short travel times to get to their destinations. Therefore, airlines try to offer short connections to get an advantage over competitors who offer reasonable connecting times, i.e. 3 or 4 hours when connecting in JFK. It's not the consumers' duty to study 3rd party information with opinions on airlines', airports' or aircrafts' performance records.
The airline is also free and able to put a warning disclaimer to its advertised connection, e.g. 20 percent of passengers miss the connecting flight due to airport procedures. Book AYOR.

> The airline can also not play 'dumb' and claim that it had been the airport authority's fault as both parties are contractual partners in providing a joint service to the consumer. If consumer wins compensation from airline, it's up to the airline to seek compensation from the airport authority since the latter failed to provide its service, i.e. get passengers from flight A to flight B within the MCT window.

> The above assumes that OP bought his two (codeshare) flight legs as 'one ticket' from one airline/alliance.

Well, that might be interesting to kill time on a rainy day. But since the claim will probably be only in the hundreds of $$, it's obviously not worth to waste your time on this unless you have a taste for starting new ground-breaking legislation

NoFlyZone

Cowboy, I will take minor exception to:

>The airline is not cognizant of all aspects of a traveler's journey. A 2 hour connection in JFK may be perfectly fine for a US citizen sitting up front, with Global Entry and no luggage (all common), and such travelers may select such an itinerary because of that short connection. MCTs are designed for most journeys under most circumstances and generally assume no hitches along the way (ie, secondary inspection or a wheelchair not showing up). It's not up to the airline to police how a traveler assembles the parts of their journey. That's a reason for having travel agents.

>Airports and the federal government are certainly not contractual partners here. The only duty of any such public convenience or organization (airports, customs, highways, city streets, power, water, etc.) is to provide a service without negligence. In all instances they cannot be held responsible for delays, road accidents, water main breaks, power outages, etc., unless they fail to mitigate or responsibly remedy a situation (and maybe not even that in some places, such as customs secondary inspection).

I agree totally with the rest, including the last paragraph and smiley!