American Airlines delays

[martin2006]

My son has recently been on a trip to America, his flights were booked through BA although the actual planes were supplied and operated by American Airlines.

His itinerary was to fly from Manchester to Heathrow, Heathrow to Chicago and finally Chicago to Cedar Rapids. The return filghts were a reverse of the above.

On return, the Cedar Rapids flight was delayed by 1 1/2 hrs causing him to miss the chicago to heathrow connection.

He was put into a hotel as the next available filght was jot fir another 21hrs and flew direct to manchester. He was offered no food or water, just a hotel voucher.

Now i dont have any experience at all with this type of situation but he lost a day recovering from jet lag and this meant he was due back in work without having time to properly recover from the jet lag.

 

Any pointers would be immensely appreciated.

Edited April 26, 2017 by martin2006

[honeybee13]

Did your son have travel insurance for this trip, martin? But if the late flight was with the airline that then took him to Manchester, you'd think they'd have covered subsistence, wouldn't you?

 

HB

[martin2006]

Yes he had travel insurance but hasnt made any claim regarding this.

 

The booking was with BA but the flights were American Airlines and Eagle Star.

 

It was the return Eagle star hop from Iowa to chicago, around an hour flight which was delayed by an hour and a half, this delay meant he missed his chicago to heathrow flight and the next one was 21 hrs later albeit direct to manchester.

[martin2006]

My son has recently been on a trip to America, his flights were booked through BA although the actual planes were supplied and operated by American Airlines.

His itinerary was to fly from Manchester to Heathrow, Heathrow to Chicago and finally Chicago to Cedar Rapids. The return filghts were a reverse of the above.

On return, the Cedar Rapids flight was delayed by 1 1/2 hrs causing him to miss the chicago to heathrow connection.

He was put into a hotel as the next available filght was jot fir another 21hrs and flew direct to manchester. He was offered no food or water, just a hotel voucher.

Now i dont have any experience at all with this type of situation but he lost a day recovering from jet lag and this meant he was due back in work without having time to properly recover from the jet lag.

 

Any pointers would be immensely appreciated.

 

My apologies, the booking was nothing to do with BA, he has sent me the paperwork over and it was booked through AA via an agent in london.

 

The same principle applies tho, all flights were booked with AA but some operated by AA and Eagle Star, all had AA flight numbers and were on the same booking.

 

So firstly, should i be contacting the agent who made his booking or AA directly?

 

This all appears on the surface to be covered under EU (261/2004) regulations.

[stu007]

Is the Broker/Agent a member of ABTA? https://abta.com/

 

ABTA Partner - Brokers and Underwriters: https://abta.com/services-for-business/become-a-member/approved-bond-suppliers

[martin2006]

No not ABTA, ATOL and IATA

 

Or rather if they are, its not relevant to this particular booking.

[stu007]

Thanks for that info.

 

The issue I see is that the delay happened on the return leg only which I assume was AA and was only 1 1/2 hrs, the problem is it is outside of the EU regulation for delayed flights due to where the actual delay happened.

[Vauban]

US consumer protection for flight delays/cancellations is notoriously poor. As stu007 says, the (much better) EU Regulations don't apply in this instance (because the delayed flight didn't leave from an EU airport, or was on an EU-headquarted carrier - only one of those criteria need apply). Even if youd booked with BA, this wouldn't matter: it's the airline operating the flight that counts. You might get some airlines with Eagle Star at best.

[martin2006]

Its worth a shot at AA i think, worst case is he gets nothing, which he gets if he does nothing so nothing to lose in trying.