Changed flight to 26 hour lay-over 3 days before return flight - LATAM

[BenjiBoo]

I booked my tickets through an travel agency from Santiago, Chile to London, UK, via Madrid. Flights are are operated by a mixture of Iberia, BA and Latam, but the agency bought the tickets via Latam.

I am currently on my holiday in London and I've just found out 3 days prior to boarding the return flight from London to Santiago, that my connecting flight in Madrid (to Santiago) has been changed from a 2 hour layover to a 26 hour layover, which I think is ridiculous.

Surely this must be unreasonable?  Is there anything at all I can do?  Do I have any rights in this case?  They could at least provide me with a hotel or similar?  Or perhaps a different route home from London?

Thanks in anticipation of any help or guidance that anyone can give.

[honeybee13]

Hi.

What have your travel agents said about this please?

HB

[Manxman in exile]

What country's law has jurisdiction over this ticket purchase?  Chile?  Spain?  England and Wales?

[BenjiBoo]

Hi, thanks for getting back to me.

I'm not clear about this.  I used the Flight Network website, which seems to be registered as Gotogate International AB, in Sweden.  I paid using a Visa Debit card in Chilean Pesos.  Does this help?

How else would I find out which jurisdiction is responsible for my ticket purchase?

I spoke with FlightNetwork and they said that the airline cancelled the flight and they the airline provided an alternative flight (23h49m later or 25h30m total wait time), and that this was a "valid" situation and that if I wanted a different flight, I would need to pay the difference.  Surely this can't be the case?  I'm arriving the next day at my destination as well as being 25 hours in Madrid airport.

Again, many thanks for any help you can give.

[Kyosanto]

Hi there, as your cancelled flight departs from Madrid you are covered by EC261, so that's good news for you.

You are entitled to duty of care for your stay in Madrid so that is hotels, meals, drinks and transport paid for by the airline. Do ask the airline what they are willing to provide as some might want to make the arrangements for you. If they decline or fail to respond, make your own arrangements and keep all your receipts. Should be reasonable (don't book the Ritz-Carlton).

If you arr happy to get a free holiday in Madrid for a day, this is your easiest option.

Your other options are to:

-ask for a full refund (for the half you didn't fly) And buy your own ticket back.

-ask the airline for a different flight back at a different date, of YOUR choosing, providing there are available seats (they cant magic seats if flights are full)

If you choose either of these, no duty of care will apply, so you pay for your own hotel etc...

One exception woudl be if you ask them to keep your new flight from MAD to latin america but change the LON-MAD leg to the following day. In this case, they ought to pay your extra night in London.

The above is nom negotiable but you may need to fight Latam for it.

In addition you may have a £520 claim for your cancellation. This is separate from duty of care so wait until you have decided your options, and make the claim afterwards

 

 

P.S. forget your travel agent. Your flight was cancelled involuntarily so now you deal directly with the airline.

[Kyosanto]

They should also be able to put you in one of these if you call them (assuming those aren't all cancelled)

 

Quote

 

Madrid (MAD) to Santiago (SCL) — Wed, Sep 6

Iberia 6833

Dep: 11:59 pm

Arr: 8:30 am

13h 31m

Airbus A350

Economy (V)

Thu, Sep 7

 

 

 

Quote

 

Madrid (MAD) to Santiago (SCL) — Wed, Sep 6

LATAM 705

Dep: 11:50 pm

Arr: 8:20 am

13h 30m

Boeing 787

Economy (L)

Thu, Sep 7

 

 

Quote

London (LHR) to Santiago (SCL) — Wed, Sep 6
	London (LHR) to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) — Wed, Sep 6
	American 79	Dep: 12:00 pm	Arr: 4:18 pm	10h 18m	Boeing 777	Economy (S)
		Layover in DFW		5h 2m
	Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Santiago (SCL) — Wed, Sep 6
	American 945	Dep: 9:20 pm	Arr: 8:52 am	9h 32m	Boeing 787	Economy (S)

 

 

 

Try asking.

[BenjiBoo]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  It got sorted in the end.  I'm not entirely sure how I resolved it ultimately. Nobody will tell me.

I called Latam again who insisted they couldn't do anything and Iberia had to do it.  I then called Iberia who said Latam were responsible and they left a message in booking system apparently.  And then after 40mins with Latam, they finally relented and changed the flight.

It was all very unsatisfactory customer service, but just glad to have gotten it sorted.

Thanks again everyone for giving me confidence to be bold with them.