Cancelled Flights

Rossmac

Rossmac

Rossmac

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Hey, so a quick answer is needed...

Girlfriend is currently in Belfast International Airport and is about to set off for a year in America! 3 flights in total (Belfast to Heathrow, Heathrow to Chicago, Chicago to Cleveland).

7.40am Belfast to Heathrow delayed until 9am and now canceled... Great.

Flight is at 3pm roughly from Heathrow, what is the usual course of action and has anyone ever had this happen to them? (I've never been on a connecting flight hehe!)

Just need some information to help calm her down a wee bit and put her mind at ease!

Thanks guys!
 
who is she flying with? Are all the flights with the same airline? Personally, I would start with the inquiries desk of the Belfast outbound flight and politely ask when the next Heathrow-bound flight it.

EDIT - Has she got her bags back yet?
 
If its a seperate airline then she will need to claim on her travel insurance. If its the same airline and it was all booked up as one trip then its all fine and the airline will sort it.
 
Might be worth checking if nipping out to the international airport and jumping on an aer lingus plane will get you there faster than a bmi plane from the city airport, or vice versa depening which was she was booked.

This could be a complete an utter disaster, and depends if the flights are booked separately or if it is all included on one ticket. If separate they have no duty of care towards your ongoing flights and you'll have to claim of travel insurance. If all one ticket, they have to fix it for you, including rearranging follow-on flights.
 
they are booked under the one ticket. her bags have been booked in until Cleveland so I assume it's under the one ticket by that part... She is flying with Aer Lingus and then British Airways and then another airline afaik from Chicago! She is now attempting to get her bags off the plane and will be getting a 2.5 - 3 hour bus journey to Dublin Airport in an attempt to catch the flight from Heathrow to the US on time.

Unfortunately I think she'll very likely miss it! :( Fantastic! (sarcasm heavily used there)
 
Rossmac said:
they are booked under the one ticket. her bags have been booked in until Cleveland so I assume it's under the one ticket by that part... She is flying with Aer Lingus and then British Airways and then another airline afaik from Chicago! She is now attempting to get her bags off the plane and will be getting a 2.5 - 3 hour bus journey to Dublin Airport in an attempt to catch the flight from Heathrow to the US on time.

Unfortunately I think she'll very likely miss it! :( Fantastic! (sarcasm heavily used there)
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Travel insurance?

If so, it might be worth calling them for their advice. I missed a connecting once in Amsterdam (due to bad weather) and my insurance suggested I purchase another outbound ticket with another airline at the connecting airport, as the original airline would've delayed me 20hrs. In the end I spent a night in the Dam. As you do ;).
 
Air lines should be forced to pay for any losses you make due to their flights being cancelled :( It's not hard to keep a flight running, we are in the 21st century .. computers are good enough to take off themselves in bad weather
 
rypt said:
Air lines should be forced to pay for any losses you make due to their flights being cancelled :( It's not hard to keep a flight running, we are in the 21st century .. computers are good enough to take off themselves in bad weather
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Obviously you know better than hundreds of pilots, airline controllers, the like.
 
Rossmac said:
they are booked under the one ticket. her bags have been booked in until Cleveland so I assume it's under the one ticket by that part... She is flying with Aer Lingus and then British Airways and then another airline afaik from Chicago! She is now attempting to get her bags off the plane and will be getting a 2.5 - 3 hour bus journey to Dublin Airport in an attempt to catch the flight from Heathrow to the US on time.

Unfortunately I think she'll very likely miss it! :( Fantastic! (sarcasm heavily used there)
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As it's under one ticket I wouldn't bother, let the airline sort it out as they'll put her on the next flight to the states and probably put her up in a hotel near Heathrow.

If she tries to make her own way the Aer Lingus or BA might not take responsibility for it.
 
rypt said:
Air lines should be forced to pay for any losses you make due to their flights being cancelled :( It's not hard to keep a flight running, we are in the 21st century .. computers are good enough to take off themselves in bad weather
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Unforeseen stuff does come up though - a few years back I was off on holiday, and the flight was due to depart about 1am.

We eventually got on the plane at about 8am - two of the cabin crew had phoned in sick and it took that long to get replacements sorted.

Not a lot anyone can do about that.
 
Which flight is she getting from Dublin to Heathrow, the exact flight number? If the whole trip was booked with one airline (even using different airlines, codesharing, then it should be fine. If the tickets for each flight are totally seperate then its not the previous airlines responsibility to get them to their final destination. The 'contract' on the ticket is only for the single route, if that makes sense.
 
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I came across an issue the other day where a lady (customer) was flying from somewhere in Scotland with BA to LHR ready to take another flight from LHR to the US. The BA flight was cancelled for operational reasons thus only leaving 2 hours before her flight in LHR was due to go. I contacted BA and was told that there was nothing they could do - ridiculous and I would have never expected this of BA. Only thing we could do was do look at changing the Virgin flight from LHR to a later time which cost roughly £1400 for the 2 passengers. I rang BA back again to advise that it wasn't a decent cost and a lady at BA said that what Virgin was charging was a disgrace. Customer sorted it in the end I think.

Er... Virgin are a disgrace? It wasn't them who cancelled the inital flight. I felt so annoyed lol.
 
rypt said:
Air lines should be forced to pay for any losses you make due to their flights being cancelled :( It's not hard to keep a flight running, we are in the 21st century .. computers are good enough to take off themselves in bad weather
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My flight via london from glasgow on friday was cancelled if they don't sell enough seats they will cancel the flight.

Mine was from Gatwick at 13.45 but I always look first thing to see if it's cancelled and saw that it was so rebooked with BA via heathrow instead flight left an hour earlier and they upgraded me and my wife and kid to business for the hassle. :D

I hope your GF makes it but won't you be sad not seeing her for the year?
 
As said many times above, if it's all one ticket, just let them deal with it, don't try and fix it yourselves, as you'll likely mess everything up. No offence to you, but it's easier if the airline know who's where and who has to be dealt with :p

jas72 said:
I hope your GF makes it but won't you be sad not seeing her for the year?
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Having just come back from a year abroad in China, it is incredibly hard, and takes a strong relationship. We got through it with my girlfriend coming out to visit me at Christmas, but fortunately we're both fairly independent and trusting, so there weren't many issues during the year itself. Was amazing coming home though :)
 
So thanks to Aer Lingus she is boarding at 5pm in Dublin Airport for a Dublin to Chicago flight! There was one space left on this flight and she got it thankfully. She will arrive in Chicago at 7.30pm local time and then will miss her connecting to Cleveland but the operator at Aer Lingus in Dublin told her that there is a 9.20pm American Airlines flight there and she should be placed on it and told her that she has informed them in the US of what she's going to do!

Many thanks guys for all the answers! And feeling sad? You bet, but it's an experience for her and I'd never let my sadness/selfishness get in the way it! I'm just so happy she's not going to have to stay in London for a night and that it has all got resolved.
 
See at Aer Lingus we always do our best for the little people! Heathrow has had quite a few problems today, my flights were delayed as well! Not the airlines fault ;)
 
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