delayed / cancelled flight

Hi All,

Long time no post as I have cut down my flying since retirement (oh, the memories of flying as Au!!! - and starting a degree !

Anyway, an issue has come up and I immediately thought of V-Flyer.

My son was due to fly back from Vegas today, via LA on VS (went direct out to Vegas, but coming back via LA was much cheaper than coming back direct from Vegas). So it is a 'through ticket, not booked separate legs.

Anyway, he went to check in to the flight for LA and they said they could not travel as there is a weather delay. I have established it is a weather issue in the North East so it is the LA / London leg.

They have rebooked him for tomorrow evening.

However, they are refusing to:-
1) put him in a hotel
2) put him on a direct flight
3) Get him to LA and then another flight.

Is this right i.e. he (and 2 friends) are left to their own devices re hotels / food etc?

Any advice greately received.

I’m going to assume here that your son and his party are still in LAS. I’m not entirely sure how this works, but he basically has a US domestic flight LAS to LAX before boarding a VS. flight back to London. So the EU261 laws that would govern VS as an EU based carrier don’t apply to the US carrier. If there is no reason for him to stay in LAS until tomorrow then he potentially need# to see if he can get to LAX and take the matter up directly with VS as it is that flight which is affected and should be covered under EU261.

Being in LAS travelling on a US carrier I think opens a loophole for VS. Someone with more knowledge than I will hopefully come along soon. It does seem strange that the delay from LAX to LHR because of weather has triggered a delay / denied boarding and rebooking of the US domestic leg.

Sorry I can’t be of more help.

Thanks Bretty,
He is more concerned about accommodation at the moment - seems strange that VS just leave you stranded.
I must admit, I thought EU261 would kick in as it is on one ticket.

The key question here is which airline is the delay attributable to.

You seem to be assuming your son and his friends are being delayed because bad weather has disrupted their Virgin flight back to the UK. If that's the case, Virgin would indeed have a duty of care under EC261/2004 to provide accommodation, food etc once they get to LA.

However what seems more likely, as Bretty says, is that it’s the domestic flight (Delta, I guess?) that’s been delayed - due, quite possibly, to the plane arriving late or even not at all into LAS on its last flight from somewhere in the north east. In that case they are, unfortunately, at Delta’s mercy as US airlines have no legal duty of care requirement for domestic flights and they are not covered by EC261/2004.

That regulation only applies to flights departing or leaving Europe, not US domestic flights even if they're part of a single booking that includes a flight to the UK.

Yes - he was due on a Delta flt to LAX
I think the Delta flight was at LAS on time, but has been late taking off i.e. still not taken off

just been whatsapp'd.
Think it was delayed inbound to LAS

Ok, in which case I'm afraid EC261/2004 doesn't apply and they're on their own, however unfair it may seem.

If they've got decent travel insurance that may cover at least some of the extra cost?

thanks
He is trying to get hold of VS on the phone to no avail

I have never known someone so unlucky with flights back from the US.
There is always a problem.
Note to self - never travel back at the same time as him !!!!!

This is not really a VS issue. As the DL flight is the delayed one then you are under USA rules. VS has not left him stranded DL have. They are the ones responsible for rebooking to get him home - whihc it appears they have done.

DL rules - and US airlines in general- regarding hotels are if the delay is down to them then they provide a hotel etc. If it's not their fault - such as weather - then it's down to the passenger to get their own hotel and then claim from their travel insurance.

We had a similar problem 12 months ago as our Delta flight from RSW to ATL was over 3 hours late so we missed our VS connection to MAN. Delta informed us of the delays by email but they were aircraft rather than weather related. We booked a hotel at ATL and took the delayed flight. After arriving home a day late I emailed Delta and, after a couple of emails, they reimbursed the cost of the hotel direct in to my bank account. I included in my emails the full days flying schedule for the aircraft which I downloaded from Flightradar24/database.

I think the airline industry must be unique in their responsibilties.

If I buy a Bosche drill from B&Q and it stops working I look to B&Q to sort it.

If buy a Samsung TV from PCWorld and it goes wrong, I look to PCWorld to sort it.

If I buy a flight through VS and one leg is on Delta, I look to............Delta to sort it.

I am not howling against the moon, but it does seem a bit odd.

Anyway, thanks to all for the input.

Last year we were flying back from Vegas via LAX and narrowly avoided the issue your son encountered.

First of all the Delta flight moved back which left us a tight but doable connection (1hr 45m IIRC). But then on the day our plane was delayed due to a missing passenger which meant by the time we arrived in LA we missed our gate slot and were hanging around on the tarmac for a good half hour. My gf was starting to panic but we were assured by the flight attendant there would be someone to help us get to the international terminal for our VS flight.

After getting off the plane we were met by an extremely unhelpful Delta employee who shrugged and said something helpful like "Gee its gonna be a tricky one....." and that was about it! So we ran downstairs asked a cleaner who kindly pointed the direction to go and suggested cutting through the car parks as opposed to waiting for the shuttle. Thankfully this turned out to be the best choice as we pegged it across with me carrying our bags and my poor gf trying to keep up behind.

The next bit of luck was the first door i entered was right next to the security line for our gate and they let us cut the line so we got to the gate with literally 1 minute to spare and as soon as we got on they shut the doors. The lady in
the seat next to us probably thought she was going to have the whole row to herself but instead got 2 sweaty Brits!

Anyway lesson learnt and we are going direct next time.