Late boarding and passport control failures caused a missed flight in Turkey on a non-EU airline - what compensation can I claim?

Question

I've just had a two part flight, Antalya-Istanbul-London Gatwick via Pegasus airlines.

I arrived at the airport early and checked in with plenty of time to spare. The boarding for the first part of the flight, Antalya-Istanbul was 30 minutes late, so the flight also left 30 minutes late, but I don't think this is seen as a delay in Turkey.

This meant that when I finally got off the plane, my next plane was supposedly in the boarding stage (according to my ticket). All I had to do was proceed straight to passport control, but unfortunately, whilst I was queued up and almost through, the systems for passport control went down for a good 20-30 minutes all over Turkey. I was told that nothing could be done about it and that I would most likely miss my flight, which of course I did (if only that flight also left 30 minutes late). Pegasus airlines stuck me on a flight to London Stansted to make up for it (the next London flights would have been a day later), but this was six hours later.

I was offered no food or drink and had to pay for overpriced airport supplies myself, and ended up taking a late night train to crawl home once I did land. As luck would have it, my flight to London Stansted had yet another boarding time that was late by 45 minutes, so the flight was also delayed (again, I'm not sure if Turkey views it as such). I was also wrongly told that my luggage would end up in Gatwick, but the lovely people at Stansted put in some work and found that my luggage was actually taken off the plane and came to Stansted with me.

Is there any compensation that I can claim for this whole thing?

TL;DR: Can I claim compensation for two delayed flights, one missed flight, almost walked away without luggage, and a boatload of stress?

Answer 1

As airline horror stories go, this one is pretty mild. You arrived at your destination city only a few hours late, with luggage.

Moreover (and this is the important point) the reason for all this delay was completely outside the airline's control. They don't control the passport line, or the computer systems. They don't owe you anything, any more than if the bus taking you to the airport had been late. In fact the airline sounds like it did a pretty good job of getting you where you wanted to be as soon as possible.

You could try to ask for the cost of getting from Stanstead to where you wanted to be, if it was more than the cost of getting there from Gatwick, but if you had said you absolutely had to go to Gatwick they would probably have done it, just later. You could try claiming something from the airport, but given you were out of pocket maybe a few currency units, I doubt it would be worth it.

Put it down to experience.

Answer 2

If you were to claim any damages, who would you blame?

1. The airline doesn't control the passport systems.
2. The delay for departure may have to do with incoming aircraft, which may have been delayed due to weather (again, not an airline problem).
3. The airline offered you a quicker alternate (your choice); which got you to your destination along with your luggage - so can't really blame the airline here.
4. Airports are generally more expensive than normal retail outlets; so nothing of news here.

Unfortunately this is a mild case of delays; I can relate my own worse airline delay story and you would think yours was a day at the park :-)

As mentioned by others, your only recourse is your normal travel insurance (you may already have coverage if you purchased the tickets via your credit card and purchased goods/services at the airport with your credit card - check your policy).

I would chalk this up to travel experience and move on.

Answer 3

Sorry, but no. If you have travel insurance they may cover any additional costs you've had - check your policy.

Next time, book a longer connection.