24. September 2025
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Flight Irregularities – and how Airlines handled them (September 2025)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

A missed connection or a suitcase not making it – there are numerous ways how things could go wrong while flying. I am typically rather relaxed when these things happen – as long as they are handled well. I felt that it might be interesting for you sharing my experience with irregularities in the past and how the airline handled it. The post is sorted chronologically, with the latest incident first. I do not put in train delays, which solely lead to compensations in here, though.

 

14th August 2025, British Airways, DUS-LHR

Flights involved: BA 943 – Dusseldorf (DUS) – London-Heathrow (LHR), AY 1342 – Heatrow (LHR) – Helsinki (HEL)
Type of incident: Missed connection, technical

Summer vacation time and Heathrow – this combination is somehow already made for an irregularity. Boarding for the flight in Dusseldorf (DUS) went really well and we were even ahead of time for that morning service to Heathrow (LHR). However, there was a technical issue, the flight deck could not solve it on their own and so the flight engineers had to get onboard. They solved the issue rather quick, so that the delay at that time was 70 minutes – still rather comfortable to make my connection to Helsinki (HEL) and then on to New York (JFK). However, the delay also meant that we lost our landing slot so that the plane got almost another hour of delay on the Dusseldorf (DUS) ground before it in fact left the parking position.

That was too close. I even saw the Finnair plane, which I would have loved to board. British Airways did excellent, though. While the app showed me that I will fly the next day (which would have been very odd for a weekend trip), I was in fact re-booked to Newark on BA 185, which made me in fact arrive significantly earlier than expected. It was a bit of a hassle in Heathrow, though, but I comfortably made it. British Airways refused to pay me the EU compensation of 300 EUR for a late rebooking (which I believe should apply here), but reimbursed me for the Uber trip between the two airports. Overall, I felt that it was fine. However, the original routing credit (i.e. receiving – more – status miles based on the original booking) is still outstanding.

 

22nd June 2025, British Airways, JFK-LHR

Flights involved: BA 114 – New York (JFK) – London-Heathrow (LHR)
Type of incident: Flight cancellation, crew medical

Maybe the most serious incident of this page – and also the one where I have the lowest level of blaming the airline for is the most recent one in my post. As the inbound flight to Germany from Las Vegas (LAS) to Dusseldorf (DUS) via Heathrow (LHR) was significantly cheaper with an additional transfer in New York (JFK), I went for that route. The first leg was fine. At JFK, they already told me at check-in in the American Airlines / British Airways Soho Lounge that I should not trust the screens and they will do an announcement when the BA 114 flight to Heathrow will in fact be departing.

There was likely an announcement at one time that the flight had to be cancelled. One of the crew members was facing serious medical conditions on the way to the airport, so that the flight had to be cancelled. I later met multiple people who did not get that announcement at all, so that I finally left the lounge some one hour after the flight had already been cancelled. The remaining handling by British Airways was excellent, though. They had organized a hotel for the night, which was really nice (Marriott JFK Airport – no review of that one), the transfers worked as good as they can work in a situation like that and I was booked to a next day flight automatically. BA even paid me the EU compensation without any discussion – a very good handling overall.

 

3rd March 2025, British Airways, LHR-DUS

Flights involved: BA 940 – London-Heathrow (LHR) – Dusseldorf (DUS)
Type of incident: Technical issues, aircraft change – Ground issues

Heathrow (LHR) is doing too many of these Heathrow things nowadays. And so was the chain of issues on my way back from Pittsburgh. First ground handling issues delayed boarding., then techical issues required an aircraft change. Even though reasonably managed, these things take some time, so that the flight took off in London with significant delay. We touched down with a 2:58 hours delay. Plane doors were opened after 3:03 hours – which is the relevant time for EU compensation. It is very hard to proof that tome, as there is no pubic data. Britisch Airways refused to pay the compensation fee later – which I felt was very shameful by their customer service.

 

23rd January 2024, KLM, AMS-KRK, diverted to KTW

Flights involved: KL 1325 – Amsterdam (AMS) – Krakow (KRK)
Type of incident: Diversion to Katowice (KTW) due to weather

The flight was just about to start the approach to Krakow (KRK) when the airport has been closed due to weather issues. Somehow luckily, this happened rather late to the flight. Otherwise, the KLM Cityhopper Embraer would have likely went back to their home base (AMS), which would have destroyed my whole mileage run. Instead, we diverted to Katowice (KTW). Of course, service are a bit slower, when there are a lot of diversions. But overall, KLM managed everything very well and there were already buses in front of the terminal building which brought us to Krakow Airport (KRK), which was just a some 70 minute drive. Very good work by KLM / Air France in here.

By the way, it is very interesting how people react on a diversion. While I am rather calm in these situations (especially as Katowice is really close to Krakow), others got very nervous. Especially one person, who told everybody she was on a diplomatic mission for the United States was somehow entertaining. She obviously did not know anything about Poland, the Schengen Area and these kind of things. Not sure if her meetings in Poland were successful.

 

21st December 2024, KLM, DUS-AMS-GOT

Flights involved: KL 1796 Dusseldorf (DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS), KL 1229 Amsterdam (AMS) – Gothenburg (GOT)
Type of incident: Luggage missing connection

Covering two Pixbo IBK matches in Gothenburg, I made the connection in Amsterdam (AMS) rather easily, despite a delay on the first leg. However, my luggage stayed in the Netherlands. Claiming the suitcase was easy. However, the delivery back was a real nightmare. Regarding the tracking, the suitcase was already in Cologne (CGN) to be delivered to my home, but then went back to Gothenburg (GOT), from there to Munich (MUC) and then back to where it should be. I finally received the suitcase at Christmas Eve (the main Christmas day in Germany) at 20:00, having a holiday celebration with my wife’s family. A big thanks to the driver who delivered it there and working on such adverse hours.

 

5th December 2024, Icelandair, FRA-KEF-EWR

Flights involved: FI 521 Frankfurt (FRA) – Keflavik (KEF), FI 623 Keflavik (KEF) – Newark (EWR)
Type of incident: Luggage missing connection

Snowstorms in Keflavik (KEF) lead to absolutely adverse operations there in December 2024. My flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Keflavik (KEF) was delayed by over two hours. The Icelandair app already stated that I will miss my connection there. However, Icelandair did not want to rebook me in Frankfurt (FRA) already. While I did not understand that at all, they might have been somehow right. As most of the other flights were impacted as well, I made the connection to Newark (EWR), even though we landed in Iceland some two hours after the scheduled take-off of the connection. Thanks to the people who allowed me to jump the line at passport control.

However, my suitcase was slower than me and did not make it. Claiming the baggage in Newark (EWR) was awful, the staff was not helpful, so that I had to do the claim again from my hotel. I decided to have the stuff delivered back home, as I was too far away from Newark (EWR) anyway. The delivery did not work out well, but I received the suitcase three days after I was back in Germany. Icelandair also compensated me for the clothing and toiletries I had to buy. Finding a new suitcase was a bit of awkward and really limited the fun on the short trip. Nonetheless, I feel that Icelandair did quite well. Their handling agents, however, should improve their service.

 

1st March 2024, Air France, TUN-CDG-DUS

Flights involved: AF 1185 Tunis (TUN) – Paris (CDG), AF 1106 Paris (CDG) – Dusseldorf (DUS)
Type of incident: Missed connection

Despite the plane arrived early in Tunis (TUN), the ground handling there was so terrible that it took off with a delay of over an hour delay. I might have made it still – but especially the hand luggage checks in Paris (CDG) are that awful that it took me additional time and my connection to Dusseldorf (DUS) had already departed. Air France did very well at their hub. My luggage was delivered quickly and they gave me a voucher for a hotel, as it was the last flight to my main airport of that day. Rebooking was smooth as well and compensation has been paid. Overall, a very nice performance by the French.

 

All “classic” blog posts

No reviews – just debating and certain topics. These are my “traditional” blog posts in the categories Just blogging, Just blogging on music and Sports Blogging:

 

British Airways & Iberia

Here are all my postings related to British Airways, Iberia and IAG Airlines:

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