On July 9th, 2016, PIA's flight PK 711 was suppose to arrive Manchester, UK at 10:40 am en route to John F. Kennedy airport at New York where it was scheduled to arrive at 2:55 pm.
Passengers were informed on July 8th that the flight will be delayed by 9 hours. Apparent reason corroborated by the data available on flight status websites is that the plane that was supposed to be carrying passengers to Manchester and New York was sent to fetch Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his posse of incompetent darbaris from London and at the time of this writing PK711 is delayed by 15 hours.
What this means for the passengers?
At the minimum, it is a huge inconvenience for people travelling to Manchester and New York but that's not it. People who have connected flights from New York to other parts of United States will miss their connecting flights and will be stranded in New York for an unknown time. All this so the royal highness could travel with his posse.
What can the passengers do?
All flights arriving in USA from European destination are regulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT). For all practical purposes for DOT, PK 711 is arriving from Europe (Manchester, UK). Under DOT's regulations, all passengers arriving in New York on PK 711 on July 9th (actually arriving now on July 10th) are entitled to a ticket price refund or $1300, whichever is lower, by PIA. Passengers can file the complaint at DOT's website. Here is the link
http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm
It is important that the complainant allows the DOT to share the complaint with any regulatory body outside USA.
People arriving in Manchester, UK through PK 711 are entitled to ticket refund too under UK aviation regulations. Passengers arriving at Manchester can file a claim at
http://refund.me
Every passenger should make PIA pay for this so the rulers can feel a little bit of a pinch for this callous disregard of people's plight.
I will be at the JFK airport when this flight arrives and will convey the above information to as many passengers as possible.
