By Simon Calder

Copyright independent

You may know the feeling: in these QR-coded days, it is frustrating to find that the hieroglyphics on your boarding pass do not have the power to open the gate to the airport security checkpoint.

I had a boarding pass to the mid-morning Vueling flight from London Gatwick to Barcelona. While repeatedly trying to get the boarding pass to activate the gate, I discovered that another passenger, Gill, was having the same problem with the same flight. There is always an officer standing to one side to help “problem” cases. It was left to him to explain politely that the flight had been cancelled and we had better return to the Vueling check-in area.

The Spanish airline insists it sent out an email about the cancellation 80 minutes before Gill and I tried to go “airside”; it’s a shame that, for whatever reason, we never got to see it. By the time Gill and I reached the Vueling area, quite a throng was building. (Someone who did get an email was a travel agent named Bob Peters, who had arrange the flight for two clients. He immediately rebooked them on a Vueling departure to Barcelona from London Heathrow later that day.)

Initially Vueling offered me a hotel stay and a flight the following day. That would have wrecked my entire hiking trip. Fortunately air passengers’ rights rules were on my side. If your flight from a UK is cancelled for any reason, the airline must get you on your way on the same day if any seats are available. The obvious choice would be the British Airways flight from Heathrow two hours after the original Vueling departure from Gatwick. A quick bus or train to the other airport would allow a swift recovery of the original schedule.

As the two companies are sisters in the IAG conglomerate, surely they help each other out during “Irrops” (aviation shorthand for “irregular operations”)? But the ground staff said they could not rebook anyone on BA without special permission from Vueling’s Barcelona HQ.

Unusually, I had checked in baggage: I was trekking across the Pyrenees, and hiking poles are not allowed in hand luggage. The backpack was cheerfully accepted, even though the flight was about to be cancelled.

When you need to retrieve a bag that has gone into the system for a flight that is subsequently cancelled, you go through staff security with an escort. It is even less fun than ordinary security. Having been led through a labyrinth to reach the arrivals area and picked up the luggage, you then proceed to the Red Channel at Customs. This is so you can explain to an officer that, no, you have not picked up any duty-free along the way.

While this was happening, Vueling said it had found seats on one of its flights later that same day to Barcelona. That was sufficient to meet its obligation for rescheduling under air passengers’ rights rules.

Then there is the issue of compensation. I have seen the email from Vueling that travel agent Bob Peters received. It attributes the cause to “adverse weather conditions that have caused air traffic restrictions”. That counts as “extraordinary circumstances” and would save Vueling the thick end of £40,000 in compensation claims.

Except it wasn’t true. A spokesperson for Vueling told me: “The flight was cancelled due to a technical issue. However, some customers were mistakenly informed it was due to bad weather.” If you know anyone who was on that flight, do let them know they are owed £220 in cash compensation.

Should you find your flight cancelled at an airport, ask courteously and respectively for a same-day departure if any seats are available on any airline – and double-check the cause if you think compensation may be due. All the evidence I see is that carriers do not face sanctions if they the information and support they offer after a cancelled flight is not entirely in line with the rules. More information about air passenger rights can be found here.