Complaints with British Airways: any ideas?

bubbah

Hi I have just joined the site and cannot find where I can start a thread!!
I want to hear from anyone who was affected by BA Strikes as we were. The BA Internal Policy is to only pay £25 for telephone calls. We had to call from the USA to rebook at BA request and it cost us £86.
Any help would be appreciated as they won't budge.
Thanks

malkie76

Did you call the free USA BA number (1-800-AIRWAYS iirc) to rebook? It shouldn't have cost anything. Besides, you can call the UK from the US for ~10c a minute using widely available calling cards. I'm not entirely sure BA have to cover your telephone calls to rebook.

WickedWolfie

richardw wrote: »

Does it say somewhere that they ask for volunteers?

Very definitely Yup!

Explicitly stated in EU Regulation 261/2004, Article 4: Denied boarding:

1. When an operating air carrier reasonably expects to deny boarding on a flight, it shall first call for volunteers to surrender their reservations in exchange for benefits under conditions to be agreed between the passenger concerned and the operating air carrier. Volunteers shall be assisted in accordance with Article 8, such assistance being additional to the benefits mentioned in this paragraph.
2. If an insufficient number of volunteers come forward to allow the remaining passengers with reservations to board the flight, the operating air carrier may then deny boarding to passengers against their will.
3. If boarding is denied to passengers against their will, the operating air carrier shall immediately compensate them in accordance with Article 7 and assist them in accordance with Articles 8 and 9.

(my bold and italics)

WickedWolfie

" Volunteers should be provided with full information in writing (Article 14) before they are given a choice14."

See below for the EU's own guidance!

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2008/q_and_a_en.pdf

a.ferra

[FONT=&quot]On the 30th of August I unfortunately arrived late at Heathrow airport and missed the check in, I asked if I could possibly get another flight but was told the flight at 5pm was full, and was advised to possibly try another carrier, I did and was successful. At no time was I told that this would affect the rest of my booking.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
On the 2nd September I arrived at Barcelona airport, but was told that my reservation had been cancelled, I explained that I did not cancel my reservation, but I had missed the flight out, why would I cancel when I’d paid for it? I was told to go to the Iberia reservations desk which I did. At the desk a lady said that because I had not got on the outbound flight BA had automatically cancelled my return flight. The lady was so rude, she told me that the reservation I had booked was still available but I could not have it back, however I could make the same reservation again at a cost of €900!![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I asked if there were any other seats available on any other flights that day, to which she replied ‘no’. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Imagine my horror, I’m alone in Barcelona airport and being told that the reservation I’m holding in my hand has been cancelled, however the same seat I booked is available but I have to pay again, oh it it’ll cost nearly a thousand pounds, trust me at that point British Airways was not the world’s favourite airline!![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I had to phone my mum in the UK and ask her to call BA in the UK, when she did she was told that I should have told someone in the airport when I missed my flight and that I was getting on another flight with a different carrier and then the return reservation which was only 3 days later would not have been cancelled?? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]BA told my mum that there was a reservation available for a later flight that day at a cost of £232.50, which she booked for me.

I have checked all the terms and conditions and I can't find anything in there that states if you miss your outbound flight they'll automatically cancel your return.

Any suggestions as to who I write to, any legal quotes I can use??
[/FONT]

luci

I don't know where it is written in stone, but it is standard practise that the inbound flight is cancelled if the outbound flight is not taken. This is with any airline, not just BA.

malkie76

Yeah, it's pretty standard if you fail to use the out bound they cancel the return. You should have rebooked the missed flight and taken it to be able to use the return. You were at fault for missing your flight then failing to rebook your schedule.

sgainford

Should you Fly British Airways?
I should have arrived at the airport three hours early for my British Airways flight to Verona however when I got to Victoria station to take a 35 minute train to Gatwick airport, a water main had just exploded and flooded all the train tracks. I quickly jumped on another train going to East Croyden where I then got a replacement bus service to the airport. I could have still made my flight but 2 miles outside the airport the traffic completely stopped. When I finally got into the airport I had 20 minutes before my flight, but British Airways wouldn’t let me fly, which is understandable enough.
But the understanding stops there. British Airways then charged me a hefty £60 to change my flight to the next day. Hundreds of people missed their flight because of the transportation problems that was no fault of their own, but British Airways charged them all £60 to transfer their flight to the next day. However other airlines were a lot more understanding, like Easy Jet, which didn’t charge their customers anything.
I asked British airways, who are always advertising how much they understand their customers and care for them, where did they get the arbitrary charge of £60, why did they have to charge so much, and why did other airlines like Easy Jet not charge their customers anything? They wrote back in a cold robotic way and basically told me to !!!! off.
British Airways definitely made a lot of money that day. And I actually originally paid £20 more to fly with them because I bought into their brand and thought they were more reliable and understanding. But from my experience, and other people I have talked to since then about their negative experience with British Airways, I think those days are over and I think they need to change their brand song from the Flower Duet to John Lee Hookers ‘I need money’ song. At least I’m giving my money to Easy Jet next time.

richardw

To Fly. To !!!! off