Ba delayed flight, lost holiday time

shaun_from_Africa

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The actual wording of EU261 says nothing about delays, only compensation when passengers arrive late at their final destination because their flight has been cancelled or they have been denied boarding.

This is not correct.
261/2004 does cover delays as well as cancellations and being denied boarding.
The actual header of the regulation states:

establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91

And Article 6 is the one that deals specifically with delays.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:en:PDF

jpsartre

ANGUZ wrote: »

Ok thanks, they had a four page letter non offensive giving all details

That was at least 3 pages too many. It's unlikely that someone actually read all of it. The trick is to keep it short and sweet in these situations.

That said, I am unsure what you are trying to achieve here. As noted, you are currently not entitled to cash compensation and you are highly unlikely to get BA to cover the out of pocket expenses you had in Vegas a result of the delay as they have no obligation to do so. You say they don't give a hoot and feel they have done nothing wrong but you've been offered some Avios and I would be very surprised if they have not apologised for the inconvenience caused in their correspondance with you. Just because you didn't get what you asked for does not mean BA do not care. No doubt delays are frustrating but they are an unavoidable risk when flying. BA took care of you by putting you up for the night and getting you to your destination asap. I assume they also provided you with a meal for the night. If so, they did what they had to do and it is simply not true when you say they gave you no customer service.

Of course, if legalities change in your favour, by all means, claim the cash compensation.

stoneman

Centipede100 wrote: »

Art 6 does deal with delays but the Sturgeon judgement in the ECJ has effectively ruled that delays in excess of 3 hours arriving at your final destination should be compensated in the same way as if the flight was cancelled.

Sturgeon ruling in full: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62007J0402:EN:HTML

So what I said then. OP is entitled to 600 euros each. I would send a recorded delivery letter to BA telling them that they have x amount of days to pay you the 1200 euros as prescribed under the legislation after which time you will take further action ( do not mention legal) to recover the debt. I would also advise them that they also broke EU261 by not handing you a leaflet setting out your right under that ruling when the delay was known to be more than 2 hours, something they must do.

jpsartre

Pay-outs for delays are on hold in the UK until further rulings. The OP will be wasting his time trying to claim it at present.

richardw

jpsartre wrote: »

....delays are frustrating but they are an unavoidable risk when flying...

Was a 5 hour delay unavoidable in this case then?

stoneman

jpsartre wrote: »

Pay-outs for delays are on hold in the UK until further rulings. The OP will be wasting his time trying to claim it at present.

It's only time, always worth a shot as I have seen many posts where pax were actually being paid their due compo. Some companies are better than others at this, and as the judgment is due in the autumn the OP will have already sent in their claim so no further action would be required

jpsartre

Fair enough, I guess you can look at it like that.

jkkne

FAO OP

Sudbury is not Customer Relations, its where they add your email or scan your letter onto the system (called Nirvana) in conjuction with a centre in Dehli.

Ironically, BA Customer Relations is based in Newcastle, on the banks of the Tyne.

Servisair run operations for BA at NCL in terms of check in and handling etc.

Any emails to Keith Williams or Willie Walsh (now at IAG) will be sent straight to Newcastle and you'll get a stock response stating 'thanks for your email to Keth Williams, he's asked me to respond on his behalf'

They do have the ability to pay cash, they've just chosen not to. Monetary values of Avios points are non-existent to them, its cheap enough.

They can check why a flight is delayed from their system by using the crew report, they can even contact ops or the cabin crew duty desk. They don't have to tell you why, but they can check the actual reason

As a former BA CR executive I'd be happy to assist if you wished to PM but the escalation process is as follows.

complaint 1 and response
you respond
original agent responds
complaint 2
original agent checks with team leader or colleague over next steps and responds
complaint 3
agent passes to team leader who then passes to another team member 'to review'
response (generally apologising and saying they agree with colleague) comes out

This can go on until they send a 'no further correspondance email'

You can ring them and you'll get passed to the Duty Manager. Who is infact the Operations Desk and not a manager, its just another Executive/Colleague who is monitoring breaks etc. Team Leaders won't answer phones.

I'll be happy to supply further information, emails and even hints at good names to contact if required by OP

Walter4

jkkne wrote: »

I'll be happy to supply further information, emails and even hints at good names to contact if required by OP

I had a similar question about BA procedure on this. I originally tried to claim compensation for a cancellation (flight was delayed and then ultimately the destination airport was changed, although we flew under the same flight number).

When I made my claim on line, BA even classified it as a cancellation, but denied compensation as they stated that it was cancelled due to extraordinary circumstances (being the weather at LCY).

I replied, pointing out that every other carrier left timely from LCY at the same timeframe) and thus were not extraordinary circumstances. It was pretty clear that the evidence didn't support their original contention.

Then BA replied, but now changed their tune, calling it a delay not a cancellation any longer. And so accordingly, they were not paying out as they disagreed with Sturgeon's exception.

I replied that it was a cancellation, we were rerouted to a different airport, and BA even classified it as a cancellation, so that the controversy about Sturgeon did not apply here. But after many weeks, I have not received a reply.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

globetraveller

How many avios were you offered? And were both flights with BA?