Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

Anniedoc30

Hi I'm new to this so apologies if doing this wrong. Our flight was cancelled from Orlando to Gatwick on Sunday night, they sent us a text the day before, they did not actually give us a reason why it was cancelled and the first flight they could get us home on is today 11 January via Dublin, 4 days later. I presume it was weather related, shortage of planes, but do you think we can get compensation? Other flights were leaving Orlando and we were flying direct to Gatwick, then on to Glasgow, not going via east coast. BA have told us to hold on to receipts for expenses and this is increasing by the day for the 4 of us, but was hoping for compensation for the inconvenience and loss of earnings. Thanks for any advice.

Justice13075

Put your flight details into bottonline and EuClaim and see what they say.

Dave_Coulson

Just wanted to let everyone know that I got confirmation from BA that they will settle my claim. In the end I didn't need to go through the CEDR as they contacted me shortly after I posted to the forum. However it was not completely without its frustrations which I thought I would share so others can go into this process better prepared.

The first thing BA required was written confirmation from my wife that I was authorised to deal with her claim on her behalf. I thought that this was reasonable as we do not have the same surname. As her son was also on the flight and a minor, she also included in that letter, as his parent, that I was authorised to deal with his claim on his behalf.

BA replied acknowledging receipt of my wife's delegation of authority but that I now needed to provide a letter signed by my step son granting me his authority. I replied and pointed out that he is a minor and they had valid legal authority from his parent and therefore legal guardian. I also questioned why BA did not require letters of authority from my two daughters, who are also minors. The reply was astounding to my mind that because my stepson is over 12 yo, he must give a letter of authority but my daughters did not because they had the same surname as me. At no point did I tell BA that they were my daughters so they were not to know that. So it appears that BA will let you deal with a minor's claim provided you have the same surname despite the fact that you may not be their parent and therefore have no legal right as a parent or guardian to do so. And they will not allow a parent grant authority on their child's behalf despite that they have the legal right to do so. It seems inconsistent, random and legally wrong. I suspect that it was just another delaying tactic.

But cheque is in the post according to BA so a happy ending is approaching but it has been a long haul over 5 months.

JPears

Airlines appear sometimes (often) to be as obstuctive and obfuscate as possible.

Ricky80

I had to go through CEDR to get BA to confirm compensation.

My flight was delayed by 3hrs 15min on 23rd September but repeatedly BA denied compensation. So went with CEDR and BA accepted liability on 3rd Jan.

But my problem is now to date 17th Jan, I have not seen any payment. I have asked CEDR what will happen if BA simply doesn't pay. CEDR said that will never happen. But it has happened and where do i go from here?

I am owed 1200 euro as there were 4 passengers involved.

JPears

See my above post!
CEDR should sort out the lack of payment for you.
However there is one small problem, the have NO powers of enforcement that any of us are aware of.
You may now have to progress your case through the courts to encourage payment.
Have you already sent BA an NBA/LBA as part of your initial correspondance before the CEDR process?

Ricky80

The delay compensation was originally filed with BA through their website. after 2 months of to and fro, BA refused to confirm compensation nor conclude the decision was final. So I had no choice but to raise the issue with CAA and from their website I found CEDR. I filed the case with CEDR whom initially said without BA's finalise decision communicate ie specifically state that "decision is final and refer to CEDR" they could not deal with it immediately and I had to wait a further 28 days.

which is why after nearly 4 months, BA has confirmed the compensation through CEDR.

I have called CEDR today and the agent has confirmed what you said. The payment is law binding, i.e. BA has to pay. But there is no time limit and CEDR has no powers to enforce payment as they are just adjudicators. So they have advised me to wait a further 2 weeks then go through small claims court.

I have been a loyal BA flyer for 20 years and this is the first time I have had troubles with BA and I am not impressed and certainly will be taking my custom to a larger carrier with much better customer services and reputation.

JPears

I think some of us are beggining to doubt the validity of ADRs.
Wrong decsions on basic law, lack of enforcement power etc

Hang on that sounds like the CAA, who endorse the ADR process....

symphony63

Ricky80 wrote: »

I had to go through CEDR to get BA to confirm compensation.

My flight was delayed by 3hrs 15min on 23rd September but repeatedly BA denied compensation. So went with CEDR and BA accepted liability on 3rd Jan.

But my problem is now to date 17th Jan, I have not seen any payment. I have asked CEDR what will happen if BA simply doesn't pay. CEDR said that will never happen. But it has happened and where do i go from here?

I am owed 1200 euro as there were 4 passengers involved.

I dealt with BA through CEDR and they were very forthcoming. I think you are expecting BA to write a cheque out to you the next day, I'm sorry but it doesn't work that way. It could take up to 28 days for payment to come through, usual in large companies as it has to go through compliance and several different departments.
I hope the best for you. Remember it still is a bonus, I know you suffered for it.

Ricky80

I don't really consider it as a bonus, as 1) I had a 6 month baby which I reserved a carrycot seat 6 month prior to the flight and called to make sure the reservation was correct and when I turned up in airport I was told the reserved seat was a standard seat and no facilities for babies 2) when you are carrying multiple carry on luggages going through airport securities and all the other affairs and trying to find the BA customer service desk to sort thing out just to realise that they hide their desk behind a couple of rather large pillars and under a set of escalators and behind a drinks vendor so it become near impossible to find. 3) whilst in conversation with the customer services, there was precious little sympathy for my situation even though it is entirely BA's fault and there was no remedial offered other than "maybe one of you can find a free seat and baby can have a seat" to that I asked "is there a free seat" to which customer services replied "the plane is full in your class and there is space in other class but I can't do anything for you and all i can say is there may be no shows and you have to have a word with the crew onboard" throughout there was no mention of flight delay. as I was acutely aware that time was slipping I didn't pursue any further with the customer services and start to proceed to departure gates to which I realised there was 2.5hour delay 4) there was no information provided on the nature of the delay or the exact length of the delay, all was said is that a technical issue and they are looking to resolve. by the time the flight took off from the airport it was nearly 4 hours from the supposed depart time. 5) once onboard the crew offered little help or assistance to resolve a complete !!!! up by BA and we had to have a 6 month old baby on our lap for a 14 hour flight that was delayed by 4 hours on departure.

So no it wasn't just inconvenience, it was a complete disaster. it ruined the holiday for us as we were so exhausted and angry at the whole process. The whole outbound flight kept us concerned that our booked flight back will have similar issues resulted in 2 long distance calls to BA in UK to find out what is the situation and neither calls resulted in satisfactory answers. so we had to chance it on the way back.