Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

4ze

sayling said:

4ze said:

good afternoon, BA recently refused my claim for delay compensation stating it was "due to Air Traffic Control restrictions. The delay was out of our control and caused unforeseen disruption to our schedule". 

I doubt their reasoning and my understanding is there is no way of knowing if this is the truth without appealing and that I would need to do that through the CEDR. Because there is a £25 if you lose through CEDR, I was wondering if anyone could offer their thoughts on whether I should proceed with the case or not? thanks for your help

There's a thread on flyertalk.com about delayed flights that might prove useful, but also worth bearing in mind that I've never heard of CEDR charging the fee

i will look for that thanks. 
It say on their website "£25 fee for unsuccessful cases, exceptions apply."

blossom7777

Hello, I wanted to get an opinion on a BA Flight Cancellation I am trying to get compensation for.

The flight was BA8 direct from Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow on June 9. This was cancelled less than 24 hours before the flight departure.
The flight that BA automatically changed us to was scheduled to depart on June 10, with a layover in Doha, then landing in London June 11.
After a long call with BA I got us onto the last flight out on June 8 with a layover in Helsinki, landing in London June 9 at 9:10 am.

With our cancelled flight, we were due to arrive into London at 3:45 pm on June 9, and instead we landed at 8:56 am on June 9, that is a difference of 6 hours, 49 minutes, so we arrived over the 4 hours early to Heathrow. 

BA is saying I am only due 50% of the £520 compensation (£260) as my flight didn't arrive 4 hours late.

On the CAA UK breakdown of cancellation costs it says 'length of disruption four hours or more at final destination' and technically we did have more than four hours disruption, it was just early rather than late.

Has anyone had any success with this?

Thank you.

mdann52

blossom7777 said:

BA is saying I am only due 50% of the £520 compensation (£260) as my flight didn't arrive 4 hours late.

This is a fun area of the legislation....

Article 7 says that, if the flight arrives less than 4 hours later following rerouting, the compensation is halved. It does not set a "early" threshold, unlike other section of the legislation.

Now, the AzurAir Case may apply here - however, this isn't explicit in applying to rerouting (BA often argue it is not), and this has not yet got to a high enough court to issue a binding judgement on it. So, if you want to challenge this, you will likely have to go via the County Court to do so.

littleredhen

can anyone help I have a friend who has had a complicated problem on a flight from Newcastle to Brisbane
1. Flight  Newcastle to Heathrow delayed as there was a bird in engine, they had to take part of engine apart to get bird out, then had to wait for a fit to fly certificate once sorted while all passengers were still seated on plane - original expected arrival time was 18.20 - connection was departing at 21.10

2. Missed connection to Sydney departing at 21.10 30/5/24 from Heathrow. Delays getting stairs to aircraft then all passengers ushered to Terminal 5 from Terminal 3 but I needed to go to British Airways desk to sort out a new connecting flights

3. British Airways desk gave a hotel voucher (Renaissance Hotel Heathrow) for 30th May at 11pm - flight has been rearranged for next day but was now travelling from Perth to Brisbane. Got to Renaissance hotel - allocated room 145 but told room not ready and go and wait in bar. Approx 30 mins later told can't have room as voucher has expired (although voucher date was correct) told to go back to airport as staff could get no reply from British Airways

4. No Hoppa buses running back to airport as all finished for the evening. Paid £17 to get a taxi  back to airport. Ended up in airport seating area all night trying to sleep and being woken every hour by security
5. On new flight  11.10am from Heathrow to Perth  approx one hour before arrival at Perth, pilot announced we had to land at Karratha as there was no fuel at Perth,  after refuelling we took off to Perth but I had also missed connection from Perth to Brisbane   because of the refuelling diversion.

6. Allocated a new flight  17.15 Perth to Brisbane but this was also delayed departing.

7. Arrived Brisbane at midnight on, I had originally arranged collection from Brisbane for my original flight,  by a friend who was driving me to my accommodation on the Gold Coast but had no way of letting him know what was happening so when I arrived at Brisbane a day late I had no transportation and no trains running at that time of night and I still had to get to the Gold Coast to my accommodation. Had to negotiate a taxi fare of $260 Australian dollars

8. Got to accommodation at 3am and had trouble rousing anyone to let me in and had paid to stay from 1st June but actually arrived on 2nd June so paid for a night's accommodation I didn't use

This is not a straightforward claim as there were problems on all the parts of the journey
I really don't know where to start as the letter produced by Resolver actually on covers the first part of the journey
Any ideas

eskbanker

littleredhen said:

can anyone help I have a friend who has had a complicated problem on a flight from Newcastle to Brisbane
1. Flight  Newcastle to Heathrow delayed as there was a bird in engine, they had to take part of engine apart to get bird out, then had to wait for a fit to fly certificate once sorted while all passengers were still seated on plane - original expected arrival time was 18.20 - connection was departing at 21.10
Bird strikes are considered to be extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the airline, so no compensation due.

2. Missed connection to Sydney departing at 21.10 30/5/24 from Heathrow. Delays getting stairs to aircraft then all passengers ushered to Terminal 5 from Terminal 3 but I needed to go to British Airways desk to sort out a new connecting flights
I don't really understand the relevance of this section, if the connection had been missed by this stage?

3. British Airways desk gave a hotel voucher (Renaissance Hotel Heathrow) for 30th May at 11pm - flight has been rearranged for next day but was now travelling from Perth to Brisbane. Got to Renaissance hotel - allocated room 145 but told room not ready and go and wait in bar. Approx 30 mins later told can't have room as voucher has expired (although voucher date was correct) told to go back to airport as staff could get no reply from British Airways
Sounds like the hotel messed up here rather than BA - if you'd just booked into another hotel then chances are you'd have succeeded in claiming its cost from BA, but if you didn't actually incur any hotel cost then there's nothing to reclaim, although a goodwill gesture would seem to be in order.

4. No Hoppa buses running back to airport as all finished for the evening. Paid £17 to get a taxi  back to airport. Ended up in airport seating area all night trying to sleep and being woken every hour by security
The taxi fare should be reimbursed by BA.

5. On new flight  11.10am from Heathrow to Perth  approx one hour before arrival at Perth, pilot announced we had to land at Karratha as there was no fuel at Perth,  after refuelling we took off to Perth but I had also missed connection from Perth to Brisbane   because of the refuelling diversion.
Not sure that this would be considered to be the airline's fault?

6. Allocated a new flight  17.15 Perth to Brisbane but this was also delayed departing.

7. Arrived Brisbane at midnight on, I had originally arranged collection from Brisbane for my original flight,  by a friend who was driving me to my accommodation on the Gold Coast but had no way of letting him know what was happening so when I arrived at Brisbane a day late I had no transportation and no trains running at that time of night and I still had to get to the Gold Coast to my accommodation. Had to negotiate a taxi fare of $260 Australian dollars
Seems doubtful that this would be claimable from the airline, whose responsibility pretty much ends on landing at the destination airport.

8. Got to accommodation at 3am and had trouble rousing anyone to let me in and had paid to stay from 1st June but actually arrived on 2nd June so paid for a night's accommodation I didn't use
As above.

This is not a straightforward claim as there were problems on all the parts of the journey
I really don't know where to start as the letter produced by Resolver actually on covers the first part of the journey
Any ideas

See comments inline - I think that technically the only valid claim here under the regulations and BA's terms is for the £17 taxi from hotel to Heathrow.  Will travel insurance step in for the costs incurred after arrival perhaps?

skyblues87

Hi all, currently sat at Aalborg airport wondering if I’m going to lose a lot of money!

Had return flights booked from Heathrow to Copenhagen. Last night I received a text from BA to say the flight home this afternoon is cancelled and that I’d been rebooked on a flight the following day. No mention of accommodation or anything else. 

It directed me to the BA app to change to a different flight. Unfortunately there was nothing for today and I need to be back for work. 

I couldn’t get hold of anyone at BA, the number they supplied just didn’t seem to work on either my mobile or the hotel phone. Tried calling the airport but not surprisingly got nowhere. 

That left the option of booking another flight with a different airline. Managed to get a flight from Aalborg via Oslo. Will get me back much later but at least it gets me back today. 

I’m down nearly £600. Looking at the forum it seems compensation is a fixed amount but I can’t work out if that’s just compensation and then the expenses incurred, ie the new flights, should be reimbursed on top of that? 

Really frustrating, can’t afford to lose £600 but missing work tomorrow is not really an option. 

mdann52

skyblues87 said:

Hi all, currently sat at Aalborg airport wondering if I’m going to lose a lot of money!

Had return flights booked from Heathrow to Copenhagen. Last night I received a text from BA to say the flight home this afternoon is cancelled and that I’d been rebooked on a flight the following day. No mention of accommodation or anything else. 

It directed me to the BA app to change to a different flight. Unfortunately there was nothing for today and I need to be back for work. 

I couldn’t get hold of anyone at BA, the number they supplied just didn’t seem to work on either my mobile or the hotel phone. Tried calling the airport but not surprisingly got nowhere. 

That left the option of booking another flight with a different airline. Managed to get a flight from Aalborg via Oslo. Will get me back much later but at least it gets me back today. 

I’m down nearly £600. Looking at the forum it seems compensation is a fixed amount but I can’t work out if that’s just compensation and then the expenses incurred, ie the new flights, should be reimbursed on top of that? 

Really frustrating, can’t afford to lose £600 but missing work tomorrow is not really an option. 

You can claim the costs of the alternative flight back off BA as long as you don't refund the tickets. 

You'll have to claim when you get home, and it may take a while to get a refund. If you get a response in 8 weeks, escalate to CEDR (BAs ADR provider).

You may also be able to claim compensation for the cancellation, depending on the reason.

If this was BA817, then it's down as UK261 compensation eligible due to technical issues with an aircraft

JPears

Like mdann says.

Don't request or accept any offer a refund for your original ticket.

Make 2 separate claims:

1. Compensation for the < 14 days notice of cancellation.  Unless it was an EC, but it would appear not.

2. Re-routing costs. BA did not offer you an acceptable/convenient re-routing option.

spiralshape

TL;DR: BA cancelled our London-Basel flight the very morning that we were at Heathrow, told us they could fly us to Milan instead and refund our transfer to Basel if we arranged it ourselves, and now claim they don't have to pay those costs at all.

We (family of four, two adults, a 17 year old and a 13 year old) had a flight booked from Heathrow to Basel for early on Saturday morning 3rd August. The main holiday was in Germany, where among other things we had tickets booked for EuropaPark on Monday and Tuesday. The plan was to stay in Basel Saturday night and use EuropaPark's transfer on Sunday.

We stayed in a Heathrow hotel the night before and got up at 4:30am to be greeted with a text and email from BA sent at 3:30am informing us that the flight was "cancelled at short notice due to aircraft serviceability." According to the app the next available flight was to Munich on Monday evening, which was no good at all given our theme park tickets. Having to check out of the hotel and with a taxi already booked, we headed to the terminal to speak to somebody there.

On arrival ~5am there was only one disinterested BA employee dealing with the cancellation, informing us there was no customer service at the airport, offering no help and handing out a card with a customer service number while telling us that we couldn't phone it until after 8am. We cancelled our EuropaPark transfer without charge but the Basel Hotel charged us because the cancellation was less than 24 hours. With nothing else to do I tried phoning BA anyway ~6am and got through after over an hour on hold. The advisor I spoke to said the earliest flight they could offer was to Milan early on Sunday morning. When asked she said we'd have to arrange our own transport to Basel and claim it back, and that even though our final destination on Sunday was Germany, we still had to travel to Basel to be allowed to claim since that was our original destination. Likewise we also had to arrange our own accommodation that evening in Heathrow (no offer was made to do this for us). She also stated when asked that we'd be able to claim for the hotel cancellation and even the hotel for the previous night, although she wasn't clear whether she meant as expenses or compensation.

Milan to Basel involved a change over at Zurich and cost several hundred pounds in tickets (booked while at Heathrow), not helped by the fact that only a first class was available Milan-Zurich to avoid having to stay elsewhere on Sunday night (I have screenshots of the availability). Eventually we made it to our EuropaPark hotel around 11:00pm Sunday night. On return from our holiday I went online and submitted our claim (13th Aug). No option was present to claim compensation so I submitted the additional hotel costs as expenses and highlighted the reasons in the freeform text box.

22nd Aug I received a reply which stated that BA wouldn't pay any of the costs of transferring from Milan to our original destination in Basel: "...we can't reimburse the cost of your train and credit card charges...This is because we are only legally responsible for the cost of the flight itself, plus a a few other related expenses..." The only things they had agreed to pay for (not stated, but calculated from the amount they said they'd be sending us) was the food and accommodation Saturday night and the taxis to and from Heathrow. There was also a request not to reply for 48 - 72 hours.

After some investigation I replied 27th Aug pointing out that the customer advisor I'd spoken to said that we'd be refunded for making our own transfer arrangements, quoting ABTA that BA had to bear the cost of transfer to the original airport, and asking how we were supposed to claim the £220 compensation per person I think we're entitled to. They gave no reply and after a week I sent a chasing email asking what we were supposed to do now (e.g. write to another department, write to somebody external...). A week later there is still no response.

My questions are:

1) Am I right in thinking that BA do legally owe us for the train transfer? If so, what's the best thing to do now if they're not answering emails and listing the case as 'Closed' online?

2) What's the best way to apply for the compensation, if it seems likely that we're entitled to it? (Their website either lists this as a closed case, or if I try and resubmit I only get an option to apply for additional expenses.)

Thanks in advance to anybody who can help.

eskbanker

Airlines have three separate headings to consider when cancelling flights:

1. Right to care (accommodation, meals, etc) while waiting
2. Rerouting or refund
3. Compensation

It sounds like they've only fully addressed the first of these, but for the second, article 8 of the regulations clearly obliges them to get you to your final destination, even if part of that involves other modes of transport:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/8

I can understand some reluctance to accept credit card charges and first class train, but they should certainly accept the principle of paying for your journey to your booked final destination, and if you can justify those costs based on difficulty of finding tickets then they should concede.  Not sure that ABTA is a meaningful citation, but the CAA offers guidance at Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004

Compensation will also be due if the cancellation wasn't due to extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, and if it was a technical issue then this is their liability.

In terms of how to chase, it's often reported how slow this all is, so expect it to take many weeks.  If it gets to eight weeks without an adequate response, then you have the option of escalation to BA's nominated ADR provider, CEDR, or ultimately via small claims.