Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

Maldenman28

Hi all. 

We had a 7am flight booked with BA on Saturday October 26th from London Heathrow to Paris Charles De Gaulle. 

On the Friday night the flight was cancelled and we were booked on another BA flight at 8pm on the 26th. We contacted BA and the advisor told us at the time that there was no reason given for the cancellation. As the delay would be 13hours we were free to claim a full refund and we should go online to make a compensation claim. We did this and booked ourselves on an Air France flight at 11am on the 26th (at a much higher cost of course) so as to not lose a whole day of our short 4 day holiday. 

We came back and submitted our compensation claim BA replied saying that we were not eligible as the flight was cancelled due to weather. 

‘Your flight was cancelled due to Pre-tactical ATC flow rate restrictions at LHR due to fog/low visibility, it means you’re not eligible for compensation.’ what we can’t understand is no other airlines seems to cancel flight that morning from Heathrow and the Air France flight left and hour before and after our original 7am scheduled flight. Also if it was due to weather and this was know. The night before surely the BA representative we spoke to should have known this.  Is there anything we can do? We feel we were greatly misinformed. If we had been told at the time it was due to weather and we wouldn’t be due compensation we would have made other choices.  Thank you in advance for any help.

eskbanker

There are some well-informed insiders over on the FlyerTalk forum who have access to reasons for BA flights being cancelled, and according to one of them, there were several BA flights cancelled that morning for weather-related reasons beyond the airline's control ('WEA' signifies 'weather' and 'N' for UK261 compensation deemed not applicable):

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36625124-post3624.html

Perhaps front line call centre staff aren't as well-informed, so if you were misadvised by the rep then you might be able to persuade BA to stump up something for that?  Arguably the advisor should have been prepared to offer you an earlier flight instead (at their cost)....

P.S. This probably ought to be merged in with the main BA compensation thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4384701/flight-delay-and-cancellation-compensation-ba-only

Maldenman28

Many thanks for the reply. 

We’ll follow up with them. And I’ll try and merge the thread. Apologies for that. 

jimi_man

Hi. As you can see from the Flyertalk link a CDG flight was cancelled (presumably yours?) as well as others due to fog and the associated reduced capacity. 

One of the reasons BA gets hit badly is that it’s their home hub so virtually all of their flights involve landing or taking off at Heathrow. Consequently they are most at risk of cancellation because of the large number of services. 

It doesn’t help you now but in the future, taking a refund is generally the worst thing to do, simply because they are now finished with you and buying an alternative flight is generally pricey - as you found. Whilst they offered you an 8pm flight (and the key word here is ‘offered’ - you don’t have to take it) or a refund, you don’t have to decide immediately. It’s often better to sit and think about it and look at what other flights you can access. In the BA app you have to accept either option so it isn’t confirmed until you make it. Flights are incredibly dynamic and whilst there might be no seats on the next flight, an hour later there might be as people shuffle around. So it pays to keep your options open as BA have a responsibility to get you there within the terms of your ticket. 

In terms of the rep advising you, I would imagine that it’s standard patter. If it’s from the Indian call centre then I doubt they have any idea what the weather is like or why services are being cancelled. 

eskbanker

jimi_man said:

One of the reasons BA gets hit badly is that it’s their home hub so virtually all of their flights involve landing or taking off at Heathrow. Consequently they are most at risk of cancellation because of the large number of services.

While that's undoubtedly true, BA does seem to be affected disproportionately - according to Flightera, there were five LHR departures cancelled that morning between 6am and 11am, and all five were BA flights!  Surely the airport wouldn't expect BA to bear the entire brunt of reduced flow rates?

Garitsa

Hi, myself, my wife, son and his girlfriend we booked to fly from Santorini to Manchester via Heathrow on 14th September.  Woke up to an email on the morning of the 14th saying the flight had been cancelled and we were re-booked on an Aegean flight 2 days later.  

We were staying on another Greek Island and booked on a ferry to Santorini that morning to make the evening departure, so short of time to sort anything out.  Was on hold to BA (taking a long time) so booked Easyjet flights ourselves to ensure we got back on time.

Eventually got through to BA and told them we didn't want the replacement flights, was told they would refund the original booking and because the cancellation was due to staffing issues we were entitled to compensation.

Returned home and tried to claim using their online form, but it just states a case already exists for this booking.  I suspect this relates to a claim for the same trip because  our luggage didn't turn up for 2 days on the outbound journey.

My sons was on a different booking and when he tries to use the form, it does not display the flight for him to select as part of the process, so can't proceed.

I have tried phoning, multiple times, emailing the Executive club, raising a case (which was just closed on the refund of the original booking), tried re-opening the closed case and even sending a recorded delivery letter for the claim.

Other than the refund for the original flight (which comes nowhere near covering the costs of the replacement flights) I am getting zero response.

I am considering the no win no fee solicitor approach, but know we will lose about half of any claim.

Is there any other route someone can recommend?

It is incredibly frustrating.

eskbanker

You could try CEDR:

Unhappy with how we handled your case?

If you are unhappy with our response to your complaint, you can refer your complaint to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR),who are approved by the Civil Aviation Authority to provide an independent resolution service for complaints about airlines. You will need to refer your complaint to them within 12 months. CEDR will be able to advise you if your complaint falls within the scope of what they can deal with.

https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/help-and-contacts/complaints-and-claims

mrnomoneybags

Anybody had BA deny a claim based on bad weather (fog) and flights 10 minutes before and 35 minutes after from other airlines landed fine? and the weather report says no fog?

I've pushed back and send links for the weather and arrivals data.

eskbanker

mrnomoneybags said:

Anybody had BA deny a claim based on bad weather (fog) and flights 10 minutes before and 35 minutes after from other airlines landed fine? and the weather report says no fog?

I've pushed back and send links for the weather and arrivals data.

Were they asserting that it was specifically weather conditions at the destination airport that were the issue?  Weather conditions can affect flights in many ways, including anywhere in between departure and arrival airports, but also in reducing the number of available takeoff and/or landing slots, so other flights operating isn't the smoking gun that some see it as.

mrnomoneybags

eskbanker said:

mrnomoneybags said:

Anybody had BA deny a claim based on bad weather (fog) and flights 10 minutes before and 35 minutes after from other airlines landed fine? and the weather report says no fog?

I've pushed back and send links for the weather and arrivals data.

Were they asserting that it was specifically weather conditions at the destination airport that were the issue?  Weather conditions can affect flights in many ways, including anywhere in between departure and arrival airports, but also in reducing the number of available takeoff and/or landing slots, so other flights operating isn't the smoking gun that some see it as.

They have specifically said fog at the destination airport.