Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

serenseren

I'm so glad to have discovered this forum, the information is invaluable, and makes me feel oddly better that I am not the only one being fobbed off and ignored by BA.

I will try to make this as brief as possible.

Our flight BA2166 landed on Wednesday morning just under 4 hours after the scheduled arrival time. We were told by several different sources that the delay was originally caused by a mechanical fault on the preceding Saturday. The time it took to fix the fault meant the original crew had to be stood down and a new crew summonsed, which lengthened the delay further. BA continued to operate the same aircraft on the route so the delay effectively carried over from the Saturday to the Sunday, Monday, and to our flight on the Tuesday evening.

It was really frustrating as despite knowing of the delay well in advance, they only sent an email at 1pm on the Tuesday which we did not receive as we had no wifi access after checking out of our accommodation - we therefore had a 6 hour wait in Tampa airport with two young children.

Having looked carefully at the EU regulations, I am firmly of the view we are entitled to compensation. An initial claim by email to BA was met with a brief standard reply (3 weeks later) saying that the type of mechanical fault (an air bleed fault) is deemed as an unforeseeable circumstance. I have checked this, and it is right, providing BA can demonstrate they properly maintained the system, and that the fault occurred immediately prior to departure. It's that last point I think is most important -to the best of my knowledge, the air bleed fault was on the Saturday (I have asked Ba to confirm), and checking the flight statistics, all flights on the Tampa route were delayed from the Saturday, at least until our flight on the 12th. Therefore, even if the air bleed fault was an exceptional circumstance, it would not apply to our flight 3 days later.

I have written further to the initial fob off requesting that the detail of the claim is looked at properly, instead of the blanket one sentence response I received, which failed to acknowledge we were not on the original delayed flight. I have pointed out what I understand the cause of the delay to be, 3 days before our flight and so not 'immediately prior to departure'. Although I have received acknowledgements these emails were received and will be responded to, I have heard nothing further.

I am more frustrated by the apathy and lack of customer service than anything else, we have flown and recommended BA for many years, but not any more.

I am unsure what to do next. I wrote making my case on the 7th December snd chased again on the 20th, but still nothing.

I would be really grateful for any information or guidance that might assist - including whether I have got it all wrong! I have looked at it all carefully though, I am pretty confident I have a claim.

offshore1

It seems to me BA are pushing their luck trying to swerve responsibility for your delay on the knock on effects of a fault that happened on 9 Nov. There is a very useful website independent of BA which details all the aircraft used http://www.thebasource.com. The website is a bit clunky but shows that the a/c used ex TPA on 11 Nov was reg GVIIR. The preceding two days the flight had been operated by reg GIIP . So in effect BA are saying that a problem with an entirely different a/c three days earlier caused yours to be late which is pushing things a bit far. If BA are claiming it was the same a/c then the evidence from "BAsource" contradicts this. Incidentally GVIIR was the one which suffered a problem with the undercarriage and left me at Orlando airport for 24 hrs on 22 Dec so far BA haven't even acknowledged my claim!

serenseren

Thank you so much for your helpful reply. I am sorry that you suffered such a long delay and are stuck in the queue so to speak.

What you say is interesting. At the moment, I am waiting for BA to confirm all the facts ie when the air bleed fault they refer to occurred, and the actual and scheduled landing times from the 9th to the 13th November.

The lady at check in told us about the delay, and said it was the overhang from the flight on the 9th. The crew on board were chatting to us and told us the aircraft had a technical problem on the 9th, and the same aircraft continued to be used on that route, the delay knocked on. The flight stats show that the flight on that route was delayed significantly every day from the 9th to the 13th. All BA customer services have said is that the delay was caused by an air bleed fault which is deemed to be an extraordinary circumstance.

I am just trying to piece it all together at the moment, until BA give me some answers, I am not absolutely 100% sure I have all the facts right. I am working on the understanding that the air bleed fault occurred on Saturday, a new part had to be fitted, the crew had to be replaced, and each day thereafter the delay knocked on, making the delay of our particular flight the following Tuesday entirely within BA's control. Time will tell, but I am not going to give up!

offshore1

I like a good "whodunnit" The attached link should hopefully show the aircraft used on the TPA route for the month in question. Unfortunately it does not include the arrival times. I've a feeling BA are on the ropes on this one. Good luck. http://thebasource.com/flighttracker.html

homer2012

Just an update to give a little back to the forum in the hope that it maybe helps someone else out with their claim. Many thanks to caz3121, Mark2 spark and Coby Benson for personal responses to my original post (428 of this BA thread) and also the regular contributors such as Vauban, Centipede100, 111KAB, David e, etc, etc. who continue to provide excellent information/advice on which to pursue a claim.

Anyway, after two emails using the weblink with my case ID number and a recorded delivery letter all being ignored with not even so much as an acknowledgement, I finally 'cracked' and phoned BA EU Compensation Claims dept (after speaking to a middleman for 15 mins) whereby the advisor informed me that she would look at my claim and get back to me the following week given the time of the year that I had phoned. Two days later I received an email form the same BA advisor informing me that I was entitled to the full 600 euro compensation for myself and mrs homer2012, and that we were also being awarded the $150 expenses that we incurred due to our extended stay in the States which was a pleasant surprise as we had misplaced the receipts. I was informed that the funds would be in my bank account after 3 working days and sure enough the £1,087 is sitting there ready to be spent this morning - delighted !! I've never been provided for a reason for the flight cancellation to date however the compensation certainly softens the blow.

The moral behind the story is to keep plugging away, don't let them get you down and 'to keep the heid' as we say up here in Glasgow. I was intending going to court with this if necessary, however good on BA for eventually doing the honourable thing. Hopefully this post will give a bit of encouragement for fellow flyers who are not getting much response/acknowledgement from BA.

Apologies for the start of this post reading like an oscars acceptance speech, and further apologies for any of the main MSE forum contributors that I haven't mentioned, however keep up the excellent work and best of luck to you all with your respective claims.

Once again, a great forum with some brilliant free advice.

All the Best ....... homer2012:beer:

robinwood

newbie to the forum and wondered whether anyone had any experience of receiving compensation from BA due to captain illness.

Our flight was from rio to london BA248 in November, delayed by over 18 hours due to captain sickness prior to take off and BA are claiming extraordinary circumstances.

A friend on the flight has already received his full compensation but BA are claiming this was a mistake and as such they wont continue to make the same mistake.

They have referenced the NEB guidelines (despite the fact the illness did not occur on the plane) and that it was at an outstation as their defence in email correspondence.

I have seen on other threads that airlines have paid out for illness before (i believe virgin have) but couldn't see if BA had done so. If anyone has any experience/ advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Vauban

robinwood wrote: »

newbie to the forum and wondered whether anyone had any experience of receiving compensation from BA due to captain illness.

Our flight was from rio to london BA248 in November, delayed by over 18 hours due to captain sickness prior to take off and BA are claiming extraordinary circumstances.

A friend on the flight has already received his full compensation but BA are claiming this was a mistake and as such they wont continue to make the same mistake.

They have referenced the NEB guidelines (despite the fact the illness did not occur on the plane) and that it was at an outstation as their defence in email correspondence.

I have seen on other threads that airlines have paid out for illness before (i believe virgin have) but couldn't see if BA had done so. If anyone has any experience/ advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

This will hinge, I suspect, on how quickly BA responded to the pilot's illness. 18 hours is a long time to wait - but it might be difficult to get someone over to Rio if the timings were unfortunate. When did the Captain report sick? You need to know this information, I suggest.

The NEB guidelines are bunkum.

robinwood

Vauban, thanks for your response.

BA say that around 22:20 (our flight was at 23:55) they received information that the captain was unwell and the crew were still in the hotel.

i think that 18 hours delay from the flight time (19 1/2 from the time the pilot reported ill) is excessively long.

I would argue that illness is not an extraordianary circumstance and question (if illness is found as an extraordianry cirucmstance) whether BA did all that could be reasonably expected to avoid the situation (wet leasing or moving us on to other planes etc).

I have seen in other jurisdictions that courts have ruled sickness isn't an extraordinary circumstance but haven't seen a UK ruling on this.

Do you think trying to apply the Wallentin test would be successful?

appreciate your thoughts.

tudcos

Serenseren,

I was on flight 2167 LGW-TPA on 12th November, which had a five hour delay, reason quoted by BA as air bleed fault and compensation so far denied by BA. The delay was clearly known well before we arrived at checkin, so I have been pushing BA on when the fault was discovered and how they categorise it as "immediately prior to departure", with no detail forthcoming other than "during safety checks". If it can be proven this was exactly the same aircraft as your flight which already had the known fault, and/or earlier flights, perhaps that will tip BA into agreeing compensation as it would not qualify as "immediately prior". I look forward to any success you get!

offshore1 - thanks for the pointer to "basource", but I can only see the archive list for november (which doesn't mention these flights). If I try to access the "flighttracker" section, I get an error 403 - forbidden:access denied. So I can't determine the aircraft used. :-( Any ideas?

Regards

tudcos

Now I've had a chance to do some more digging and check my timings ...

offshore1 - made "basource" work eventually by choosing a month, thanks for the link.

Serenseren - from "basource", it seems clear that my flight was the inbound plane that you then caught back to LGW. So you were delayed because my flight/plane hadn't arrived. In turn, my flight/plane was delayed taking off for (apparently) repairs for an air bleed fault. Suspiciously, the plane for my flight had also arrived late from its previous flight, but only 1 3/4 hours - to which repair time was added to get the 4 3/4 hour final delay!
As you were, I am unclear when the air bleed fault was discovered, and can't get a straight answer from BA. If the fault was discovered during the flight inbound to me, that would appear to fail the criteria of "immediately prior" to my flight. But I doubt I will get BA to acknowledge that. However, I can confirm that the fault was fixed a whole flight before your scheduled journey.
Cheers