Rejected claim by BA - Valid?

hoovuspoovus

A query from a newcomer if I may.

I have been pursuing a claim for compensation from BA for a flight from Baku to Heathrow on 13th July last year that was cancelled. An alternative routing via Moscow was provided by BA, but resulted in an arrival delay approaching 12 hours. The flight was originally a British Midland flight; BM have subsequently been taken over by BA.

At the airport, the passengers were told that the flight was cancelled as the pilot had been taken ill and they had been unable to find a replacement at short notice.

I wrote a letter to BA, using the MSE template, claiming the full 600 euro's compensation (flight length 3,990 kilometres). BA have written back rejecting the claim, saying that the flight could not operate due to circumstances outside bmi and British Airways' control resulting in insufficient cabin crew to operate the service. They state that under EU legislation, bmi and British Airways are not liable for a compensation payment in this situation.

My question is simply are they right? I would have thought that having sufficient cabin crew was ultimately down to the airline.

I have read through a number of posts here and have not found a similar situation cited, but apologies if this has been discussed before.

I would be grateful for any advice/pointers.

Vauban

hoovuspoovus wrote: »

A query from a newcomer if I may.

I have been pursuing a claim for compensation from BA for a flight from Baku to Heathrow on 13th July last year that was cancelled. An alternative routing via Moscow was provided by BA, but resulted in an arrival delay approaching 12 hours. The flight was originally a British Midland flight; BM have subsequently been taken over by BA.

At the airport, the passengers were told that the flight was cancelled as the pilot had been taken ill and they had been unable to find a replacement at short notice.

I wrote a letter to BA, using the MSE template, claiming the full 600 euro's compensation (flight length 3,990 kilometres). BA have written back rejecting the claim, saying that the flight could not operate due to circumstances outside bmi and British Airways' control resulting in insufficient cabin crew to operate the service. They state that under EU legislation, bmi and British Airways are not liable for a compensation payment in this situation.

My question is simply are they right? I would have thought that having sufficient cabin crew was ultimately down to the airline.

I have read through a number of posts here and have not found a similar situation cited, but apologies if this has been discussed before.

I would be grateful for any advice/pointers.

Please post this in the BA thread, and I'm sure folk will advise.

hoovuspoovus

Thanks Vauban, will do.