BA Flight Delayed by 20 hours

treboram1971

Can someone please give me advice.

I flew with British Airways First Class to Las Vegas. I was due to return on 17th October landing in UK on 18th Oct. I had to be back by then as I was flying out on a family holiday on the 19th October.

At 11am on 17th Oct I receive an email from BA saying that my flight was delayed by 20 hours and would not be leaving Las Vegas until 18th Oct at 16.30. This would get me into the UK at 11am on 19th October.

I had to get home pack and ready to leave for my family holiday. something that I did not think was possible and I was not willing to risk the flight being delayed any longer.

The email I received had no number on to contact BA so I did a search and found numbers. The UK numbers were all closed as it was out of hours (believe it or not they do not have a dedicated number for First Class customers), I eventually found a US number to ring, this put me through to an Indian call centre. I explained my predicament to the person who said that they could not help me and suggested I went to the airport as a BA representative there could help me. I checked out of my hotel and headed to the airport.

I found out that BA do not have any permanent staff at LAS Vegas airport and as the flight was delayed their contract staff were not on hand. I then called the number again and was put through to the Indian call centre again. I again explained my problem and asked if they would be able to bounce me around and get me home. Sorry sir there are no flights you will have to wait until your delayed flight arrives. I again told him this was not acceptable as I had to be home.

In the end I decided to take this matter into my own hands and try and find a flight. There were not many flights and in the end I was able to find a flight with American Airlines via Chicago, but at a cost, $11600.00. I had no choice, the family holiday was a trip of a lifetime, my parents ,sister and all our children were going, the first time we have ever been able to organise such a trip.

Whilst my trip stopped over in Chicago I thought I better cancel my BA flight Vegas. This time I got through to a UK call centre. I asked to cancel my flight due to the above issues. The lady on the phone said that they had been dealing with quite a lot of calls on this and were bouncing people via Dallas. Imagine how great that made me feel.

When I eventually landed in the UK I called BA customer service to get my $11600 ticket refunded. I was told they will not do this, they will refund my original ticket though and for my inconvenience they would give me 20,000 Avios. I refused this, I travelled with BA a lot and on one occasion I was given 50,000 Avios because the cabin I was travelling in had not been updated!!

I don't travel First Class very often but think if this is how they treat First Class customers how on earth do they treat other classes.

Do I have any comeback on BA for failing me or is it just the risk you take when you travel with British Airways? In my eyes they failed me in many ways please can someone give me some advice.

Regards

Rob

111KAB

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4896454


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4384701

Caz3121

treboram1971 wrote: »

When I eventually landed in the UK I called BA customer service to get my $11600 ticket refunded. I was told they will not do this, they will refund my original ticket though and for my inconvenience they would give me 20,000 Avios. I refused this, I travelled with BA a lot and on one occasion I was given 50,000 Avios because the cabin I was travelling in had not been updated!!

also worth speaking to your travel insurance, I would wager you will not get $11600 from BA
You should have had details of You First to call. if necessary BA may have been able to transfer you to the AA flights as both part of OneWorld but you never gave them a chance
As the flight was delayed over 5 hours you should get a refund of your BA ticket and potentially €600 compensation assuming the delay was within BA's control

note that many insurance policies will only cover replacement flights in economy

Have a good read of the links provided above and post on the BA thread if there are any outstanding questions

treboram1971

Thanks for your comment appreciated. I feel I did give them a chance by calling them several times and asking for their help also going to the airport to speak to the non existent BA representative

jackieblack

treboram1971 wrote: »

In the end I decided to take this matter into my own hands

And therein lies your problem......

Vauban

You booked a first class single for your own return (at the walk up fare), rather than getting BA to reroute you? And you now want that refunded by BA?

Why on earth didn't you minimise your losses by flying economy back? You'd then have been entitled (as you are probably still now) to a refund of your first class fare for the return fare, plus 600 euros compensation.

duchy

A quick tweet would have got it resolved PDQ and had you transferred to AA as the call centre was so unresponsive.

Alan_Bowen

It gets worse, the delay was due to the flight departing London to Vegas having a medical emergency requiring an immediate landing and the crew then being over hours.

Meir

Bearing in mind that compensation rules apply for any airline leaving from an EU airport or from an EU airline arriving at an EU airport, what is the position for a return ticket for a trip where the outward flight is from an EU airport to a non-EU airport with a non-EU airline, but where the delay occurred on the return journey, i.e. with the non-EU airline from the non-EU airport. In other words, can both legs of the journey be regarded as a single trip?

duchy

Short answer NO

You have an outward journey and a return journey so in your scenario LON NYC with nonEU carrier qualifies, NYC LON with non EU carrier doesn't.

Can't see how by any logic an entirely different journey on a different date could be classed as part of the outbound flight rather than the return.

scholt

Vauban wrote: »

You booked a first class single for your own return (at the walk up fare), rather than getting BA to reroute you? And you now want that refunded by BA?

Why on earth didn't you minimise your losses by flying economy back? You'd then have been entitled (as you are probably still now) to a refund of your first class fare for the return fare, plus 600 euros compensation.

The OP doesn't say that his flight via Chicago was 1st Class though.
I can't offer you any advice but hope you are now enjoying your family holiday