Got £800 plus when we would have settled for £100 - BA are stupid!

slopemaster

Transatlantic flight delayed by 24 hours.
They kept us waiting around for 9 hours saying technical problems would be fixed, then eventually gave up.

I wrote to them asking for
1) Reimbursement of $100 we had paid for first night in LA but couldn't use, and had to pay again for following night
and
2) Them to waive their rebooking fee so we could change return date to regain the day's holiday they had lost us.

This was what I felt was reasonable, and I would have been quite satisfied with it.
BUT
They turned down both. Politely told us to get lost.

So I wrote straight back claiming 600 euros each under the EU law.
And they paid up straight away.
That is more than we paid for the tickets! So we just got a free holiday.

Caz3121

You may think they are stupid but there was no legal requirement for them to cover consequential losses or waive change fees but there is a legal requirement for EU261
You are implying you would not have claimed EU261 if they had agreed to the other requests however they know that you would have 6 years from date of flight to claim so they could have ended up covering your 1&2 as goodwill gesture and then 5 years later you rock up and demand the €600 too so paying out on your original demands would have been stupid then. They have paid what they are legally required to and no more.

111KAB

If two of you were delayed for 24 hours, sat around for 9 hours, lost a nights booking in a hotel, had to go through the claim procedures twice with BA and were, at one stage, told to get lost I think £400 is a reasonable amount plus you did very well to get a holiday in LA for £400 so maybe the story of how you achieved this is going to interest those on the MSE website.

glentoran99

Caz3121 wrote: »

You may think they are stupid but there was no legal requirement for them to cover consequential losses or waive change fees but there is a legal requirement for EU261
You are implying you would not have claimed EU261 if they had agreed to the other requests however they know that you would have 6 years from date of flight to claim so they could have ended up covering your 1&2 as goodwill gesture and then 5 years later you rock up and demand the €600 too so paying out on your original demands would have been stupid then. They have paid what they are legally required to and no more.

indeed, Monarch denied me compensation under 261 but paid me £200 goodwill gesture for my consequential losses, but eventually had to pay me the stat compensation plus interest on top of that

slopemaster

111KAB wrote: »

you did very well to get a holiday in LA for £400 so maybe the story of how you achieved this is going to interest those on the MSE website.

We are camping!

slopemaster

(Free camping in National Forest... apart from first and last nights in hotel.)

slopemaster

Caz3121 wrote: »

You are implying you would not have claimed EU261 if they had agreed to the other requests.

I wouldn't have.

But you are right, they would have no guarantee of that.

Still feels weird though...