BA delayed my flight but got full compensation! SCORE

Leleeh

Hey all,

I have been meaning to post this for over a year now but i guess better late than never. Last year Aug 2014, my son and i were booked on a trip to Kenya via BA. Everything ran smoothly until we sat in the waiting area to board in Terminal 5. At first, the flight was delayed by an hour and i though ok cool, how bad can it be to keep a 4 year old entertained for just an hour? After all, this is BA, surely it won't be longer and if anything, might be just a slight delayed. Anyway, on we went walking and doing last minute window shopping and listening out for any announcements. We returned and checked the monitor and they had increased the delay time... cant remember how long as it was a while back. I could hear a few people discuss this so i decided to go to the customer service desk. They did not have any more information that what we were shown on the monitor. Going back to the waiting area, i could see a few disgruntled people and i decided to check the monitor again.. and lo n behold, we were being delayed again for another hour. This carried on (original departure time was around 10am) and here we were heading to 1pm with no one telling us anything! More people started voicing their anger and frustrations and BA customer service could only apologise and offer us the food vouchers. At one point, the monitor displayed Delayed and no intended time for departure was given. At about 3pm and almost the whole crowd of passengers ready to strangle the BA customer services assistants, they finally told us that due to a technical fault that cannot be resolved on the day, our flight was cancelled. They directed us to where we would get sorted with night accommodation and guess what, we had to queue for almost 2 hours! (At least a night in a £200 Hilton room with dinner n breakfast included eased me up a bit).

Anyway, our flight was scheduled for 1 pm following day and nope u guessed it there was no other option,, take it or leave it. There was no apology and they only handed us a measly leaflet about getting compensation! To make it worse, they did not offer us a storage facility for our luggages so as you can imagine, I had four suitcases, two carry ons and a toddler and not to mention missing my husband's 30th Birthday and ruining my surprise to him as he was already in Kenya....i was definitely seeking that compensation.

Anyway, I followed the guide on here about flight delay compensation and i sent all the evidence I had including both boarding passes, hotel receipts etc using the template and emailed plus posted the letters! I had to do a bit of chasing through their online complaint system and was determined to get it resolved. Then one day (sometime in Nov 2014), I happened to check my email junk mail and alas, there was a reply from BA asking me for my bank details so they can deposit £945 (amount i spent for the two tickets). And sure enough and true to their word, the money was deposited and cleared within 5 working days....

I normally do not post testimonials up but MSE and his well informed staff and other forumites have helped me out one too many times and sometimes its also good to give back. Feel free to respond or ask me questions, i am no expert but i can always try and help.:D:beer::j