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Am I entitled to have my costs reimbursed?

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My boyfriend and I were flying to Bogota, Colombia on the 20 February this year. We had a 07:25 flight booked from London to Madrid with BA. We were then booked on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Bogota at 12:10

Unfortunately, our BA flight from London suffered a technical fault (the hold door wouldn’t shut) and consequently we arrived in Madrid 170 minutes late, missing our connection. We were assured by BA that Iberia staff were aware of the situation and were sorting out our ongoing arrangements (I would guess that about three quarters of the people on the London to Madrid flight had connections at Madrid).

When we finally arrived at Madrid, we were greeted by one Iberia customer services representative behind the desk and one person who was calling out names and handing out tickets or vouchers (we weren’t called). After waiting for 2 hours, we spoke to someone from Iberia (they eventually brought in another 3 staff members to deal with the volume of people). We explained that there was a flight to Bogota that evening with Avianca however due to having to wait 2 hours to be seen, we missed this flight.

They put us up in a nearby hotel where we were refused lunch and a drink, despite having been up since 5am (it was 17:00 by the time we checked in). Dinner wasn’t served until 20:00 and so we went out and bought our own lunch/dinner.

In total, we missed over a day of our holiday, a hotel in Bogota and an internal flight from Bogota to San Andres. I want to claim these expenses back, along with the cost of our lunch however BA are saying they won’t reimburse our additional expenses. I’m not looking for compensation – just payment of the additional costs we incurred. My question is, should I contact Iberia with my request or, as they are part of the same group, is this also a waste of time? I am so disappointed by the way we were treated and our claim handled (or not!).

Thanks for your help

Comments

  • David_e
    David_e Posts: 1,498 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 16 March 2016 at 1:15PM
    Deleted as not a good response from me.
  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,832 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If your flights were all on one ticket then why not claim the compensation? Airlines will not pay the consequential losses for the hotel and internal flight so you either claim the compensation amount and use this or speak to your travel insurance and see if they will cover
    Duty of care during the delay is your right and should have been organised or will be reimbursed. I would probably deal with BA as the cause of delay and send in your receipts for food etc you needed to purchase, for reimbursement
    On separate tickets nothing due apart from if your insurer will cover
  • JPears
    JPears Posts: 5,111 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Except that Iberia and BA are actually the same airline in effect as they are owned by the same business - International Airlines Group. Again another aspect of reg 261/2004 that hasn't been thought about and may need legal action to clarify.
    If you're new. read The FAQ and Vauban's Guide

    The alleged Ringleader.........
  • EmEm
    EmEm Posts: 2 Newbie
    Thanks all. Insurer has already said it won't pay (surprise surprise!)
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