BA flight cancelled - no compensation for operational reasons?

HopeAndDriftWood

We were due to fly home from Barbados with BA on the 19th November. On the 6th November they emailed us that they were cancelling all flights on the route due to "temporarily suspending the service". The only flight available for them to put us on was 3 days after that email, 10 days before we were due to come home.
I submitted their compensation form yesterday, and had a reply this morning stating that they don't need to pay compensation as the flight was cancelled for "operational reasons". 
Is that correct? I thought the legislation only allowed for cancellation in exceptional circumstances - operational reasons don't feel very exceptional! On the phone, they were confident that the cancellation wasn't directly linked to Coronavirus, but a commercial decision. 

Thank you!

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Travel advise this year from the FCO has indicated that travel disruption is possible worldwide. 

Justice13075

SaucySecrets said:

We were due to fly home from Barbados with BA on the 19th November. On the 6th November they emailed us that they were cancelling all flights on the route due to "temporarily suspending the service". The only flight available for them to put us on was 3 days after that email, 10 days before we were due to come home.
I submitted their compensation form yesterday, and had a reply this morning stating that they don't need to pay compensation as the flight was cancelled for "operational reasons". 
Is that correct? I thought the legislation only allowed for cancellation in exceptional circumstances - operational reasons don't feel very exceptional! On the phone, they were confident that the cancellation wasn't directly linked to Coronavirus, but a commercial decision. 

Thank you!

Put your cancelled flight details into euclaim and also bottonline this will give you a good indication as to whether you are due compensation

Jetter

SaucySecrets said:

We were due to fly home from Barbados with BA on the 19th November. On the 6th November they emailed us that they were cancelling all flights on the route due to "temporarily suspending the service". The only flight available for them to put us on was 3 days after that email, 10 days before we were due to come home.
I submitted their compensation form yesterday, and had a reply this morning stating that they don't need to pay compensation as the flight was cancelled for "operational reasons". 
Is that correct? I thought the legislation only allowed for cancellation in exceptional circumstances - operational reasons don't feel very exceptional! On the phone, they were confident that the cancellation wasn't directly linked to Coronavirus, but a commercial decision. 

Thank you!

HI SaucySecrets

If you paid by debit or credit card you could try calling the card company and asking if you can get a chargeback (debit card & credit card) or Section 75 (credit card).

Jetter

Sorry, I misread your post.  Your return has been cancelled.  They have a duty of care, as you are mid-trip and I presume this is the return half of your booking and you have used the outbound to get to Barbados, to get you back on an alternative flight, at your convenience, the CAA website and BA has it on their ba.com site.

silvercar

Did you accept their offer to come back early? They will probably say that you did.the other option would be to remain out there until they can bring you home, next month. They would then be on the hook for accommodation and food until they brought you home, or they could decide to put you on another airline.
on another forum, someone is spending an extra month in the Seychelles as BA refused to bring them back on Qatar! They’ve agreed £25 per day food and £200 a night accommodation.