BA not refunding out-of-pocket expenses for easyJet flight following cancellation of BA flight

JC1972

Our family was due to travel back from Austria to Heathrow with BA on 26/2/22 when the BA IT glitch happened and the flight was cancelled.  We were given five hours' notice of the cancellation by email.  When I looked on BA's website the next flight available that BA was offering us was on 5/3/22 (I have screenshots from my phone to prove this).  To return to the UK for our jobs & for kids to get to school we ended up having to buy a flight with easyJet (back to Gatwick, not Heathrow) for the next day (27/2) at a cost of EUR1,165.88.  We had to spend a night at the airport hotel and obviously kept receipts for that and the food.

On 28/2 I submitted a claim for out-of-pocket expenses to BA and a EU compensation claim for the delay.  The out-of-pocket costs included:

• Hotel in Austria (one night)
• Meals for family (24 hours - about EUR80 in total)
• easyjet flights (4 people) back to the UK (EUR1165.88)
• Taxi from Gatwick to Heathrow to get back to our car (£103)
• Extra day's car parking fee at the hotel (£12)

BA replied yesterday (3/5/22).  In its reply it said it would pay us out the EU compensation per person as required.  It also said it would pay us out of pocket expenses of £471.16 which I assume was for the hotel in Austria, the food and maybe the taxi, but it's impossible to know as no explanation or breakdown is provided in the email.  What BA has clearly not done is reimburse the cost of the easyJet flights at EUR1,165.88.  I have no idea why not.

Obviously I tried to call BA but they are too busy to answer the 'phones.  I've tried to contact BA by email and DM on twitter but so far nothing back.  I'm just struggling to understand why BA has simply ignored the cost of the flights and made no reference to it in their email.  I would also add at this point that we did not 'cancel' our cancelled flight in BA's website and we have not been refunded for this.  So we find ourselves in the position of having paid for a BA flight back to the UK which never happened, having had to buy an alternative flight with easyJet which hasn't been refunded.  I realise that if BA pays out that cost of the easyJet flight we aren't also entitled to the cost of the original flights with BA being refunded, but at the moment they are doing neither and we have had to pay twice to fly back from Austria.

Clearly this would be far easier to try to sort out with BA over the phone but BA has made sure that's not an option.  Does anyone have any suggestions for the best approach to take next to get refunded for the cost of the easyJet flights?  Alternative Dispute Resolution via CEBR?  Claiming on travel insurance?  Opening a new claim with BA for out-of-pocket expenses and resubmitting the flight cost?

Grateful if for any suggestions.

JPears

Hi JC.

Lesson no.1 - Airlines will do everything they can, lawfully (acceptable) or unlawfully (unacceptable) to avoid or minimise payouts.

Lesson no.2 - to enable this, the people who deal with these claims are either:

i) ill advised/misinformed/badly trained by the airline

or

ii) knowingly mislead and are disingenuous with their replies.

I suspect there is no return address or email on the response you received and you made an online claim?

From what you have posted, all your claims are perfectly valid (and well done for feeding a family of 4 on Euro80!)

Where to go now? Write to BA at their postal address with all the information you have receipts etc (copies not originals) give them 14 days to reply and clearly mark the letter as a Notice or Letter before Action. This clears your way to resort small claims if necessary.

Next step is CEDR but you have to wait a certain time period ie deadlock (check on CDER website) before you can submit a claim.  When you submit make sure you put ALL your evidence in, a clear statement of what parts of EU 261/2004 you are claiming under (most in your case) as its very difficult to add later and there is no appeals process.

CEDR process is slow, you need to keep hassling them but is not binding on you, just the airline.

Keep us updated. i'm flying BA in July on flights that have repeatedly been cancelled.....

JC1972

Thanks, yes, it was an online claim,  BA's reply came from a no-reply email address, no telephone number to speak to the person who sent the email, and obviously BA is unreachable on the phone, by general email or by twitter customer support at the moment.

Thanks for the suggestions on how to proceed.  I will get the letter written this weekend along with the other suggestions you outlined.

400ixl

So am I correct int that BA are offering you €1,552 in compensation (4 x €250 for EU261 flights and €552 for out of pocket expenses).

This is against a claim of €1380.66 + whatever the hotel cost, which unless over €171.34 for the night does not leave you out of pocket.

What am I missing? I assume the flight price you list is not per person?

Your travel insurance should cover some of the out of pocket expenses as well.

JPears

400, the OP is due BOTH compensation and additional travel expenses incurred, under EU261/2004.

I don't accept that other costs should be claimed under insurance when they are covered by 261/2004.

EU reg 261/2004 was specifically set up to aid passengers in these circumstances and deter airlines from causing them in the first place. The latter has failed year in year out.  As long as airlines continue to adopt their non workable business models, they will continue to have to pay out.

JC1972

400ixl said:

So am I correct int that BA are offering you €1,552 in compensation (4 x €250 for EU261 flights and €552 for out of pocket expenses).

This is against a claim of €1380.66 + whatever the hotel cost, which unless over €171.34 for the night does not leave you out of pocket.

What am I missing? I assume the flight price you list is not per person?

Your travel insurance should cover some of the out of pocket expenses as well.

As JPears correctly answered - EU 261 compensation is entirely different from reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses.  BA has neither refunded the original flight that was cancelled nor reimbursed us for the easyJet flight that we were obliged to purchase at a cost of EUR1165.

I have sent BA a Notice of Claim today by recorded delivery per JPears advice.   BA is unreachable on the phone, but twitter, by email.  I am not 100% convinced that everything is OK at BA tbh...

JC1972

Not that it matters but the hotel was EUR380.

JC1972

Just following up on this.  Interestingly despite the email saying that the EU compensation & out-of-pocket reimbursement had been paid to my Nationwide account on 3 May it's still not showing.

Give the phones not being answered, no replies to emails, tweets, DMs I'm not 100% convinced that BA is OK.... 

JPears

Make sure you let BA know that whatever they payout, until you receive the FULL amount, you won't accept any partail payments as the full and final amount.

JC1972

Thanks, noted.  The big problem is that it's impossible to deal with BA.  Notice of Claim has been served by recorded delivery as you suggested - this has ben received ('collected' bizarrely).  So the 14 day countdown has started from today 10 May...

JC1972

Moneyclaim submitted. BA now has until 4PM on 13 June to respond.  If not, I will move to a CCJ and then bailiffs to Waterside.

What a ridiculous state of affairs for a national flag carrier PLC!