Information requested by British Airways

Kr1841

I’ve submitted a claim to BA for compensation for my cancelled flight (cancelled less than 1 week before I was due to travel).  I was offered alternative flights but choose not to take them as they didn’t fit in with my plans. In particular, the inbound flight offered was more than 8 hours earlier than the flight I had booked and therefore I declined the alternatives they offered, requested a refund (which has been received) and claimed compensation (just compensation no claim for expenses). In response to my claim BA have  asked that I share proof of alternative transport taken to complete my inbound and outbound journey.  As far as I can see BA are not entitled to ask for this information and whether I chose to make alternative arrangements or not is irrelevant to my entitlement to compensation.  Am I right?
Thanks in advance

JPears

Yes. I would just state (or reiterate) that you cancelled your plans.  Your compensation is not reliant on subsequent choices by you, it is entirely due to BA cancelling the flight within 7 days of travel.

Kr1841

Thanks for your response.  I did respond to them pointing out that whether I choose to make any alternative arrangements was irrelevant to my entitlement to compensation.  Today I’ve finally had a response from them once again asking for the same information, asking for a copy of my boarding pass for my alternative flight (despite the fact that I haven’t said I had one) and evidence on any additional expenses I incurred (despite the fact I haven’t claimed any expenses).  Seems like I’m going to have a bit of a battle on my hands 

Westin

Kr1841 said:

Thanks for your response.  I did respond to them pointing out that whether I choose to make any alternative arrangements was irrelevant to my entitlement to compensation.  Today I’ve finally had a response from them once again asking for the same information, asking for a copy of my boarding pass for my alternative flight (despite the fact that I haven’t said I had one) and evidence on any additional expenses I incurred (despite the fact I haven’t claimed any expenses).  Seems like I’m going to have a bit of a battle on my hands 

Yes and I really don’t think you should have.

Pound to a penny this is another case of BA outsourcing this claims process to a 3rd party business who are simply not looking correctly at your claim and not reading information you have sent.

Kr1841

Update on the above case.  I have still not received my compensation from BA.  Instead I have had another 3 emails, all asking for evidence of my alternative transport.  Each time I have answered that I did not travel because I was unable to rearrange flights at such short notice.  A week or so passes and then another response from BA asking for the same info (which I am unable to supply as it doesn’t exist). Is anyone aware of a route to escalate these claims or at least to get my responses read by someone who understands them and is able to settle my claim.  Is so frustrating and I’m coming to the view that it is a deliberate act by BA to obfuscate in the hope it makes me give up
thank you

Westin

You are just claiming for the cancelled OUTBOUND flight, right?

JPears

Time to go to CEDR or straight to SMC.

eskbanker

JPears said:

Time to go to CEDR or straight to SMC.

I saw on another thread that you'd used this to signify small claims court (SMall Claims?), but wasn't aware of it being a generally used abbreviation to the extent of it being self-explanatory - presumably MCOL (Money Claim OnLine) would be a more accurate standardised term now anyway?

Kr1841

Westin said:

You are just claiming for the cancelled OUTBOUND flight, right?

Claiming for the inbound.  They offered an alternative outbound that would have been ok (and was within the timescales they are allowed without being required to pay us compensation) but there was no suitable option to get us home again within the time we had available for the trip so we cancelled

Kr1841

JPears said:

Time to go to CEDR or straight to SMC.

Thank you.  Just  read through their website (CEDR) looks very useful. I did respond to BAs latest email a couple of days ago so I’ll give them a few days to get back to me but if they are still not dealing with my claim I think I’ll try this route next.  

Kr1841

Westin said:

You are just claiming for the cancelled OUTBOUND flight, right?

Should also have said that the cancellation was within 7 days of both the outbound and inbound.  They cancelled on Monday, we were due to fly Wednesday coming home again on Friday (just a short 2 night trip to watch a football match)