Advice re claiming cost of flights missed due to hospital admission while away

Worpy1

Hello 
So I purchased return flights via BA to take my mum and myself  to Jersey last week. I have travel insurance she doesn't ( I don't need comments / judgements on her not having, insurance it was a unique set of circumstance that meant she went in the first place). We arrived on Thursday evening and on Friday she suffered a TIA and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. Jersey has reciprocal agreement with the UK re emergency treatment so there are no medical bills to pay.

We where due to fly back on Sunday but she was not discharged until Monday and I could not get hold of anyone at BA to see if I could change our flights as we had already flown one leg I couldn't change this via the app / website.

I purchased new flights for us both and we flew back yesterday. I should be able to claim mine back via my travel insurance and just wanted to know if there is any way I can try and recoup some/ all the cost of her flight. I paid for both sets of flights with my Amex card and a few people have said I can reclaim it that way but wasn't sure on what grounds ? So any advice on possible routes to reclaim welcome.

Thanks 

eskbanker

I can't see any card company liability here, unless your particular Amex has some additional insurance/protection offerings beyond the normal generic s75/chargeback routes (which wouldn't apply here if there was no breach of contract by the supplier)?

She should be able to reclaim taxes from the airline for the flight she didn't take, but the admin fees associated with doing so are often prohibitive.

If the original flights were on refundable/changeable fare classes then it might be possible to persuade BA to cover the cost if you supply evidence of not being able to contact them, but that's a bit of a long shot to be honest....

DullGreyGuy

People suggest a lot of things unfortunately and few turn out to be true.

Unless you can show how BA breached their contract then you have no grounds with AmEx. If you have the AmEx Platinum card with its free insurance then it would cover her as long as she lives with you or is a secondary cardholder on your account and she is under 70.

Your only hope really is to speak to BA and ask for a guesture of goodwill... unfortunately this would have been much more likely to be given had you called them before your original flight 

Mands

Worpy1 said:

if there is any way I can try and recoup some/ all the cost of her flight. I paid for both sets of flights with my Amex card and a few people have said I can reclaim it that way but wasn't sure on what grounds ? So any advice on possible routes to reclaim welcome.

Thanks 

I've just done a dummy booking for this Thursday to Sunday. It's coming up as around £190 per person which is a base price of £140 and £50 or so in taxes. Some of the taxes will be refundable. But even if it was all, you flew one sector so your maximum refund would probably be £25.

This assumes no admin fee from BA and that you booked into a non-refundable bucket. 

I think those telling you Amex have a liability are not being helpful. It's not a S75 situation as the flight took place.

I hope your mum is on the mend and you are doing ok,
Mands

eskbanker

Mands said:

I think those telling you Amex have a liability are not being helpful. It's not a S75 situation as the flight took place.

Did you actually read the above posts?

Archergirl

Oh my how lucky were you it was just to Jersey, for the stress and work I think I would just cut my losses and not bother. Hope your mum is soon recovered.