Am I going to lose £1600 to BA?

DolPiero

I was sat by the boarding gate at Faro airport on Friday for a midday flight back to Gatwick when my flight got delayed until the following day at 3pm. 

 

In a panic - we have a 4 and 5 year old (both ill) - we tried to book seats on the only available BA flight back that same night. I got to the payment screen, entered my Amex details, and clicked proceed (£1600 for 4 tickets).

 

However, The BA site said there was an error processing the transactions and to try again - which i did, but the said flight had disappeared. I presumed fellow passengers had booked them when I was entering my details. 

 

Therefore, we took the hit, got sent to an easyJet provided hellhole hotel for the night. Woke the next morning, ready to travel to the airport again, checked my emails, and there was the BA etickets sat in my inbox. !!!!!!. Checked my Amex and there was no charge, but low and behold, got charged yesterday for them. I am adamant the transaction failed, or at least that what the website said. 

 

After customer service reps at BA failed to grasp the nature of my issue (bit Gammon-y comment, I admit), I opened a customer complaint case (have to wait up to 14 days for a response) - and disputed the fees with Amex too.

 

The BA website is well known for being a piece of !!!!!!, but there's no way I'm getting the money back, is there?

MorningcoffeeIV

At what point did the email arrive with the tickets?

DullGreyGuy

DolPiero said:

The BA website is well known for being a piece of !!!!!!, but there's no way I'm getting the money back, is there?

Every month when I pay off my AmEx card using a debit card I get an error screen but the screen then refreshes and it goes to a thanks for your payment and if you go on to the summary page it shows the payment and reduced balance. 

"the flight has disappeared" seems a very odd message for the BA site to give you! Did you screenshot it or such? What time was the flight back? What time did the email arrive?

Your prospects aren't great if you cannot evidence the payment problems the site reported. Obviously being after the flight they now have no ability to sell the tickets to someone else etc to argue their losses are less than the full ticket. At a minimum however you should be able to reclaim some of the taxes for having not flown.

sammynunes

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

silvercar

sammynunes said:

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

Easyjet has a duty to get the customer home as soon as they can, even if that means booking onto an alternative airline. So easyjet failed here, if there were flights available on BA.

That said, I would contact Amex and see when the purchase posted, if it didn't post until after the flight had departed, you may have more clout with BA. I have notification/ alerts on my Amex app on my phone, so I know if a transaction has gone through. 

BA IT issues are well known, though generally for managing bookings rather than making them. Maybe see what people on flyertalk think ( https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/)

silvercar

sammynunes said:

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

It isn't easy to persuade easyjet to put you on a BA flight. If OP had taken that flight it could have been a straightforward claim to get easyjet to pay up. The problem here is that OP didn't take the BA flight and actually took the easyjet flight. 

tightauldgit

MorningcoffeeIV said:

At what point did the email arrive with the tickets?

I think this is a key question. If the email with the tickets arrived right after you booked them then I think you'd be expected to have checked that. 

Do you have any evidence of the failure message given by the website? If not then I think you are going to struggle to prove your version of events

Exodi

sammynunes said:

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

Were they though? They offered overnight accommodation and a return flight the next day?

I actually looked this up and kept coming to this quite vague statement of: "If an alternative airline is flying there significantly sooner or other suitable modes of transport are available then you may have the right to be booked onto that alternative transport instead. You can discuss this with your airline."

When I try look up the regulations I'm met with a different, but similarly vague statement.

Article 8

Right to reimbursement or re-routing

1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:

(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,

- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;

(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

(c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats.

What are comparable transport conditions? At the extreme, I presume it means to exclude the idea that I could be re-routed into a 1st class seat with Emirates but if it just meant similar tickets (e.g. economy class on both airlines) then I'm suprised everyone doesn't just demand immediate re-routing onto a different airline.

Regardless, you can expect the airlines to not make the more expensive options (to them) prominent.

silvercar

Comparable transport conditions is generally taken to mean in the same class of travel. So if you have booked business seats then you should be re-routed in business. People do demand re-routing on different airlines and sometimes the airline will oblige and sometimes they won't. Friends recently were put on Virgin by BA because they could show a definite need to travel urgently, whereas as others on their flight were put up overnight and flown the next day. Obviously an airline prefers to use their own seats to paying for others. BA have been known to put passengers on a train to Edinburgh if they have to cancel a London-Edinburgh flight.

sheramber

silvercar said:

sammynunes said:

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

Easyjet has a duty to get the customer home as soon as they can, even if that means booking onto an alternative airline. So easyjet failed here, if there were flights available on BA.

That said, I would contact Amex and see when the purchase posted, if it didn't post until after the flight had departed, you may have more clout with BA. I have notification/ alerts on my Amex app on my phone, so I know if a transaction has gone through. 

BA IT issues are well known, though generally for managing bookings rather than making them. Maybe see what people on flyertalk think ( https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/)

Did the OP give Easyjet th4e chance to book an alternative flight on BA?

it sounds he just immediatley  tried to book another flight without contacting Easyjet to ask for the earlier BA flight.

Exodi

sheramber said:

silvercar said:

sammynunes said:

Your error was in trying to book the BA flight yourself......you were in a position to have Easyjet reroute you on that flight and that was what you should have done.

Easyjet has a duty to get the customer home as soon as they can, even if that means booking onto an alternative airline. So easyjet failed here, if there were flights available on BA.

That said, I would contact Amex and see when the purchase posted, if it didn't post until after the flight had departed, you may have more clout with BA. I have notification/ alerts on my Amex app on my phone, so I know if a transaction has gone through. 

BA IT issues are well known, though generally for managing bookings rather than making them. Maybe see what people on flyertalk think ( https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/)

Did the OP give Easyjet th4e chance to book an alternative flight on BA?

it sounds he just immediatley  tried to book another flight without contacting Easyjet to ask for the earlier BA flight.

Sorry, I think silvercar was just responding to my ramblings about legislation.

I think we all agree that the OP booked the BA flight unilaterally. I think no-one is suggesting pursing EasyJet for the cost (given they also provided accommodation and an alternative flight which the OP used).

There fight seems to be with BA and possibly Amex, which unfortunately sounds like it includes unproveable IT issues. The biggest challenge that has been identified thus far is how long after the payment completed (despite the fact the OP was unaware of this) were the tickets issued, but I think the OP has disappeared.