Am i entitled to money back for a replacement flight I had to book?

sempo7

Hi, 

I had my flights from Paris to london Heathrow cancelled back in May. 

Initial flight was cancelled at 8pm in the evening. We were offered and accepted new flights home at midday the next day. However, that flight was then cancelled too.

The next flight we were offered was not until 7pm on the following evening! So over 30 hours later than the rescheduled flight and 47 hours later than the original flight time.

The people I was travelling with were not happy with this new time, so we didn’t book onto it and requested British Airways to instead book us onto a flight with Airfrance that was travelling the same route. We were told they couldn’t do it because of their system failure.

Eager to get home (my mum was unwell at the airport) we decided to take the refund and book the new with flights with Airfrance ourselves. Considering the refund we received and the cost of the new flights, this left me about £700 out of pocket.

I have claimed and been successful on a compensation claim from BA. I have received compensation for both cancelled flights.

However, they are telling me it is not up to them to reimburse me for the extra flights I had to book.

Should they be reimbursing me for those too? Seems crazy that I would just be expected to cover that cost myself!

Any info would be appreciated.

eskbanker

sempo7 said:

we decided to take the refund and book the new with flights with Airfrance ourselves

The regulations oblige the airline to either refund or provide (or fund) an alternative flight, so if you took the refund (as opposed to just being offered it) then you're unlikely to be able to reclaim the additional cost of the alternative flight.

saajan_12

sempo7 said:

Eager to get home (my mum was unwell at the airport) we decided to take the refund and book the new with flights with Airfrance ourselves. Considering the refund we received and the cost of the new flights, this left me about £700 out of pocket.

I have claimed and been successful on a compensation claim from BA. I have received compensation for both cancelled flights.

However, they are telling me it is not up to them to reimburse me for the extra flights I had to book.

Should they be reimbursing me for those too? Seems crazy that I would just be expected to cover that cost myself!

Any info would be appreciated.

What EXACTLY did you say here? They are responsible for either refunding the delayed flight OR rerouting you via another reasonable route - whichever YOU choose.

You could have argued that waiting for their flight a day later was unreasonable and demanded they book you with another airline. If they still refused, you could have stated you wanted rerouting and then booked yourself and claimed the full cost of the new flights from them. That at least gave them the chance to use whatever inter-company rates they could. 

However if you already chose the refund, you can't then go back and claim the rerouting or difference between the new flights and the refund, even if it mathematically is the same amount. So the critical bit is whether you technically chose the refund. 

NQManchester

EasyJet not BA but I recently accepted a refund for a cancelled outgoing flight and then booked Eurostar myself and they did reimburse me for the Eurostar plus hotel and meals.
I was worried I’d messed up as I’d accepted the refund but they still covered my extra expenses and just took off the amount they’d already paid me for the refund.