BA flight cancelled less than 24 hours but compensation denied

beckysbobbles12

Hi all

I had a BA flight booked on Friday departing 1255 to Vienna. I received a message the night before around 1900 saying my flight had been cancelled and offered to book me on the next flight departing 1525.

I accepted this and after doing some research, saw I should be entitled to some compensation for the cancelled flight. I submitted the claim but they have denied it saying the flight was cancelled due to adverse weather.

How is it possible that the other three flights from LHR that day all managed to depart. I asked a BA crew why my flight had been cancelled and they said it was not full so they cancelled that flight and moved people to the other flights on the same day.

I've submitted an appeal but I think this is appealing treatment and it's really put me off BA. Has anyone got any experience of a situation like mine please? 

Mark_d

I've had a similar issue with Air France KLM.  I tried all available routes to get the compensation, except going to court, but I got nowhere.  The airline's "official" details of the cancelled flight appear to be what matters

beckysbobbles12

Thanks for responding, How sad that they do not care about their customers.

eskbanker

beckysbobbles12 said:

Hi all

I had a BA flight booked on Friday departing 1255 to Vienna. I received a message the night before around 1900 saying my flight had been cancelled and offered to book me on the next flight departing 1525.

I accepted this and after doing some research, saw I should be entitled to some compensation for the cancelled flight. I submitted the claim but they have denied it saying the flight was cancelled due to adverse weather.

How is it possible that the other three flights from LHR that day all managed to depart. I asked a BA crew why my flight had been cancelled and they said it was not full so they cancelled that flight and moved people to the other flights on the same day.

I've submitted an appeal but I think this is appealing treatment and it's really put me off BA. Has anyone got any experience of a situation like mine please? 

What form has your appeal taken?  If you're still just dealing with BA and they've given you their final response, then you can escalate to CEDR for independent adjudication - on the face of it it sounds unlikely that adverse weather could genuinely constitute sufficiently extraordinary circumstances for a flight from BA's main base to be cancelled the day before operation, so you should have a decent chance of success.

mdann52

Looking at FlyerTalk, there have been Air Traffic Control restrictions on traffic at LHR on Thurs/Fri last week due to high winds on approach to the airport. This would be known in advance, and could lead to a cancellation in this manner.

If it is down to ATC restrictions due to weather, this would not be eligible for compensation. The same thing has happened again - LHR tend to prefer to put traffic regulations in place the night before to try and reduce last-minute cancellations.

bagand96

 Heathrow pretty much operates at full capacity most of the time.  Therefore is there are weather events forecast or that occur, often Heathrow will dictate to airlines that a % of flights need cancelling to keep things running smoothly when the capacity will be reduced.

As @mdann52 says if it was due to ATC/Airport restrictions outside of BA's control then they're correct in saying compensation isn't due

Mcfaggen

On the same day of this opening post I was due to fly Heathrow to Belfast. 

Flight was cancelled after I arrived at the airport. In fact I discovered the problem when I tried to go through security 70 minutes before scheduled departure. 

I was told that my cancellation was “probably due” to weather at Heathrow that morning - more than 12 hours prior to my departure time. This was by a call
handler who was trying to rebook me. Unsure if she actually knew. 

They hadn’t cancelled the later flight to Belfast which I was unable to be booked on, because it was full.

In the end I had to take a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus, booked by BA. I needed to be home that night, so my wife could travel to work the next day & it was the only option to get me on the right island. 

Over 100 miles from my booked destination, I got home +3 hours after schedule as I had to sort my own onward travel. I’ve submitted a claim for expense & delay - still waiting for an outcome about six weeks later. 

Just waiting for them to decline both based on act of God or, you landed within a hour of your original booking or, sure we got you where you wanted type thinking. 

eskbanker

Mcfaggen said:

Over 100 miles from my booked destination, I got home +3 hours after schedule as I had to sort my own onward travel. I’ve submitted a claim for expense & delay - still waiting for an outcome about six weeks later. 

Just waiting for them to decline both based on act of God or, you landed within a hour of your original booking or, sure we got you where you wanted type thinking. 

If the airline asserts that cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances, such as bad weather reducing the number of flights allowed to operate (known in advance), then that becomes harder to challenge, but if they don't use that line, the arrival time at your final destination is the measure.