BA flight delayed - claim for reimbursement of accommodation on arrival

Emily_Joy

I flew from Heathrow to Frankfurt on 26th of June. It was supposed to be pretty uneventful, but thunderstorms caused complete chaos in Frankfurt that evening. Many flights were re-routed, some landed. We eventually managed to land 3.5 hours late after taking off from Heathrow on time, having spent several hours in the middle of an airfield in Cologne. It was already past midnight when we got into the terminal building and it was not possible to reach my final destination in Germany that night - roughly 2 hours by train. I spoke to a BA representative at customer service desk, and she advised me to book a hotel myself and reassured that BA will pay for it. However, my claim has been rejected because "their records show that my flight is not eligible". 
Taking into account I have no record of the conversation with BA representative, where should I turn to? 

eskbanker

I don't believe that the airline has any liability under the flight delay regulations to reimburse accommodation costs after arrival, despite what may have been said locally at the time, although that 'flight not eligible' comment is an odd way of explaining that.  Out of curiosity, what would you have done if the onsite BA staff member had correctly advised this situation?

Will your travel insurance cover it perhaps?

Emily_Joy

eskbanker said:

I don't believe that the airline has any liability under the flight delay regulations to reimburse accommodation costs after arrival, despite what may have been said locally at the time, although that 'flight not eligible' comment is an odd way of explaining that.  Out of curiosity, what would you have done if the onsite BA staff member had correctly advised this situation?

Will your travel insurance cover it perhaps?

If the BA staff advised correctly, I would probably accept an invitation from a friend of mine who lives in Frankfurt to go to their place and stay with them. But I didn't see a reason for causing an inconvenience; since BA staff advised that the only reason they cannot arrange a hotel is the staff shortage: there were some 200 people waiting, it was well past midnight, and local hotels were rather full. (Partially due to Football European Championships).  

Hoenir

Emily_Joy said:

Taking into account I have no record of the conversation with BA representative, where should I turn to? 

Unfortunately you've no evidence of what was actually said. 

Emily_Joy

While BA are still looking into the claim, I tried to look into travel insurance. The insurance is from axa, arranged via coverforyou. I have Gold Cover and I have to say I cannot understand from the policy documents whether I have a valid claim. 

On the one product information document it reads: Missed departure: We will pay up to £500 for your additional transport and accommodation costs if you miss your public transport as a result of one of a number of covered scenarios.   So one has to establish whether this was "a covered scenario". There is travel insurance wording 

https://www.coverforyou.com/content/policywording-cfu-direct-IPA-DA4.pdf but the word "scenario" one can find only in "covid scenarios". I am guessing the case falls into Section 3, Disruption, page 36. It refers to the Table of Benefits, on page 24.

One the other hand on their webpages is they say that they cover delays for over 12 hours as standard. I cannot find out whether shorter delays are covered...

Emily_Joy

Hoenir said:

Emily_Joy said:

Taking into account I have no record of the conversation with BA representative, where should I turn to? 

Unfortunately you've no evidence of what was actually said. 

Fortunately, in reply to the appeal I submitted in late August, BA confirmed earlier today that they will cover the hotel bill & train ticket to the hotel, as their ground team advised.

saajan_12

Good news for you - this may have been due to BA accepting that they made you a promise which you relied on (what the lady said) or as a gesture of goodwill. 

For anyone else who may be reading this for next time - please don't rely on this. The airline ends when they get you to the destination airport, so the hotel for the night you land wouldn't usually be covered. If they delay was their fault then they may owe a fixed compensation amount, but in this case that's unlikely given the storms.