BA Compensation Claim Rejected due to Flight Crew Rotation

trappeb

Hello all, after some advice as a recent compensation claim to BA has been rejected.  The reason stated is due to Flight Crew Rotation and when I've asked on the reason for the rotation I've not received a specific response and just received an email just re-telling me the claim has been rejected.

Anyone had similar issues and can offer any guidance before I look to escalate to CEDR?  To my mind they appear to be trying to avoid giving specific details but any experience in challenging this would be appreciated!

eskbanker

It's not a particularly meaningful reason - if wishing to exempt claims under the extraordinary circumstances provisions, the onus is on the airline to prove that these applied and that they took all reasonable measures to mitigate.

I'd assume that a preceding flight for the relevant aircraft/crew was delayed, meaning that the crew scheduled to operate yours would have been beyond their safe hours and so a new crew needed to be substituted, but that's just supposition, what can you share about the underlying story as you experienced it?

Mark_d

Any staff/crew issue is not an extraordinary circumstance.  I've had no luck with CEDR so I went to https://www.bottonline.co.uk/

eskbanker

Mark_d said:

Any staff/crew issue is not an extraordinary circumstance.

It's not as simple as that - if a crew goes out of hours because of a delay caused by extraordinary circumstances, it's not usually difficult for the airline to link the two and avoid paying compensation, but it is case-specific, depending on factors such as the extent to which the airline should have spare resources at the location(s) concerned.

CKhalvashi

Mark_d said:

Any staff/crew issue is not an extraordinary circumstance.

It's not as simple as that, it would depend on the reason for the first delay first and foremost.

It's far better for a crew to delay/cancel a service than for a coroner to have to work out why they didn't.

trappeb

eskbanker said:

It's not a particularly meaningful reason - if wishing to exempt claims under the extraordinary circumstances provisions, the onus is on the airline to prove that these applied and that they took all reasonable measures to mitigate.

I'd assume that a preceding flight for the relevant aircraft/crew was delayed, meaning that the crew scheduled to operate yours would have been beyond their safe hours and so a new crew needed to be substituted, but that's just supposition, what can you share about the underlying story as you experienced it?

Thanks my thoughts as well. There was little to no information giving either when we boarded afterwards despite asking. The flight crew rotation point was just parroted. After 5 emails asking the same I have finally got a response that a previous flight was diverted due to adverse weather conditions which I suspect will make it difficult to challenge.

eskbanker

trappeb said:

eskbanker said:

It's not a particularly meaningful reason - if wishing to exempt claims under the extraordinary circumstances provisions, the onus is on the airline to prove that these applied and that they took all reasonable measures to mitigate.

I'd assume that a preceding flight for the relevant aircraft/crew was delayed, meaning that the crew scheduled to operate yours would have been beyond their safe hours and so a new crew needed to be substituted, but that's just supposition, what can you share about the underlying story as you experienced it?

Thanks my thoughts as well. There was little to no information giving either when we boarded afterwards despite asking. The flight crew rotation point was just parroted. After 5 emails asking the same I have finally got a response that a previous flight was diverted due to adverse weather conditions which I suspect will make it difficult to challenge.

It is irritating that they repeatedly recycle a meaningless excuse and only belatedly refer to the actual underlying cause (which is what they'd be relying on)!  As you say, diversions will generally satisfy the test for extraordinary circumstances - you could take it to CEDR but there's a £25 charge that they may levy for unsuccessful complaints, so it would be best to be reasonably confident about your case, and, as above, your prospects will be influenced by your specific circumstances, i.e. your routing and that of the diverted flight, weather conditions, ATC restrictions, etc, etc.

trappeb

trappeb said:

Hello all, after some advice as a recent compensation claim to BA has been rejected.  The reason stated is due to Flight Crew Rotation and when I've asked on the reason for the rotation I've not received a specific response and just received an email just re-telling me the claim has been rejected.

Anyone had similar issues and can offer any guidance before I look to escalate to CEDR?  To my mind they appear to be trying to avoid giving specific details but any experience in challenging this would be appreciated!

Just as an update for anything who comes across this thread, I ended up taking the case to CEDR, they found merit and BA offered to settle with the compensation amount.  So definitely worth taking to CEDR if you have a rejected claim with this justification/reason.

eskbanker

trappeb said:

trappeb said:

Hello all, after some advice as a recent compensation claim to BA has been rejected.  The reason stated is due to Flight Crew Rotation and when I've asked on the reason for the rotation I've not received a specific response and just received an email just re-telling me the claim has been rejected.

Anyone had similar issues and can offer any guidance before I look to escalate to CEDR?  To my mind they appear to be trying to avoid giving specific details but any experience in challenging this would be appreciated!

Just as an update for anything who comes across this thread, I ended up taking the case to CEDR, they found merit and BA offered to settle with the compensation amount.  So definitely worth taking to CEDR if you have a rejected claim with this justification/reason.

Sounds like a good outcome, and very swift if you were only considering CEDR a couple of weeks ago!  What was the chronology of your interactions with CEDR, i.e. when was the claim lodged with them, when did they start looking at it, when did they reach a decision, when did BA respond, etc?