BA cancelled flight refusing refund new flight

Reliable10

Flight cancelled 29 hours before due to fly back from Faro to Gatwick.  Flight NOT cancelled due to weather or air traffic control. Spoke to BA on webchat offered seats on an alternative flight coming back on the same day which I accepted.  Then came back saying seats had been taken then cut off. Contacted by phone said no alternative flights for the Sunday but BA and Easy Jet were still selling seats for flights.  Talked about re routing from another airport the following Tuesday, confirmed no seats available on BA flight, also said he couldn’t upgrade us.  Got cut off, then spoke to another agent who said we would need to get accommodation and claim back.  No offer of booking on Easy jet. I purchased flights with Easy Jet to get home on the Sunday.  Now trying to claim cost back.  Where do I stand with all these EU laws.  I feel BA should have rerouted us to the EasyJet flight.  Currently offered £330 compensation but refusing to refund £900 paid for Easy jet flight.  

eskbanker

When flying from an EU airport to the UK on a UK (or EU) airline, you have the choice of the UK or EU regulations under which to claim - they're practically identical but the UK ones are slightly better by virtue of exchange rates, so it sounds like they've offered you the EU compensation rate of €400 (=£330) rather than the UK figure of £350.

Anyway, both sets of regulations are clear that when cancelling flights, as well as compensation the airline is responsible for offering the passenger a choice between a refund or rebooking, and they're supposed to arrange the latter for you.  If they fail to do so, then they should refund you the reasonable cost of a flight with an alternative airline if you were compelled to book this yourself - what's their rationale for refusing to do so?  £900 does sound a pretty extraordinary amount for an EasyJet flight, but if that's all that was available then it shouldn't matter - do you have any evidence to back up your story, in terms of screenshots, call recordings, etc?

Reliable10

Unfortunately not,  however, as first conversation was via webchat and 2nd and 3rd by phone BA should have recordings of the conversations which I could request.
All BA are saying is Thanks for writing back about your claim for alternative flights with expense.  Ido appreciate your reasons although I am afraid we can not reimburse the cost of your alternative flight. I am sorry to disappoint you.

eskbanker

Reliable10 said:

Unfortunately not,  however, as first conversation was via webchat and 2nd and 3rd by phone BA should have recordings of the conversations which I could request.
All BA are saying is Thanks for writing back about your claim for alternative flights with expense.  Ido appreciate your reasons although I am afraid we can not reimburse the cost of your alternative flight. I am sorry to disappoint you.

You do have options - once you get a final response from them you can take your case to their nominated ADR provider (CEDR) and/or to small claims, but if they haven't labelled their response as 'final' yet then you can spend a bit of time constructing a compelling argument based on the wording of the regulations and the associated guidance documents:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/8

Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004

If you anticipate further debate being needed then it would probably be worth obtaining call recordings by submitting a subject access request.

Reliable10

Thank you for confirming about the compensation.  This means that I have not had a refund of the original ticket and paid out for a new one.  Should I be looking for new ticket refund and the compensation and BA keep the money paid out for the cancelled flight?

Reliable10

Do you know if there is a specific online form for submitting subject access request with BA or just include in my response?

eskbanker

Reliable10 said:

Thank you for confirming about the compensation.  This means that I have not had a refund of the original ticket and paid out for a new one.  Should I be looking for new ticket refund and the compensation and BA keep the money paid out for the cancelled flight?

Just to confirm, is the £330 they've offered you specifically for a compensation claim under the article 7 of the regulations (converted from €400), or is it a refund of the original ticket price under article 8?

Assuming the cancellation wasn't due to extraordinary circumstances beyond their control then they're obliged to pay the fixed tariff article 7 compensation and also (whatever the reason) the choice between a refund or (the cost of) a rerouting, so the answer to your question is 'yes'.

Reliable10 said:

Do you know if there is a specific online form for submitting subject access request with BA or just include in my response?

Exercising your legal rights under the Data Protection Act is a separate matter from your claim/complaint so don't mix it in together - I don't know if there's a form but there'll be contact details within their published privacy policy.

silvercar

BA should pay for your flights, it may take a claim to CEDR before they do so, but it’s definitely worth pursuing.

mdann52

It's worth continuing to push back against BA. They have about 5 levels of customer service before they'll issue a deadlock letter, and complex cases like this won't be looked at until you get to the end stages.

It's worth adding that BA are deliberately awkward when it comes to EasyJet - EZY aren't members of IATA, and can't be booked via the system that BA use, so BA won't book you on them, despite the CAA guidelines requiring them to do so.