British Airways denied boarding - refusal to rebook and refusal to compensate

eskbanker

Madthinker said:

Since my OP, I have, as a result of a data rectification request, received from BA received the following information.  My interpretation is that this is consistent with the above - the first attempted check-in (aside from my earlier online attempts) is showing as 15:02, which is roughly when I arrived at the airport.  I was then offloaded at 18:00.  This would appear to suggest that they only decided to kick me off the flight between these times.  That said, there's a lot of jargon I don't understand.

I 

Curious about a 'data rectification request' that would result in something like this being provided - what were you seeking to rectify and to what extent might it deflect from the main focus on securing reimbursement?

Organisations responding to subject access requests are required to decode jargon if it's not self-evident:

You are expected to give the individual additional information to aid their understanding, if the requested personal data is not in a form that they can easily understand

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/right-of-access/how-should-we-supply-information-to-the-requester/#explain  

jimi_man

Madthinker said:

bagand96 said:

Madthinker said:

Caz3121 said:

Madthinker said:

So, I think you are saying that I should be refunded the cost of the flight of 6th Jan (£911), but you don't believe any further compensation is due?

I would agree with that 
I am surprised that a rebooking (at no cost to yourself) was not dealt with at the airport at the time which would usually be the case. Was this refused as they considered you late?
Note that the cutoff is when you get to the front of the queue at the desk not when you arrive at the airport or are in the queue. If you got to the desk after cutoff then they are under no obligation to rebook you. 
however the fact that they have now paid you compensation for being denied boarding...for which you need to have been at the desk before closure should help your case for the refund of the replacement flight although I suspect it will not be without a bit of a battle.

Does that not incentivise airlines, when they know they have an overbooking issue, to prevent people checking in online, and dealing extremely slowly with the queue?  Which seems to be exactly what happened in my case.

I'm not sure if you've what time you arrived at the airport? You've made reference to 18:22 as you messaged your wife.

Scheduled departure time of BA2040 was 19:40. Personally I'd say 80mins before a flight is very tight, especially if I'd not been able to check on online. Not sure if you had checked luggage or not but I'd always leave at least two hours in that case.

BA state check in closes at least 60mins before departure. But that's closure of checkin, not a "latest you can arrive"

It is a moot point though as you've said, if they'd paid £520 UK261 compo then they're admitting liability and should reimburse your rebooking costs. 

I don't know exactly what time I arrived, except that it was some time before 18:22.  I made reference to this time because it was the only proof I had.

Certainly agree that it would be prudent to arrive a lot earlier 80 minutes before a flight.  If there's two things this has taught me it is that not being able to check in on line is a sign that they want to kick you off the flight (and hence to turn up as early as possible), and (b) to record proof of arrival time at the airport.

Indeed. Cape Town is a busy route - often overbooked and as you say, not being able to check in online is an indicator and the advice is generally to get there early if that's the case. BA have a priority list of who gets bumped off which is 24 categories, and looking down the list - other than staff, an Economy (Traveller) customer without status on a low fare bucket is the top category to get bumped off, so it's first come first served. 

eskbanker

jimi_man said:
Cape Town is a busy route - often overbooked and as you say, not being able to check in online is an indicator and the advice is generally to get there early if that's the case. BA have a priority list of who gets bumped off which is 24 categories, and looking down the list - other than staff, an Economy (Traveller) customer without status on a low fare bucket is the top category to get bumped off, so it's first come first served. 

But, especially given the frequency of overbooking, it's presumably a well-rehearsed routine for the airline to fulfil their obligations to both rebook the affected passengers and to compensate them for being involuntarily denied boarding?

Like OP, I'm struggling to understand why BA would appear to accept the latter (in paying £520 compensation) but to refuse the former - if they wanted to rely on an assertion that OP had arrived too late then I'd have expected them to deny any liability to pay anything....

Madthinker

eskbanker said:

Curious about a 'data rectification request' that would result in something like this being provided - what were you seeking to rectify and to what extent might it deflect from the main focus on securing reimbursement?

It's a bit of a side-story.

Initially, I raised a SAR with BA to provide all relevant information they held.  The complied with this, but in their records, they have something to the effect of "passenger arrived at 18:30, as confirmed by passenger" (neither part is true).

Still uncertain that BAagree that it was an IDB, I raised a data rectification request or them to correct this point.  On the last day, they sent me a reply as if it had been a SAR, and sent me a page of information about my flight on 4th Jan (which incidentally wasn't included in the response to my actual SAR).  Again, I am baffled, although it does potentially contain some useful information.

I would expect the data protection department to be distinct from customer relations, so I wasn't expecting it to be a distraction.

jimi_man

It is a fairly well rehearsed routine. However one of the problems can be where people put too much on their complaint form which can confuse the issue. One to two sentences is the recommended amount of text. So I can only assume that the message has got lost. 

eskbanker

Madthinker said:

eskbanker said:

Curious about a 'data rectification request' that would result in something like this being provided - what were you seeking to rectify and to what extent might it deflect from the main focus on securing reimbursement?

It's a bit of a side-story.

Initially, I raised a SAR with BA to provide all relevant information they held.  The complied with this, but in their records, they have something to the effect of "passenger arrived at 18:30, as confirmed by passenger" (neither part is true).

Still uncertain that BAagree that it was an IDB, I raised a data rectification request or them to correct this point.  On the last day, they sent me a reply as if it had been a SAR, and sent me a page of information about my flight on 4th Jan (which incidentally wasn't included in the response to my actual SAR).  Again, I am baffled, although it does potentially contain some useful information.

I would expect the data protection department to be distinct from customer relations, so I wasn't expecting it to be a distraction.

Although you naturally contend that your version of events is true and theirs isn't, that doesn't in itself require them to 'rectify' the data within their systems, in the absence of definitive proof either way - if it's deemed to be a correct reflection of the understanding of the airport staff who recorded it, you might succeed in getting them to add some sort of note to say 'passenger disputes this' but that won't really help you in any way, i.e. data protection obligations might clarify a dispute but won't resolve it?