BA Cancelled Flight - Reasonable expenses not fully paid due to 'approved budgets'

bazdvd

the meals have been covered by the airline. You cant claim twice for the same thing.

Driftedbyte

DullGreyGuy said:

Driftedbyte said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably the taxis were paid in full.

Hotel claim was £491 but they are paying £400 so £91 down. Was this room only or B&B?

You dont say how much you your total food was?

I'm sure you can appreciate it from the other side too, BA fly to over 200 destinations themselves plus more with codeshares or flights with layovers to other airlines. Their contact centre agents won't have knowledge of the going rate of each place nor any peculiarities that may cause a spike and you can't use hotels.com or such to see what last months prices was. As such it's not unreasonable for them to have a system that gives their staff a ball park to work with. When I travel for business it's similar, employer/client says they pay up to £X with X varying depending on country/city. 

Did you gather evidence of what the prices were like at the time when you selected the hotel? Eg a screenshot of the website/app you used? 

Hi DullGreyGuy,

Taxis were not quite paid in full, but I can let this one go. Despite flying back to a different airport which was further from home, it was ultimately our choice to use Taxis rather than public transport and they have been fair in paying for most of the taxi fares.

Yes, £91 is the difference on the hotel and hotel included breakfast. We did take screenshots of the prices on booking.com.

£25/head/day isnt so bad if you've filled your boots at breakfast that isnt coming out of that budget. Ultimately it's not intended to be an extra 2 days holiday.

Ultimately I'd register a complaint following -link- and provide the evidence that the booking was commensurate to the rates at the  time which whilst maybe higher than normal for the area is ultimately likely the result of surge pricing due to the volume of folks seeking last minute hotel rooms. 

The website also references the ADR scheme they are signed up to if you arent happy with the response to the complaint. 

I completely understand its not intended to be an extra 2 days holiday and as such we were careful with our spending during the time, knowing we would be claiming it back; this makes it all the more frustrating that we have not been fully reimbursed as I feel the spending was completely reasonable given the situation. 

Frustratingly some people will make flippant comments like 'you've done well out of it... it's a cheap extra holiday' but forget that we had to take an extra day annual leave, spend extra money we had not budgeted for and even missed out on a concert we had already bought tickets for on the Friday night. Given the choice I'd rather have flown home on the original day!

Thanks for your advice, it's much appreciated. I will log a compliant with BA and see what happens

Driftedbyte

bazdvd said:

the meals have been covered by the airline. You cant claim twice for the same thing.

We haven't claimed for the anything twice? Not sure what you mean...

Grumpy_chap

Driftedbyte said:

We were staying in an airbnb which had a firm check out date, so we had to book a hotel for the extra 2 nights. 

bazdvd said:

Had you booked accommodation only the price without 4 breakfasts included may well of been completely covered by the airlines offer.

Voyager2002 said:

Irrelevant, since the "care" that the airlines are obliged to provide includes meals appropriate to the time of day, and that includes breakfast as well.

It is possible here that the airline (any airline) would not consider a hotel (including breakfast) as equivalent (reasonable) follow-on accommodation to an airB'n'B self catering solution.

I note the OP said the airB'n'B had a firm check out date but was an enquiry made about extending for the extra couple of nights?  It is possible that the strikes that prevented the OP returning home also prevented the next planned occupant from arriving.

Did the OP investigate alternative options for airB'n'B or self-catering solutions that were (or were not) available?
How did the costs of any such options compare with the costs of the hotel?

"Care" obligation to provide meals for someone in a hotel means a cooked breakfast buffet or similar.  "Care" obligation to provide meals for someone in a self-catering solution might be a jar of coffee, milk and packet of cereal.

It does not seem wholly unreasonable that the airline has a limit on the value they will pay out.
The logical extension of there being no limit would be a passenger who had been staying in a £10k per night hotel re-booking the same and claiming that level of cost from the airline.

As an aside, did the OP have travel insurance and does this cover the deficit between recovered from the airline and actual costs?

bazdvd

Driftedbyte said:

bazdvd said:

the meals have been covered by the airline. You cant claim twice for the same thing.

We haven't claimed for the anything twice? Not sure what you mean...

you claimed the food allowance from the airline but are also claiming for the cost of the hotel and as this included food you are double dipping.
Had you been room only the cost they gave you may well of covered the room.
You would not stay in an all inclusive hotel and expect to claim for meals on top would you?

Did you have travel insurance?

DullGreyGuy

bazdvd said:

Driftedbyte said:

bazdvd said:

the meals have been covered by the airline. You cant claim twice for the same thing.

We haven't claimed for the anything twice? Not sure what you mean...

you claimed the food allowance from the airline but are also claiming for the cost of the hotel and as this included food you are double dipping.
Had you been room only the cost they gave you may well of covered the room.
You would not stay in an all inclusive hotel and expect to claim for meals on top would you?

Did you have travel insurance?

Most people eat 3 times a day, breakfast was covered within the hotel cost, lunch and dinner covered by the separately raised amounts. It would only be "double dipping" if they tried to claim a B&B rate but then also separately claim for a breakfast that was had outside of the hotel. 

Whilst it's not an unofficial extension of your holiday neither are you supposed to have to starve yourself or go down to one meal a day. 

saajan_12

Grumpy_chap said:

Driftedbyte said:

We were staying in an airbnb which had a firm check out date, so we had to book a hotel for the extra 2 nights. 

bazdvd said:

Had you booked accommodation only the price without 4 breakfasts included may well of been completely covered by the airlines offer.

Voyager2002 said:

Irrelevant, since the "care" that the airlines are obliged to provide includes meals appropriate to the time of day, and that includes breakfast as well.

It is possible here that the airline (any airline) would not consider a hotel (including breakfast) as equivalent (reasonable) follow-on accommodation to an airB'n'B self catering solution.
<..>.
As an aside, did the OP have travel insurance and does this cover the deficit between recovered from the airline and actual costs?

What does the prior accommodation have to do with the airline's duty of care? If the OP was previously in an all inc 5* resort, then they presumably couldn't have just stayed on there at the airline's expense. So the same applies if the OP was in an AirBnB. 

What matters is a reasonable level of luxury / price / location and 3* doesn't seem too far off the mark. 

Re insurance, they would not pay out things the airline is obligated to cover. Care is within the airline's responsibility, so either the cost is reasonable and covered by the airline or unreasoanble and the insurer would also probably refuse. 

Alan_Bowen

£200 is the usual fixed allowance BA use for overnight accommodation. To get any more you need to be able to show that there was nothing available at or below that price, New York for example will very rarely be as low of £200 and they recognise that. You should point out that due to the French ATC strike there were thousands looking for accommodation that night and £491 was the best you could find and they may make an exception. 

silvercar

Alan_Bowen said:

£200 is the usual fixed allowance BA use for overnight accommodation. To get any more you need to be able to show that there was nothing available at or below that price, New York for example will very rarely be as low of £200 and they recognise that. You should point out that due to the French ATC strike there were thousands looking for accommodation that night and £491 was the best you could find and they may make an exception. 

I agree, £200 is the default from BA. Screen shots of hotels when you booked showing it was reasonable will help. Appeal with a letter before action, they will probably pay up. Food receipts are usually reimbursed in full, other than alcohol.