Cancelled flight due to weather

DSW25

I was due to fly from Heathrow to Inverness but the flight got cancelled due to weather, they could not offer a flight the following day as it was fully booked therefore had to accept the refund as I had to get back to my work. I managed to fly from Luton later the same day with easyJet and landed in Inverness. Therefore my question is why did they not just delay the flight from Heathrow as the weather was improving? Can I request any compensation at all?

MattMattMattUK

DSW25 said:

I was due to fly from Heathrow to Inverness but the flight got cancelled due to weather, they could not offer a flight the following day as it was fully booked therefore had to accept the refund as I had to get back to my work. I managed to fly from Luton later the same day with easyJet and landed in Inverness. Therefore my question is why did they not just delay the flight from Heathrow as the weather was improving?

If every flight was delayed there would not be enough slots for all the planes, so some/many will be cancelled.

DSW25 said:

Can I request any compensation at all?

No.

eskbanker

DSW25 said:

I was due to fly from Heathrow to Inverness but the flight got cancelled due to weather, they could not offer a flight the following day as it was fully booked therefore had to accept the refund as I had to get back to my work. I managed to fly from Luton later the same day with easyJet and landed in Inverness. Therefore my question is why did they not just delay the flight from Heathrow as the weather was improving? Can I request any compensation at all?

You can request it but you won't get it!  Having said that, the original airline should have paid for the full cost of your rearranged trip, including the EasyJet flight and transportation from Heathrow to Luton, unless it worked out better for you to take the refund instead....

bagand96

Compensation isn't going to be payable due to weather.

If your costs of getting to Luton and the easyJet flight were more than the refund received from BA then you can try claiming for any difference, as your entitlement to rerouting. 

DSW25

Update: got the full cost of my easyjet flight back, which was around £500 more than what BA refunded me for their flight. Luckily paid by credit card and went down the section 75 route as they couldn't provide an alternative flight home.

Caz3121

DSW25 said:

Update: got the full cost of my easyjet flight back, which was around £500 more than what BA refunded me for their flight. Luckily paid by credit card and went down the section 75 route as they couldn't provide an alternative flight home.

did you claim the difference or have you received full refunds for both the BA and the EasyJet flights? 

eskbanker

DSW25 said:

Update: got the full cost of my easyjet flight back, which was around £500 more than what BA refunded me for their flight. Luckily paid by credit card and went down the section 75 route as they couldn't provide an alternative flight home.

Could you clarify the basis of your argument to the card provider as that seems an incredible result?  As above, if you obtained refunds for the cost of both flights, that would result in you having travelled free (was the card company aware that you'd been refunded by BA?), but I've never heard of an easyJet flight costing £500 - were there multiple passengers involved, or any payments included beyond flight refunds?

Tim_L

Yes, you can't claim a refund from BA when they've refunded the cost of the EasyJet flight, and that chargeback may come back to haunt you if you try to book with BA again. BA were on the hook for the replacement flight and any accomodation and reasonable meal costs. 

eskbanker

Tim_L said:

Yes, you can't claim a refund from BA when they've refunded the cost of the EasyJet flight, and that chargeback may come back to haunt you if you try to book with BA again. BA were on the hook for the replacement flight and any accomodation and reasonable meal costs. 

OP said they claimed under section 75 rather than chargeback, so BA are none the wiser in that scenario, as it's the card company picking up the tab....

DSW25

Got refund for the cancelled flight and then the difference up to the value of the easyjet flight, so basically not out of pocket. This was for 4 people. BA offered flights that was 3 days after the cancelled flight hence my determination to get this money back. 

eskbanker

DSW25 said:

Got refund for the cancelled flight and then the difference up to the value of the easyjet flight, so basically not out of pocket.

So BA refunded the cancelled flight and then the card company paid the difference between that and the flight you took (which BA should also have paid), so you effectively ended up paying the original BA fare, rather than nothing at all?  Did you get your LHR-LTN costs reimbursed too?

DSW25 said:

This was for 4 people.

Ah, that wasn't what was implied by the use of the singular in "got the full cost of my easyjet flight back, which was around £500 more than what BA refunded me for their flight"!

DSW25 said:

BA offered flights that was 3 days after the cancelled flight hence my determination to get this money back. 

Understandable that you wished to pursue this, their obligation is to rebook onto flights at the earliest opportunity, even if that entails other airlines or routes, but few airlines do comply with this.