BA cancelled our flight + reimbursement for hotel

sunnysideup43

BA cancelled our flight home from Mallorca to Gatwick due to a 'technical issue with the aircraft'. We were on a package holiday with BA - flight and hotel. We received an email at 2pm. The flight was due to leave at 20:55. We didn't see the email until we returned to the hotel around 3pm as we were out. BA gave us an option to take another flight at 10:55am the following day which we accepted.

We immediately asked the hotel if they had availability for the night which they did but at a price that did not take into account the presumably discounted price that BA are able to get. The hotel changed our transfer taxi for us at no extra charge. So we stayed another night, had one meal and one beverage each. We claimed for the hotel, the meal and one night's extra parking charge at Gatwick. BA have paid the £220 each for the cancellation as they're legal obligated to do. They also gave us £200 towards the hotel, no full reimbursement. There was no discussion about this particular amount. They just decided and paid it into our bank.  I have contacted them and asked for the full amount which was significantly more. I've sent every receipt necessary to prove expenditure.

So my question is where do I go from here.  BA are responsible for cancelling the flight so surely they're responsible for the full amount of us having to stay another night at the hotel. We had meetings/appointments we had to cancel because we now had to travel on that day.  It was quite a stressful couple of hours reorganising accommodation. 

I have been emailing with BA since we came back on 18/7/25. They take weeks to respond to each email.  Last email I asked for it to be escalated. They ignored this request. 

Any advice welcome. Thanks.

MyRealNameToo

How much was the hotel?

Are you contacting BA as your airline or BA as your package holiday provider? The two are likely to be separate with different teams etc. 

As an airline they are responsible for ensuring you have somewhere to sleep but that doesnt have to be at the same hotel as you were originally staying nor the same standard. A quick look for 1 room tonight (so equally paying the emergency rate rather than the long stay rate) shows a few options near the airport around £150 and several at £200

Grumpy_chap

sunnysideup43 said:

BA cancelled our flight home from Mallorca to Gatwick due to a 'technical issue with the aircraft'. We were on a package holiday with BA - flight and hotel. We received an email at 2pm. The flight was due to leave at 20:55. We didn't see the email until we returned to the hotel around 3pm as we were out. BA gave us an option to take another flight at 10:55am the following day which we accepted.

We immediately asked the hotel if they had availability for the night which they did but at a price that did not take into account the presumably discounted price that BA are able to get. The hotel changed our transfer taxi for us at no extra charge. So we stayed another night, had one meal and one beverage each. We claimed for the hotel, the meal and one night's extra parking charge at Gatwick. BA have paid the £220 each for the cancellation as they're legal obligated to do. They also gave us £200 towards the hotel, no full reimbursement. There was no discussion about this particular amount. They just decided and paid it into our bank.  I have contacted them and asked for the full amount which was significantly more. I've sent every receipt necessary to prove expenditure.

So my question is where do I go from here.  BA are responsible for cancelling the flight so surely they're responsible for the full amount of us having to stay another night at the hotel. We had meetings/appointments we had to cancel because we now had to travel on that day.  It was quite a stressful couple of hours reorganising accommodation. 

I have been emailing with BA since we came back on 18/7/25. They take weeks to respond to each email.  Last email I asked for it to be escalated. They ignored this request. 

Any advice welcome. Thanks.

When you received the e-mail from BA, before booking back into the hotel at your own cost (which you aimed to reclaim), did you contact BA Holidays on their 24-hour contact number? 
It is an unusual system in that you phone, leave a message and they revert back with a solution, but it did work well on the one occasion that we needed to use that service.
By booking direct, you have deprived BA holidays of the opportunity to provide a solution at their bulk cost.

sunnysideup43

Grumpy_chap said:

sunnysideup43 said:

BA cancelled our flight home from Mallorca to Gatwick due to a 'technical issue with the aircraft'. We were on a package holiday with BA - flight and hotel. We received an email at 2pm. The flight was due to leave at 20:55. We didn't see the email until we returned to the hotel around 3pm as we were out. BA gave us an option to take another flight at 10:55am the following day which we accepted.

We immediately asked the hotel if they had availability for the night which they did but at a price that did not take into account the presumably discounted price that BA are able to get. The hotel changed our transfer taxi for us at no extra charge. So we stayed another night, had one meal and one beverage each. We claimed for the hotel, the meal and one night's extra parking charge at Gatwick. BA have paid the £220 each for the cancellation as they're legal obligated to do. They also gave us £200 towards the hotel, no full reimbursement. There was no discussion about this particular amount. They just decided and paid it into our bank.  I have contacted them and asked for the full amount which was significantly more. I've sent every receipt necessary to prove expenditure.

So my question is where do I go from here.  BA are responsible for cancelling the flight so surely they're responsible for the full amount of us having to stay another night at the hotel. We had meetings/appointments we had to cancel because we now had to travel on that day.  It was quite a stressful couple of hours reorganising accommodation. 

I have been emailing with BA since we came back on 18/7/25. They take weeks to respond to each email.  Last email I asked for it to be escalated. They ignored this request. 

Any advice welcome. Thanks.

When you received the e-mail from BA, before booking back into the hotel at your own cost (which you aimed to reclaim), did you contact BA Holidays on their 24-hour contact number? 
It is an unusual system in that you phone, leave a message and they revert back with a solution, but it did work well on the one occasion that we needed to use that service.
By booking direct, you have deprived BA holidays of the opportunity to provide a solution at their bulk cost.

To be honest, no, we didn't.  We just thought staying put was the best option, easier all round and our experience previously with BA when they did this before had been they just paid up.  

Grumpy_chap

How much was the full cost of the hotel?
BA have paid you £200.

If the difference is small, it might be worth righting off any loss.

The challenge from the BA Holiday's perspective is that you did not give them the opportunity to mitigate the costs.
It is quite possible that BA Holidays could have put you in the same room and not actually incurred any cost.  Either, if your flight home was delayed by a day that means there are people due out on the outward leg of the same plane who won't now need a hotel that night.  Or, BA holidays may block book a number of rooms and can offer you an unsold room (which the hotel cannot).

eskbanker

As above, there are different organisations with different responsibilities and obligations.

BA the airline is bound by the UK261 flight cancellation/delay regulations, which, as well as compensation, also require that the airline offers accommodation where necessary.

BA Holidays, the package provider, has separate obligations under the Package Travel Regulations, under which they'd have been required to arrange accommodation for your extra night.

Had you liaised with either of them at the time, they'd have needed to sort out your accommodation (not necessarily in the same hotel you'd already been staying in), but having (understandably) taken matters into your own hands, they didn't get that opportunity, so you may struggle to reclaim the extra costs, but no harm in trying.

sunnysideup43

Grumpy_chap said:

How much was the full cost of the hotel?
BA have paid you £200.

If the difference is small, it might be worth righting off any loss.

The challenge from the BA Holiday's perspective is that you did not give them the opportunity to mitigate the costs.
It is quite possible that BA Holidays could have put you in the same room and not actually incurred any cost.  Either, if your flight home was delayed by a day that means there are people due out on the outward leg of the same plane who won't now need a hotel that night.  Or, BA holidays may block book a number of rooms and can offer you an unsold room (which the hotel cannot).

The cost was 891 euros + a meagre 12 euros for a couple of drinks so you can see why we're keen to recoup the money!

eskbanker

sunnysideup43 said:
The cost was 891 euros + a meagre 12 euros for a couple of drinks so you can see why we're keen to recoup the money!

I think you're going to struggle to make the case that that's a reasonable cost - it may have been the most convenient option but on the face of it that's an extortionate price, even for an on the day rack rate, unless it was a particularly luxurious 5* place (or multiple rooms)?  Did you make any effort to find somewhere more reasonable?

And hopefully they weren't alcoholic drinks, as they won't reimburse those....

bagand96

You seriously just splashed out nearly €900 on a hotel room for one night on the assumption of being reimbursed, without talking to your airline or your operator?! (Yes same brand, but technically different companies)

As has been said already both EC261 and the PTR's overlap here. Although I'm not sure either specifically state you're entitled to stay in the same accommodation at any cost. Good luck! 

Grumpy_chap

sunnysideup43 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

How much was the full cost of the hotel?
BA have paid you £200.

If the difference is small, it might be worth righting off any loss.

The challenge from the BA Holiday's perspective is that you did not give them the opportunity to mitigate the costs.
It is quite possible that BA Holidays could have put you in the same room and not actually incurred any cost.  Either, if your flight home was delayed by a day that means there are people due out on the outward leg of the same plane who won't now need a hotel that night.  Or, BA holidays may block book a number of rooms and can offer you an unsold room (which the hotel cannot).

The cost was 891 euros + a meagre 12 euros for a couple of drinks so you can see why we're keen to recoup the money!

EURO 900 !!!
Is that just one room for two adults?

We so happen to have a holiday booked with BA in a few weeks so, I thought I'd check the room rate for booking to stay tonight, even at this late hour.  £218 bed and breakfast or £272 full board.
It is certain that BA would get a far cheaper rate.  (Our actual advance booking shows £98.70 per night B&B.)

Obviously, BA offer a whole range of hotels so maybe your hotel is a far higher standard / price point than the hotel we have chosen.

As others have said, I would not have simply paid out nearly £1k on a whim.

Westin

I also think you will struggle to get that full amount for the hotel reimbursed.

Being on a BA Holidays package you would have been given contact details of the operators helpline to call when on holiday. That perhaps would have been the route to take if you found you needed overnight accommodation or any pre-approval on costs to be incurred that seemed out of the norm. 

Whilst Mallorca can be expensive, I would expect a cheaper overnight accommodation to have been available. In case of flight cancellation the airline is not obligated to keep you in the same hotel, or star standard. 

At €891 for the night it doesn’t sound like the hotel did you any favours having heard that your flight had been cancelled and you were stuck for another nights accommodation.

I also don’t believe the airline or tour operator is obligated to pay your extra car parking charge under EC261/UK261.  Your delay compensation payment amount will however offset that.