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BA Cancellations v Long delays

Hi,

My flight was cancelled coming from Miami to London in September.

I have tried to claim compensation from British Airways, they are fobbing me off and claiming that i suffered a long delay.

I have checked the letter i received at the airport and it mentions that my flight has been disrupted because of a technical fault.

Do not let this happen to you - if the ground staff at the airport claims that your flight has been cancelled please get it in writing.
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Comments

  • wolvoman
    wolvoman Posts: 1,181 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    m_i wrote:
    Hi,

    My flight was cancelled coming from Miami to London in September.

    I have tried to claim compensation from British Airways, they are fobbing me off and claiming that i suffered a long delay.

    I have checked the letter i received at the airport and it mentions that my flight has been disrupted because of a technical fault.

    Do not let this happen to you - if the ground staff at the airport claims that your flight has been cancelled please get it in writing.


    What compensation are you trying to claim?
    What type of fare were you on and what travel class were you in?

    How and whan did you eventually get back from Miami to London?
  • m_i
    m_i Posts: 199 Forumite
    Hi Wolvoman,

    I was trying to claim under the EU legislation.

    I had to rebook my flight by phone and was on the next flight to London the following day at 5.15pm. The 'delay' lasted over 20 hours.

    I was in economy.
    Nice to save.
  • m_i wrote:
    I have checked the letter i received at the airport and it mentions that my flight has been disrupted because of a technical fault
    If the airline can argue that the delay was unforeseeable (technical faults usually are), no compansation is due under the EU regulations
  • gregg1
    gregg1 Posts: 3,148 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    actually EU regulations state that compensation IS payable in the event of technical faults (Martin Lewis Money Saving Tips Forum). Unforseeable faults is not, under EU law a valid reason for the airline not to cough up compensation (although they will try to get out of paying any way they can). Only if the airline can prove that the delay was as a result of "extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken" will they get out of it and EU law states that technical faults does NOT fall into this category. I know as I am currently in discussion with Virgin over the same sort of thing and have taken legal advice on it. Pursue it vigorously - the law is the law! Good luck
  • m_i
    m_i Posts: 199 Forumite
    Thanks Gregg1.

    Please keep me posted.

    Thanks,

    m_i
    Nice to save.
  • Here's a hypothetical scenario:

    A 747 lands in Miami with a technical fault. Engineers attempt to fix the problem but conclude they need some new parts. BA contacts every other 747 operator at Miami for help but nobody can. Boeing can send the bits from Seattle but they'd take 24 hours to arrive. BA decide it'd be quicker to send the parts from their London stocks on their second daily LHR-MIA flight but that lands in, say, 5 hours. Engineers predict it will take 5 hours to fit the part and another 5 to test it works, so expected delay (with the clock already running) is 20 hours.

    BA then speak to every other London-bound airline out of MIA to buy spare seats, giving priority to all First and Business Class passengers. The rest will have to wait until the plane is fixed sometime tomorrow. All remaining passengers are offered the choice of a full refund or a phone number to call to register interest in joining the delayed flight (remember all ticket/check-in agents are busily rebooking premium customers onto other airlines so BA need their New York office to help out with the workload).

    So overnight the engineers have done a fantastic job and the aircraft is safe to depart the following day. Everyone gets a seat (albeit late) and BA have delivered the product the passengers paid for. Where's the compensation here?

    (Remember - hypothetical situation!)
  • waster_2
    waster_2 Posts: 498 Forumite
    Here's a hypothetical scenario:

    A 747 lands in Miami with a technical fault. Engineers attempt to fix the problem but conclude they need some new parts. BA contacts every other 747 operator at Miami for help but nobody can. Boeing can send the bits from Seattle but they'd take 24 hours to arrive. BA decide it'd be quicker to send the parts from their London stocks on their second daily LHR-MIA flight but that lands in, say, 5 hours. Engineers predict it will take 5 hours to fit the part and another 5 to test it works, so expected delay (with the clock already running) is 20 hours.

    BA then speak to every other London-bound airline out of MIA to buy spare seats, giving priority to all First and Business Class passengers. The rest will have to wait until the plane is fixed sometime tomorrow. All remaining passengers are offered the choice of a full refund or a phone number to call to register interest in joining the delayed flight (remember all ticket/check-in agents are busily rebooking premium customers onto other airlines so BA need their New York office to help out with the workload).

    So overnight the engineers have done a fantastic job and the aircraft is safe to depart the following day. Everyone gets a seat (albeit late) and BA have delivered the product the passengers paid for. Where's the compensation here?

    (Remember - hypothetical situation!)

    BA fly out replacement aircarft say 10 hours. Turnaround time say 1 hour - delay = 11 hours. Where is the problem? Problem is BA do not want cost of crews and substitute aircraft they would rather f**k their passengers about because they are a big company and will just kick the little guy around and most times he'll just roll over and take it. There are always other solutions but the airlines do not want to pay for them. They could probably have leased an aircraft quicker in Miami if they wanted to. There are also normally loads of spare planes around the Carribean looking for “charter” work
  • what about your flight is cancelled by Ryanair as a result of the French airspace strike which was foresseeable as they put a notice of strike 3 days before... I know I might not qualify for compensation under the EU regulations, but I still qualified for getting accommodation, meals and refreshments, and for them to pay for all my transfers.

    What happened is that we had to stay at the airport from 19h30 to 08h45, pay for a bus to another airport, get in the uk via Luton and not Stansted, pay for transfer with National express, drive back home, get home with a final 24 hour delay... with no sleep nor real food for 36 hours, and only 5 hours of sleep in 48 hours (we have to get up at 6h30 in the monring to go to work).

    I have not written my complaint letter yet, but I just wondered honestly (and please no "Ryanair is crap" nonsense) what I was entitled to?
    "Don't cry, Don't Raise your Eye
    It's only teenage wasteland"
    The Who - Baba O'Riley
    Who's Next (1971)

    RIP Keith Moon
    RIP John Entwistle
  • raeble
    raeble Posts: 911 Forumite
    m_i wrote:
    Hi,

    My flight was cancelled coming from Miami to London in September.

    I have tried to claim compensation from British Airways, they are fobbing me off and claiming that i suffered a long delay.

    I have checked the letter i received at the airport and it mentions that my flight has been disrupted because of a technical fault.

    Do not let this happen to you - if the ground staff at the airport claims that your flight has been cancelled please get it in writing.
    Hmm well you need the airline to put it in writing that the flight has been cancelled. According to this bbc article the airline only has to pay compensation for cancellations if the reason for cancellation 'is within the airline's control'. And if your flight is delayed the airline doesn't have to pay compensation if the delay or cancellation was due to 'extrodinary circumstances'
    The way I see it you've got a problem in that you have a piece of paper from ba telling you that your flight has been disrupted, no mention of cancellation. Unless you can prove the flight was cancelled, you'll have to look at delay for grounds. A technical fault which grounds the plane for several hours could reasonably be seen as extrodinary circumstances. If it wasn't extrodinary circumstances I wouldn't want to be flying on that airline.

    The problem with this law is that it is too much grey in certain areas and there is the claim that the EU didn't consult widely before drafting this law. So it doesn't always help the passenger as much as it should do.
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    We had an appalling 7 hour delay at Gatwick with BA earlier this year. They also said there was no compensation due because it was a delay not a cancellation, but we did get £50 each in BA vouchers - which are not particularly useful because

    (a) I can't see a way to use them online, and their non-online fares are higher;
    (b) they aren't transferrable and we have a baby due in 6 weeks so might easily not fly in any case within the year of eligibility.
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