Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

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  • JPears
    JPears Posts: 5,084
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    And if CEDR doesn't find in your favour, you can claim via small claims court.
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  • I was wondering whether anyone on the forum had any experience or advice on issues obtaining reimbursement from BA for costs incurred as a result of flight disruption?

    I was scheduled to fly with BA from Brussels to Glasgow via Heathrow, leaving Brussels at 19.20 local time, arriving at Heathrow at 19.35, then leaving Heathrow at 21.00 and getting to Glasgow at 22.25. The flight from Brussels was delayed – no explanation has been given for why – both in leaving Brussels and then in the air. So I didn’t land at Heathrow until 20.40. This meant I missed my connecting flight. The following flight, which was the last for the day, was full. I was given the option of staying at Heathrow overnight and getting the first flight the following day, or being flown to Edinburgh. I needed to get home, and preferred a delay of a few hours to an overnight stay, so opted for the Edinburgh flight. Several other passengers were in the same position and most had been automatically booked to the Edinburgh flight. At the time I asked the BA staff (who really didn’t seem to care) what the arrangements would be for getting me to Glasgow. They simply said I would have to arrange that myself and reclaim the cost from BA.

    The Edinburgh flight was fine, but by the time I had collected my bag and had a quick walk round the airport to see if I could find anyone from BA to talk to (no success), it was nearly midnight. My car was at Glasgow airport so I had to get back there and at that time of night, already 1.5 hours late and facing around the same again before I got home, I had little option but to get a taxi. This ended up costing me £147. I eventually got to Glasgow airport 2 hours and 47 minutes after I was supposed to.

    First thing in the morning I submitted a claim via BA’s website for the cost incurred. I received no response for a month, despite chasing several times. When I did get a response they said they “absolutely agree we’ve let you down”. They explained they investigate the reason for delayed flights (without explaining what happened to mine) and stated that if I speak to a member of staff they will “do our best to rearrange your travel plans to suit you”. Obviously this isn’t true as the people at Heathrow didn’t care, and there was no-one at Edinburgh to speak to. Finally, they said “Although I appreciate your reasons for asking, I’m afraid we can’t offer you refund”. There was no explanation as to why this was the conclusion. When I inevitably followed up, I was told that, having looked again, they were arranging to make a “contribution” of £50 towards the cost which is apparently in line with what they can offer so they are “fair” to all their customers. That was a couple of weeks ago now and the £50 has still not been sent.

    Still inevitably unhappy with this outcome, I wrote a letter addressed to the Head of Customer Relations, which I copied to the CEO Alex Cruz. It was a long and detailed letter in which I asked for various explanations, and also asked for them to send me copies of the correspondence on this matter in case I need to take it further – since BA uses an online form and I worked on the basis that my claim should be basically straightforward, I didn’t copy any of my submissions. The response I got – not from the head of customer relations – simply said they were right. They haven’t provided me with copies of the correspondence, even though I have asked them to do this a few times.

    I don’t see how it can be fair or reasonable for an airline to take my money to transport me to a particular destination but then send me somewhere else and expect me to foot the additional costs of getting to where I was supposed to be. Given all the circumstances, I do not feel that the costs I incurred were even slightly unreasonable – I really had no choice. Had I stayed down at Heathrow, the costs incurred would likely have been a lot higher. Has anyone had a similar experience with BA, and did you manage to get it resolved and get them to repay the costs you incurred? Needless to say, there is no way I’ll ever be flying with BA again!
  • Tyzap
    Tyzap Posts: 2,112
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    Hi legowyn,

    As you arrived at Glasgow just under 3 hrs late you do not qualify for compensation. Had it been 11 mins later you would have qualified for €250.

    So long as you have a receipt for the taxi, BA should refund that amount back to you. BA were obliged, by the regs, to make the arrangements for you, and this would have circumvented this issue. They failed to do so, and so they should now repay your costs.

    If they continue to refuse to pay up, I would ask BA to refer your claim to CEDR for an impartial adjudication.

    Good luck.
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  • Thanks. I know that strictly compensation isn't due, but I did ask them to consider it given the delay actually exceeded the length of the flight time for both flights combined, and because it took them over a month to respond to me, followed by some exceptionally poor responses from their customer service team. I provided the receipt for the taxi to BA with my initial response and I completely agree that BA have failed to meet their obligations under the regs, which I have pointed out to them. This really shouldn't need to go to adjudication, which is likely to take a while and, as I understand it, comes with a cost, albeit it is refunded if I am successful.
  • JPears
    JPears Posts: 5,084
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    Why didn't you state that it took over 3 hours to get to Glasgow? How would they have known as they took no interest in their duty of care towards you?
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  • Tyzap wrote: »
    Hi Jackie2118,

    Thank you for your response, it was most helpful. Please see below the response I received from BA. FYI I had to call BA to find this out. They did not contact me as they promised. I have already escalated my case to CEDR for a ruling on the delay claim. However with regards to BA's refusal to accept any liability for the 6 day delay of our luggage, I am not sure if CEDR cover this?

    It's generally accepted that a medical emergency is an EC, meaning BA would not have to pay compensation.

    However, this may have happened earlier in the day on a different flight, known as a knock on delay, which would mean you are possibly due compensation.

    They should explain how and why this exempts them from being liable for compensation, which is what the regs expect of them.

    If BA will not come clean, you can ask for your claim to be referred to CEDR who will adjudicate on your behalf.

    Good luck.

    Edit.
    Please post your 1st flight details so we can have a dig around.

    Thanks for your time on the telephone this afternoon. It was good to speak with you.

    As discussed, I can confirm that your flight, BA1487 from Glasgow to London Heathrow on October 02, was delayed because the crew operating it were delayed on the previous rotation. They had been delayed on the Edinburgh to London Heathrow sector by 52 minutes as the result of a medical emergency on board. The aircraft was late arriving in London Heathrow, and as a consequence was late arriving in Glasgow to operate your flight sector.

    A medical emergency is not a qualifying reason for a flight to be eligible for EU compensation, as it's regarded as being outside the control of the airline. Therefore, on this occasion, I regret to confirm that you and your family do not qualify for EU compensation after missing your original connection.

    My manager has reviewed your case with myself today. They have concluded that we are unable to offer any further gesture or compensation. I realise that is not the news you wanted to hear, and I'm sorry about that.
  • JPears
    JPears Posts: 5,084
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    A medical emergency on a different flight is NOT usally an EC, especially as it affected a flight leaving Heathrow, BA's main hub. Contingencies should be in place for issues such as this. Medical emergencies are inherent in operating an airline. The operations department will have already known well before the flight from Edinburgh got to Heathrow that it was going to be late leaving Heathrow. Nearly an hour is a considerable amount of time in these city hop patterns and they would have known it would have knock on effects.
    What was your original transfer time between flights at Heathrow?
    BA have effectively called time on this so you can now go to CEDR with a full arguements in place. Help will be given here.
    As you mentioned previously, they appear to be ignoring your later connections completely.
    Time to
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  • Tyzap
    Tyzap Posts: 2,112
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    edited 5 December 2017 at 8:27AM
    Jackie2118 wrote: »
    Thanks for your time on the telephone this afternoon. It was good to speak with you.

    As discussed, I can confirm that your flight, BA1487 from Glasgow to London Heathrow on October 02, was delayed because the crew operating it were delayed on the previous rotation. They had been delayed on the Edinburgh to London Heathrow sector by 52 minutes as the result of a medical emergency on board. The aircraft was late arriving in London Heathrow, and as a consequence was late arriving in Glasgow to operate your flight sector.

    A medical emergency is not a qualifying reason for a flight to be eligible for EU compensation, as it's regarded as being outside the control of the airline. Therefore, on this occasion, I regret to confirm that you and your family do not qualify for EU compensation after missing your original connection.

    My manager has reviewed your case with myself today. They have concluded that we are unable to offer any further gesture or compensation. I realise that is not the news you wanted to hear, and I'm sorry about that.

    Hi Jackie,

    As the medical emergency was two flight before yours and, as JP says, it was to BA's hub at LHR, they had a clear opportunity to recover from the previous delay. They don't appear to have done anything to mitigate the continued delay being passed along the line to your flight. For that reason you are due €600 each, assuming that you arrived 4 or more hours late at Vancouver, due to the fact that the delay is calculated at the final destination.

    BA may argue the toss over this, but I would present these facts to them one more time and ask them to either reconsider their decision or refer your claim to CEDR. The rules are pretty clear, so it should be a formality.

    Keep us updated on any progress, as there are some other bits to add if you need to reply to their defence document, if it goes to CEDR for adjudication.

    Good luck.
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  • jpsartre
    jpsartre Posts: 4,085
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    legowyn wrote: »
    When I inevitably followed up, I was told that, having looked again, they were arranging to make a “contribution” of £50 towards the cost which is apparently in line with what they can offer so they are “fair” to all their customers.

    £50 is BA's internal cap on refunding taxi costs. It has no basis in law and you should push to have the full amount refunded. If they didn't want you to take a taxi or if they didn't want to refund the full amount at least they should have made this clear to you when presenting the options of staying overnight at LHR or rerouting to EDI.
  • Hello,


    Our flight from JFK to LGW was cancelled at 2pm on the day of our flight that was meant to be at 10pm that night.


    They rebooked us on a flight at 6.30pm the following day. After 3 hours of trying to get through to them on the phone they put us up over night in the same hotel.


    On the confirmation they sent us for our rebooked flights it specifically says at the bottom "EU compensation confirmed", although the guy on the phone didn't actually mention it to me.


    Looking at all the details online regarding EU delay compensation, I assume this is clear cut and we will be offered this?


    Also, before we travelled I noticed that our return flight wasn't showing on our confirmation at all, and it wasn't until I called to query it they confirmed that our previous flight had been "fallen off" our booking & couldn't offer any explanation as to why this had happened. This was approximately 3 weeks before we travelled. I wondered if they would be liable to pay out any compensation for this?


    Thanks,
    Kev
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