Flight delay and cancellation compensation, BA ONLY

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  • hotfrog
    hotfrog Posts: 8 Forumite
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    One letter and 4 emails later and BA has confirmed that despite what they originally said I am entitled to 1500 euros in compensation for a delayed flight from Orlando to London.

    I emailed them last week to say I wanted them to reconsider my claim following the Supreme Court ruling. I gave them 5 working days to respond and it worked! I was all set to take them to the small claims court.

    Thanks to everyone who posted such helpful advice on here.
  • Caz3121
    Caz3121 Posts: 15,545 Forumite
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    bump to page 1
  • vincit_veritas
    vincit_veritas Posts: 39 Forumite
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    edited 20 November 2014 at 1:46PM
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    hacked_off wrote: »
    Hi all, apologies if this has been done before but any advice would be appreciated.

    I was delayed for 6 hours from LHR-DUB 24th May last year when a BA flight diverted back into LHR after losing it's engine cowlings on take-off. This was later proved to be BA's fault.

    I have written to BA countless times arguing that as this was shown to be an engineering failing, I am liable for compensation. However they have repeatedly blamed "airspace restrictions" which are outside of their control. I am an air traffic controller and have pointed out to them that these restrictions always have a root cause (in this case their shoddy maintenance) but still they refuse to pay up. I have appealed to the CAA twice and despite reopening the case and referring it back to BA, they have now upheld BA's argument that it was not their fault. After nearly a year of complaints BA have now changed their story from one of "airspace restrictions" to "adverse weather." I have obtained the LHR weather for that day (perk of the job) and there was nothing worse than light rain all day, in short, in twelve + years of experience in the aviation industry, weather which I have NEVER seen to be poor enough to create flight delays.

    BA and the CAA have said they consider the matter closed and will now no longer correspond with me. Before I go down the route of MCOL, or NWNF, does anyone know of any success stories from this particular day (there were mass cancellations and delays) which I could cite as precedent along with my threats of legal action?

    Any help which you could offer would be very much appreciated. BA have been beyond arrogant in this matter and this really now is about a principle. One of their customer advisors made a slip on the phone and advised me "we've been instructed that we will be refusing all claims from that day." So I think it's about time, if they haven't already, that they were made accountable!! :mad:

    http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2014-004931&language=EN (you have to click to see the "answer")

    I found this a few days ago: my case sounds very similar to your own, I was due to fly into LHR that evening but my flight was repeatedly delayed before being cancelled altogether and I was finally put on a flight the following afternoon: 20 hour delay. The "extraordinary circumstances" (eg airspace closure for the rest of the day due to a brief and unrelated incident at Stansted - something which was news to NATS) cited by BA do not ring true. A few days ago, I emailed the CAA, asking them to tell me whether the reasons given by BA were actually true, pointing out that, as the National Enforcement Body, they are supposed to ensure correct (ie honest) implementation of the process. Sounds like the EC Commissioner may have already been onto them about this; I'll post again if I get any response. As you say, you do get to the point where the compensation is irrelevant and this becomes a question of principle...
  • TeddyG
    TeddyG Posts: 11 Forumite
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    I thought there would be complications with this one.
    My son paid for his sister's return fare from Australia with his air miles and paid the taxes by card or whatever.
    She was delayed for over 12 hours in Singapore on the way here (connecting flight never left London) and was accommodated in a hotel overnight on BA. We made the claim in mid-September and my daughter returned to Oz towards the end of October after telling BA I was looking after her claim.
    No news for a few weeks (probably awaiting the pending High Court ruling) then last week we were told she would be paid 600 euros (£470.10). As she is resident in Australia she asked that this be paid into my bank account. No problem; it was paid in this week.
    'Job's a good un' as far as we are concerned.
  • lizzylol
    lizzylol Posts: 4 Newbie
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    Hi guys :)

    First post so hope its in the right place.

    I flew BA from LHR to JFK on the 3rd June 2013, originally take off time was 1440. As we were all sat on the plane the pilot announced that the plane had been hit by lightning from the previous flight that was not detected by the electronics, and was only visable when he had done the visual inspection.

    He then said he would need to find a new plane for us, so we were sat in the plane for 2.5hrs (nightmares, trust me, no trolley service or AC haha), and eventually we were given the usual compensation vouchers for food and taken off the plane. Anyway- total delay was 5.5hrs.

    I would have thought on the surface it wouldn't be possible to claim, however, another person on the internet claimed about this same flight- and won in avios points. I'm wondering what you guys on the forum think about this one, as I only thought about trying to claim when I saw the recent court rulings surrounding the EU claims. If the plane was hit by lightning, surely it is a BA technical failure that it wasn't picked up- and they should have had another plane ready?

    Thanks :)
  • Vauban
    Vauban Posts: 4,736 Forumite
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    Yep. If you were struck by lightening just before takeoff this would be difficult. But failure to detect a previous strike in time is an operational problem, so you're entitled to €600 in cash.
  • lizzylol
    lizzylol Posts: 4 Newbie
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    Thanks for the quick reply Vauban.

    Drafting the actual letter up is straightforward enough apart from describing the problem. Do I state that the operational error of not detecting the lightning strike is the reason for the claim, or something along those lines? I'd rather get the first letter/email as strong as it can be- I see a lot of people on this thread have been caught in letters going forward and back.
  • Stewarty30
    Stewarty30 Posts: 1 Newbie
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    hotfrog wrote: »
    One letter and 4 emails later and BA has confirmed that despite what they originally said I am entitled to 1500 euros in compensation for a delayed flight from Orlando to London.

    I emailed them last week to say I wanted them to reconsider my claim following the Supreme Court ruling. I gave them 5 working days to respond and it worked! I was all set to take them to the small claims court.

    Thanks to everyone who posted such helpful advice on here.
    Hot frog - do you mind me asking - when you wrote BA asking them to reconsider your claim following the Supreme Court ruling, did you re open you original claim or write a whole new letter?
    My claim was rejected this time last year for a flight to Las Vegas last October. I have an email from them rejecting my case at the time and had a link to my case if I wanted to correspond again. Did you click on the link to reopen your case or start the claim as fresh? Thanks!
  • loobs40
    loobs40 Posts: 1,232 Forumite
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    edited 27 November 2014 at 11:15PM
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    Bott & Co emailed me today to say BA have agreed to pay the compensation for the 7.5 hours stuck on board a 777 overnight in Feb at JFK after a part failed.

    This after BA had refused me twice citing extraordinary circumstances.

    :beer::j
  • Blossom_Possum
    Blossom_Possum Posts: 5 Forumite
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    Listening to Martin on This Morning couple of weeks ago, thought he said I would be able to claim for cancellation but need clarification, please.
    BA flight at 20.35pm, Jan 2010 & flight was cancelled that morning because plane hadn't come from the UK due to weather conditions. Flight before us at about 16.00pm went to LHR & managed to take a few passengers. So LHR wasn't completely snowed in.
    We could either fly 2 days later with BA or next day with Continental. We chose next day, so were put in airport hotel. When we got home I claimed for the booked seats in Traveller plus that we hadn't used but that's all I got.
    Any idea if I can claim for the cancellation? could have sworn Martin said that it was their fault. Thanks in advance.
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