heychadwick

I was set to go on a flight from Heathrow to Charlotte, USA. The flight was cancelled that morning and I had to take a flight the next day. AA gave me a voucher for bus to the hotel. Free hotel and food at the hotel. That was nice.

According to UK law, I should also get reimbursed for any other costs and paid out 520 pounds (British pounds sterling). Their link is here: (I'm not allowed to share urls yet. Google search Civil Aviation Authorities Delays UK)
long-haul flight of over 3,500km (e.g. London to New York) - Compensation = £520

I was told to just submit a claim on their website.

I've gone to their website and submitted a claim. They responded by giving me 2500 miles. Yeah, that's not the cash or the reimbursement for arranged travel and other things I listed in the email. They said nothing.
I filled out another form with the same incident number. Their response was to give me $25 flight cash.
I filled out another form with the same incident number, again. I put the same link as above for the UK regulations. No response. It's been a couple of days.

Is there anything I can do to escalate or help me out here? It seems like they are blowing me off and there is no way to contact them.

UKtravelbear

Whether compensation under the UK261 regulation applies (or not) depends on the reason for the cancellation of the flight. Do you know why the flight was cancelled?

Also it was more than 'nice' for AA to arrange a hotel etc as that is a requirement of the same law.

What other items are you you trying to claim from AA? Not everything is reimbursable under the regulation and you may have to claim from your travel insurance.

sanova8876

If you are running out of options, try AirHelp.
They will help you get your 520 GBP if the UK261 conditions check out, and charge a commission only if succesful.
I had good experience with them getting me 600 EUR under EC261, but the commission was non negligeble, so I would consider it as a last resort.

jerry a. laska

See this thread:
​​​​​​GUIDE: EC261 / EC 261/2004 “EU” complaints, compensation and AA

steveholt

There are many options OP should try before going to AirHelp, which will eat a significant portion of the money they are owed by AA.

OP, you need to find out why the flight was cancelled. You will need to follow up with AA, as their immediate replies to these sorts of requests are just AI responses. It may take more than a couple of days for you to get a reply. BA, for example, can take weeks before responding to an EU261 claim. You have several (I believe six) years to file this claim, so you have plenty of time.

If AA doesn't respond within a month, you could try calling them directly, or e-mailing an AA executive, or sending another message to AA.
If they don't respond to that, you could theoretically file a DOT complaint that AA have not responded to your request for further information, but the DOT cannot force them to pay you. This would mostly be just to ensure that you get an actual response from a real person.
If AA does respond within a month and pays up, great!
If AA does respond within a month and says that they don't need to pay up, their argument for why they didn't need to pay will need to be made clear. (This could be weather-related, strike-related, etc.) You can come back to this forum to ask whether AA's response passes muster or if you should proceed further.

At that point, you then might need to get someone like AirHelp involved.

DIRECT MERIT

The Regulation requires the airline to prove why UK/EU261 is NOT payable, not for you to prove why it is.

Mwenenzi

heychadwick Welcome to FT
'Without disclosing your personal details what were "other things I listed in the email."?
The BA thread is a good reference as to what compensation and reimbursement are payable for. Compensation and reimbursement are not the same.'
BA --> The 2024 BA compensation thread: Your guide to Regulation EC261 / UK261
Depending on the reason you may be due nothing or something.

SK AAR

Welcome to FT!

Under UK 261 you are not entitled to reimbursement of consequential/indirect losses/costs (lost travel arrangements such as pre-booked tours or hotel at destination) but as a starting point you are entitled to £520 as compensation for the cancellation (unless it was caused by extraordinary circumstances). There is a big difference between compensation and reimbursement of costs, so you need to be very clear in your communication with AA about this.

As the hotel, food and airport shuttle were provided by AA there seems no additional costs you are entitled to claim for under the duty or care.

heychadwick

It was an OPERATIONAL DECISION on their part. Not weather. Not a strike. Either a wing fell off or they just decided it wasn't a good deal.

I know the reimbursements will be a challenge to get. We had arranged for a car to pick us up that was non-refundable. We are going to try for another day of pet care and the uber we had to take on the way to the airport on the day we didn't fly out.

heychadwick

Thanks! It's still a confusing mess, but at least I can now use the term UK 261 with them.

USFlyerUS

Pet care won't be covered. The UK261 compensation is meant to cover expenses such as this.

Regarding the Uber, if AA arranged for an airport shuttle to/from the airport they booked for you after the cancellation, then the Uber cost is something you would have incurred even without the cancellation. I doubt AA will reimburse this. (Uber to/from the hotel they booked for you if they hadn't arranged for an airport shuttle likely would have been, though.)

SK AAR

I'm sorry but there is no way AA is on the hook for this. It will be covered by the £520 comp. for the cancellation and it will only complicate your claim and drag it out if you keep insisting on reimbursement of these (indirect) expenses.

heychadwick

Yeah, but the Mrs. wants to try. I get it, though.

UKtravelbear

Operational Reasons can still be an exempt category.

You need to push back to AA and ask for more details as to the exact reason.

Making sarcastic comments won’t help you.

Airlines don’t cancel flights at the last minute because they think “it wasn’t a good deal” to operate especially in Europe where we have regulations to cover that and hit them financially.

enviroian

OP what day was the flight? I can check EF for flight status and see reason for delay.