max_bos

Hello,

I would appreciate your advice on getting EU216 compensation from BA due to the cancelation of flight from BA215 from LHR to BOS on July 8 (it was our flight home at the end of a European vacation).

The four of us were scheduled to fly from London to Boston on July 8 in J class (T fare upgraded with miles). My wife has Gold status with BA, and kids and I have Bronze status. We were informed of the cancelation on July 6 by e-mail. I logged into MMB, and saw that they moved us to the BA 213 departing on July 7. Since we would still be outside of the UK on the 7th, I called the Gold line and asked for an alternative flight. The agent offered a few options on the 9th and 10th, and all of them included downgrades and our group being split up between several flights. I asked if they could route us via JFK, and he said 'yes' - there was availability in J on BA117 for all four of us on July 9th. They also (reluctantly) put us on AA flight with a BA codeshare from JFK to BOS. I then asked whether BA would provide a hotel for us at LHR. The answer was a firm 'No'. I was told to book the hotel myself and submit our expenses later. I then asked if there was any guidance from BA on how much they would cover, and was told that they could not provide any guidance.

Once I saw how expensive hotel rooms were at LHR for July 8th, I asked my wife to call the Gold line again and ask how much they would cover. The agent put my wife on hold for 10 minutes and supposedly spoke to Customer Relations. In the end, my wife got the same answer as I did: no guidance from BA, book your own rooms and submit your expenses. We ended up booking two rooms at the Sofitel on Hotwire for $796. This was the cheapest price for the Sofitel (other LHR hotels were over 300 GBP too), plus we did not want to stay further from T5 with our flight departing at 8:30 in the morning. BA's cancelations and delays surely drive up last-minute hotel prices at LHR!

Once we got home, we filed two claims with BA under the EU216 compensation rules: one for the cost of hotel and dinner, and the other for the 4x620 EUR compensation due to our arriving in Boston 22 hours after the scheduled arrival time.

BA took about 3 weeks to reply to the first claim. They were prepared to pay 400 GBP for the two hotel rooms and 87.50 GBP for dinner. I do not object to their not covering the full cost of dinner, but I think that BA had no right to impose the internal limit on how much of the hotel cost they would cover. They should have either arranged a hotel for us themselves (and we had given them that option), or covered the full cost. We never agreed to he terms of the settlement, but but did give BA our bank details. They transferred $631 to our account a week later.
I filed an travel insurance claim with Allianz for the remainder of the expenses (about $360). Allianz requested a 'common carrier statement of delay or cancelation', since they were not able get one themselves. It took BA a week to produce the document, but when they did, it said that the flight was cancelled 'for operational reasons'. This is relevant to our second claim with BA, and it may also give Allianz an excuse to deny our claim (they may say that the carrier was fully responsible).

BA never responded in writing to our second claim (4xEUR620 compensation). When my wife called Customer Relations on the phone, she was told that the claim was denied because the the cancellation occurred due to the industrial action, and thus outside of BA's control. My wife then asked whether they could respond to the claim saying that the decision was final, so that we could ask CEDR to rule on the case. They responded with the wrong case number (the first claim), and did not correct the issue after my wife replied to that e-mail. They just keep sending the same copy-and-paste 'We are sorry you are still unhappy' reply.

I am still planning to file a case with CEDR, and would appreciate your opinion on the following points I am planning to make:
1. Boston flights are not operated by the Mixed Crew, so BA should not be blaming the cancelation on the industrial action.
2. BA's own official letter stated that the flight was canceled for operational reasons.
3. CAA stated that the 'extraordinary circumstances' rule does not apply to an industrial action within the airline itself.
4. BA's own application for wet-leasing QR planes stated that they expected to be responsible for compensation under the EU216 rules.

Thank you,
max_bos