Paralytic

I did consider that too

umichguy

Update: Apart from the initial BA email, nothing back from BA even after I replied back to them using the online web form. Twice. And it's been well over 2- 3 weeks.

Starting to look like I might have to escalate and take it to MoneyClaim. Or is it worthwhile writing a snail mail to BA before MCOL?

corporate-wage-slave

You may wish to look at some of the recent pages to get a feel for this (or indeed my post 1331 on your claim), but using the webform isn't going to move things with any speed. Have a look at post 832 on a more disciplined process which is likely to deliver results faster. It is ok to send a notice before action by webmail, giving 7 days and then around day 10 going down the MCOL route.

umichguy

Thanks. I might do the Royal Mail recorded delivery letter thingy, since I am here currently in the UK anyways and then file the MCOL claim if they don't get back to me within 7 working days....

dylanks

Ok, I thought this couldn't get more amusing. Yesterday I received a third response offering compensation again. This time they realized they had already offered compensation as they sent another email a short while later.

Rather amusing, but I feel like BA can stop offering me compensation and respond more favorably to some of the other requests on here.

Given this experience, I'm wondering if BA notes certain flights like mine as "definitely pay, we really messed up", but then attempt to push back on others?

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, that is the impression I have too, though perhaps not always to the extent of desperately throwing ever more money at you. It must be nice to be loved.

More seriously though, your case involved about 6 different relatively minor glitches, each of which had perhaps a 20-40 minute delay capacity, building up one after the other, then leading to the service being cancelled altogether and being re-arranged for the next day, with an overnight stop. So indeed it was a royal mash-up here and difficult for BA to argue against, along with the feeling that probably for all of the glitches plus the delay that compensation was inevitable, necessary and the right thing to do.

There are certain things that BA are reluctant to do even where the Regulations are fairly clear. Simple technical snafus leading to multi hour delays and also downgrades in particular. IDB they seem fine about if 100% down to overbooking, but not for check-in snafus.

In the case of technical issues I've no doubt they feel the Regulations have been re-interpreted too far from their perspective - bearing in mind the regulations were initially implemented with zero delay compensation - and I think they query the potential impact on safety if the logic was taken to its conclusion.

In the case of downgrades, I'm not quite sure what BA's beef is. I guess it may be due to the fact that one common cause of downgrades is that if rebooked on to another airlines - particularly if there is a joint business arrangement - then typically it won't have a WTP equivalent and therefore BA gets pinged largely because of another airline's configuration. Also I guess if a dozen people get downgraded, and they have high priced tickets, the 75% figure could remove the entire profit margin for a service which was anticipated to bring in a lot of cash. Since downgrades, which are rare, tend to hit whoever booked last and without status, those affected may well have paid a high price for booking late. The canny status traveller on a cheap inflexible is unlikely to be selected for downgrade.

In downgrading someone, there tends to be sloppy handling, so agents don't see the ticket price and there is generally a view of "get them off our hands quick", rather than looking for an indirect route which maintains the right cabin and reduces liability from 75% of a big figure to €600 or lower. Under the Regulations it is better to insist on delaying people for a long time if necessary rather than downgrading, but few passengers or indeed agents would think that acceptable.

Paralytic

When I didn't get a response, I contacted BA via twitter. That elicited a response that indicated the direction BA were taking, and helped me make my next move (MCOL) sooner than I would otherwise have done.

Paralytic

Thinking about my one and only claim against BA, where I was paid EU261 comp. after claiming via MCOL, I realised that doing so was out of character for me.

I've been delayed before by 4+ hours before on BA, but being someone who doesn't pro-actively engage in conflict, I've never bothered claiming. I actually surprised myself that I went down the MCOL route.

Tracing back my engagement with BA, I've since pin-pointed the point at which I decided I would claim: In one of the emails from BA, one of their Customer Service agents effectively blamed me for my delay because I had booked a (valid) one hour connection at Heathrow. This annoyed me - more than it really should have, but it did.

Had BA thrown some service recovery Avios at me, I'd likely to have left it at there and moved on, but it cost them Ł500+.

I'm interested, has anyone else gone down this route, where BA's intransigence (IMO) caused you to harden your own line towards them?

Could BA's stance of "don't pay until MCOL arrives" actually be costing them more?

umichguy

I was thinking of Twitter as well, since quite a few companies' customer service teams seem to respond much quicker on it.

Can I ask you what you said and what their reply was?

Blueboys999

I do see what you're saying there. Even though BA have eventually paid up you're still left with a negative impression of them and I would feel exactly the same way.

I suppose they've done their sums and concluded that they're better off rejecting claims without justification because many will just go away. If that strategy means that they will p**s off others who will then persist and they'll have to pay out eventually then that's a price worth paying even if some of those don't ever come back.

Regrettably, it seems the best strategy is to be as bloody-minded as they are.

Paralytic

I asked when I would get a reply. I gave them the ticket number, got a response fairly quickly saying they'd look into it and then got an official response via email a few hours later.

Paralytic

Yes, and if BA had thrown a few Avios my way in the first instance, or not tried to say it was my own fault, I doubt I would have gone down the MCOL route.

umichguy

Did the same, they got back to me with the usual "Please wait till the Supreme Court decision, we will be happy to re-review the claim again." response on Twitter DM.

So, looks like it will be MCOL after all......

UKBAflyer13

+1 ... said that despite the ruling that most technical faults cannot be classed as 'extraordinary' they wanted to wait for the outcome of the Supreme Court.

EDI_Martin

Yes, im currently fighting my latest complaint(s) and after today I feel they are forcing me down the MCOL in what really should have been an open and shut case.

Long and short of my complaint(s) flew home from Tampa on BA2166, delayed 6.1/2 hours due to a technical issue with the incoming BA2167, filed the webform and had the response of tech error not paying Jet2claim blah blah blah (youve heard of the std response) contact us once this is resolved. I contacted them right away stating my flight wasn't delayed due to tech issues it was delayed because the incoming flight was late. Requested update 10 days later, no response, today which is a further 5 days I called them, no change on their side, extraordinary circumastance due to tech fault, I asked today what the fault was and was told it was on the 2167 and that counts as a tech fault on 2166. Nonsense, so tonight I will proceed with MCOL.

To go further as my earlier posts and thread suggest I had a double invol downgrade, my booking was a full avios redemption of 100k and a WT+ UUA for 25k, received cash refund of Ł378 for the WT+ UUA leg and 12.5k avios, receiving some tax and 25k avios for CW redemption, so by definition i suppose my refund is correct, this took a call this morning of 45 mins to get to this stage.

So the EU261 claim under Article 10, was told that my Ex Gratia payment card $975 would form part of compensation and I would get a refund, I said ive had refund agreed and the EGPC wouldnt form part of any payable EU261 complaint as that is for 75% of the fare. Customer relations for some reason kept referring to refund rather than compensation, long and short of it is it's messy and i'll have to leave it with them as I cannot put a hard cash figure on MCOL as i don't have a hard fast figure for refund due to my method of booking.

If I had been offered a minimum of 50k avios id have closed this case but i felt the customer relations guy was being awkward, im going to email tonight and suggest this to clear up the mess because i feel if i leave this to run it will never end.