AKGAZ

Two years ago I received E 600 compo claim reply in 24 hours! Claimed again for new delay on Jan 28 this year and received E600 Mar 8 (with acknowledgement immediately and immediate response to chaser midway).

El_LioN

Hi there,

I finally filed a complaint and opened a proceeding at CEDR after these 8 weeks.

I claimed 261/2004 compensation plus 50€ for the time lost with all the administration involved with the case. BA offered me 250€, without giving anymore information. Maybe I could have received a bit more, but I wasn't in the mood for starting tractations with BA.

I am still astonished of the behavior of the airline, who was first completely denying my claim, and finally settled easily in the CEDR procedure.

gustavmahler

Thanks for all your help a couple of weeks regarding my delayed flight from Lagos. It wouldn’t have been so bad had I the symptoms of food poisoning not started a couple of hours before the flight!

I have now heard back from BA and been offered €600 or 50k Avios. Anyway, this is a subjective question and everyone’s circumstances are different, but I’m wondering whether to take the cash or the Avios and would welcome some thoughts. I know there isn’t a universally right answer!! I’m leaning towards the cash, as it is obviously more flexible. In terms of Avios, we would use it towards a 241 (or maybe UuA) for a US trip in the future. We currently have 215k between us.

corporate-wage-slave

Indeed if you have to ask the question, the answer is almost certainly cash. If, on the other hand, you know you can get more than (say) 1.5p value per Avios and no cheaper way of acquiring them than (approx) 1.1p each, it's Avios.

gustavmahler

Well at 50k, it’s an interesting one. We wouldn’t ever buy expensive J or F fares, so UuA is more a chance to fly the higher cabin rather than money saved on buying those tickets. In addition to a few weekends in Europe, we travel to the US 1-2 times per year. For the last couple of years that has been a 241 and an ex-EU. We each have an Amex PP and I have the Gold card as well. I have some work travel, but as a Silver in Y, that doesn’t really contribute much to the Avios balance sheet.

Misco60

Last week my flight from TXL to LCY was cancelled at short notice. (I received an email at 20:57 that the flight, due to depart at 07:05 the next day, had been cancelled).

I was automatically rebooked onto the next departure, at 11:55 (which would have resulted in a delay in arrival of almost 5 hours) but, as this was not convenient, phoned BA and rebooked again onto the 07:05 flight the following day.

I claimed EC/261 compensation from BA on the grounds that my flight had been cancelled. Today they have replied as follows:Can this possibly be correct? A crew running out of hours due to a delay and there being no other crew available does not, to me, appear to be an "extraordinary circumstance" outside BA's control.

Is it worth pursuing this claim? If so, what should my very next step be?

Edit: I just had a further thought... the aircraft forming this service arrived in Berlin at about 21:00 the previous evening. How could a crew have been "out of hours", given that there was a 10-hour gap between arrival and departure?

nombody

My nephew was supposed to be on BA162 on March 27th from TLV to LHR. On the evening of March 26th he got an email from BA that the flight was cancelled. His flight was the first part of a ticket from TLV to NYC, so he was just connecting in LHR to his BA flight to JFK that same day. They have rebooked him on the same flights on March 29th which is two days later.
Is he eligible for EU261 compensation because his source and final destination were both outside the EU. Both flights were BA. Supposedly the cancellation was due to crew issues, but unclear what issues exactly,
What compensation should he expect? Will BA try to pay him under the Israeli compensation law for cancelled flights which is less generous?

corporate-wage-slave

You are right, not extraordinary. The time gap is correct, the crew do need a full 12 hours here, and that's the law, there is almost no wriggle room and BA are very strict in that area. But that's not your problem, BA have solutions open to them (rebooking you on to other airlines, for example) but decided not to do that. If you used the words EC261 in your complaint to BA, they should not have given the reply they have given (and normally they don't, incidentally).

I would now due the formal 16 days note marked at the top of the thread, clearly indicating the amount that you are seeking. Alternatively ask for the deadlock letter for CEDR, or claim via Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if you are eligible for that. Of those, 16 days + MCOL seems the easiest in this precise scenario.

corporate-wage-slave

My understanding is that BA will probably apply Israeli law in the first instance, in some cases it's more generous than EC261, but you are still free to claim EC261 for any shortfall on the Israeli payment. So I would claim initially under EC261 anyway, following the guide at the top of the thread, and stay on top of whatever BA offer. Note that your nephew is entitled to right of care expenses if they apply. Israel and Turkey are the only two countries outside Europe with this level of consumer protection, so in a way it's better than some of the alternatives!

Globaliser

At a guess, the interval between STA of 2055 and STD of 0705 the next day allows the crew to take minimum rest. If the inbound aircraft arrives late, then the next departure would have to be delayed accordingly to make sure that the crew are legal.

Looking only at the information for the delayed LCY-TXL flight doesn't give you the full picture. Between all the tools available on the web, it looks like the delayed aircraft on 22 March was G-LCYV. Despite the cancellation of BA8490 on 23 March, the aircraft operated back to LCY that morning as a ferry flight using the flight number BA9750, taking off from TXL at about 0701 and landing at LCY at about 0744. It then operated BA8491 LCY-TXL (0820-1105) and BA8492 TXL-LCY (1140-1225), albeit with a 20-minute delay at one point.

My guess is therefore that although for some reason the crew couldn't legally operate BA8490 on 23 March with passengers, they could ferry the aircraft back to LCY so that it could operate its planned schedule for the day. But as the aircraft was only about 30 minutes delayed arriving at TXL on 22 March, I'm not sure why the operations couldn't tolerate that sort of delay on 23 March, especially as the aircraft ended up running about 30 minutes late by the time it had operated BA8492 back to LCY. So I wonder whether one of the crew had perhaps gone sick.

As some of the departure and arrival times will shortly become more difficult to get, this is some of the aircraft's activity on those two days:-

Misco60

Thanks for the information, and for going to the trouble of getting the aircraft movements.

This is getting a little complicated. If, as c-w-s says (and I'm sure he's absolutely right), the crew needs a minimum of 12 hours' rest overnight then the crew that operates the inbound BA8495 could not be the same crew that takes BA8490 back to LCY the next day because the time between arrival and departure is only about 10 hours. So where did the crew that would have operated BA8490 on 23/03 come from, and why were they out of hours? Presumably, they would have arrived in TXL on another BA flight the previous day?

I replied to BA, making it absolutely clear that I was making an EC261 claim for the cancellation, pointing out that crew being out of hours is not normally considered an "extraordinary circumstance" and asking them to reconsider their initial refusal of compensation. They replied very quickly, as follows:So, still no closer to understanding exactly why this claim is being refused.

corporate-wage-slave

I really wouldn't waste time trying to fathom this out. Just give 16 days notice or ask for deadlock. They have got this wrong, and you will need the legal team to look at this rather than CR.

madfish

I hope nobody minds too much me asking this here as it does not relate to BA but wanted some advise from the learned members on here who have experience if such matters. I am looking at using mcol against a service provider and have a few questions. If anybody is willing to help please could you send me a PM and I can ask directly. Thank you.

slanty

Hi guys, long time lurker finally in need of some advice!

I was delayed arriving into IAD on BA217 last month; the first of two incidents with rodents onboard that week. The flight was initially delayed due to the mouse being found on board and they quickly made the decision to switch to the standby A380. The captain informed us that said standby plane was available but had suffered a lightning strike on its inbound journey so would need checking by maintenance before coming back into service.

We eventually got the replacement and landed at IAD well over the 4 hours needed for compensation.

I got my initial dismissal from BA in the form of:

I asked for this to be reviewed based on the fact that:

1. Rodents on board a plane should be preventable through adequate maintenance
2. Two separate aircraft suffered from this that week; certainly not extraordinary
3. The replacement was unavailable and contributed significantly to the delay

My most recent reply came:
And finally to my question...do you think that this is worth pursuing any further? I'm unsure if it's reasonable to expect compensation on this and wondered if anyone on either this or the San Francisco flight that week had any luck or advice on how to proceed?

Thanks very much!

corporate-wage-slave

slanty, welcome to Flyertalk, and welcome to the BA forum. It's good to see you here, and please make yourself at home. Welcome on board.

My view is that your analysis is correct, and that this isn't extraordinary enough. Had they got airborne, discovered a mouse, diverted, then they may have a case - the word extraordinary does have a commonsense meaning here. But as you say, the BA pussy must have been napping, there was more that could have been done to reduce rodent residence. Such as improved cleaning.

Anyway I think you are ok to move to MCOL now, or CEDR. I don't think BA have a strong case here, though I can see it could be argued.