downloads4me

Apologies but I wondered if someone could tell me if i should be miffed or not about the following situation. I booked a round the world trip with avios in first last month. The final leg was with Malaysian airlines however, a few days before the flight I received an email from BA saying that my flight had been cancelled and that i need to call them. BA then told me that they made a mistake and had not sent the details to MA so they cancelled my ticket. At this late stage there were no flights home from any destination near KL. As a result I had to cancel the trip which BA initially charged me a cancellation fee but later refunded. I had pre-paid accommodation which i have also lost as a result. Initially BA said they would refund this as it was their fault but they have replied that it is consequential lost and therefore not liable. I can claim this through my travel insurance but my excess is Ł150.

Am I being too sensitive? Should I expect BA to make some sort of goodwill gesture of Ł/miles? Any advice would be great. I am BA Gold.

FlyerTalker39574

Look up how much the accommodation would cost in Avios and ask for the Avios.

ajeleonard

They are right in that airlines aren't responsible for consequential losses, even if they cancel a flight on the day.

One avenue of attack might be if you were notified of your ticket cancellation within 2 weeks, and therefore might be eligible for EU compensation. Indicating you are willing to pursue them in court might also make them more responsive

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to the BA forum downloads4me, sorry to hear of this turn of events but it has happened before: BA don't ticket fast enough for some of its partner airlines, and though there is a priority queue that BAEC staff are supposed to use in this situation, there is some evidence that newer staff don't know of its existence.

You actually have a number of channels open to you, but a key one, in terms of EC261, is the direction of travel - was it to KL or from KL. If you can be a bit more specific, then the advice on offer will also be more specific.

downloads4me

Thank you - It was KUL to LHR

corporate-wage-slave

Thanks, that rules out EC261 then, it won't apply on that trip if the operator was MH. Though it may do so if there was BA metal further down the itinerary.

In which case I think you are in the more conventional customer remediation area, and you should seek a settlement from BA on your additional costs via Customer Relations, presumably for the Ł150 excess. If that doesn't work then consider appealing via CEDR or MCOL (details in the EC261 thread in the Dashboard, the protocol is the same), also check whether your insurers are prepared to give you legal cover to pursue this. If you paid by a UK issued credit card there may be scope to get them to recover this from BA, though unless it was BA Amex I doubt it would be successful. Though it is a standard aspect that consequential losses aren't covered, the wider body of consumer protection, the Montréal Convention and BA's general avoidance of Small Claims Court for smaller sums may well count in your favour.

Having said all of that, I think I would start with a telephone call to BA Customer Relations in the UK (during office hours). Don't use threats, but try and persuade them to take a more generous line. In so doing, you may want to ask whether 5,000 or 10,000 Avios would do the trick. The latter is technically worth about Ł100, but normally I'm able to squeeze Ł200 to Ł300 of value out of that amount of Avios.

Incidentally, it's unlikely to happen again, but if it does it is always worth coming on to FT to check the details out. One thing BA agents mistakenly do is look for redemption availability, and don't check with the oneworld liaison desk. Usually there is someone online here who can check out specific alternatives and get BA to rebook you into revenue classes.

downloads4me

Thank you very helpful

milgom

Sorry for hijacking this thread with a slightly out of topic question but what is the oneworld liaison desk and how can it help in those kind of situations?

corporate-wage-slave

It is a special team within BA which liaises with the other airlines to smooth out difficulties within the oneworld alliance. So the BA rep may contact their MAS opposite number and ask whether anything could be done, or check other route options. MAS' network is still quite large so I am surprised that nothing could be done but it may be that the OP's agent didn't think to try that, or the OP had other constraints not so far mentioned.

milgom

Great thanks for the explanation. I'll remember that next time if I ever encounter this kind of issue.

One factor that might have come into play with MAS is that last sunday they announced a huge devaluation and since then awards for the next few months have completely dried up. I was booking a oneworld multi partner award with Asiamiles and all the MH routes that were available when I called to check last week, were no longer available when I booked the award yesterday. I'm guessing that everybody is trying to use their enrich points before the devaluation.