FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - why did BA send me to a hotel when flight was clearly cancelled by weather?
Old Jul 4, 2016 | 2:19 pm
  #2  
rossmacd
10 Countries Visited
All eyes on you!
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 7,463
Originally Posted by Siberian_Viktorya
(this is absolutely NOT a complaint )


I was flying on a BA flight on a paid ticket. Probably one of the cheapest available when I booked it and I have absolutely no status with BA or any OW carrier.

The flight got cancelled and weather was clearly the reason. Since it was the last flight of the day, I started looking for hotel rooms on my phone, while standing in line to get rebooked for the next day's flight.

To my amazement, the BA handling agent gave me boarding passes for the next morning, as well as a hotel voucher. At first, I thought it was some kind of discount voucher, but she said it was free. On the hotel shuttle, I saw an elderly couple(maybe 85 to 90?) who were on my flight. They said they also got the hotel room for free. All three of us had no clue as to why. The front desk checked me and did ask for a credit card to cover incidentals. I asked again if it was free and he said BA was paying for the room, as well as the breakfast next morning(which was about $14 in USD, if I had to pay for the breakfast buffet myself) The room would have cost me $118 in USD if I booked it on their website that night, but I assume BA probably had special rates for as little as half that?

Like I said, this is not a complaint. I'm just puzzled. Is this how BA does things? I have very little experience flying BA and it was the first time I've encountered a delay/cancellation with them.

Thanks!
I am assuming you are more used to North American carriers?

In Europe, carriers are bound by EU regulation for air passenger consumer protection, called EC261/2004, where the carrier must provide accommodation for significant (overnight) delays in any circumstance (weather, technical, crew availability etc). Meals and communication expenses are usually covered also.

The North American carriers (when not flying in and out of the EU) are not held up to the same level of consumer protection.

More information here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...61-2004-a.html
rossmacd is offline