FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - BA's reimbursement offer leaving me short
Old Aug 20, 2017, 12:46 am
  #177  
HarryKUK
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Bangkok / London
Programs: BA Silver, AmEx Platinum, AVIS Presidents Club, Marriott Titanium Elite
Posts: 1,097
There is little doubt in my mind that the reimbursement stance is to put people off spending / claiming.

Look how hard it is to get any money back from BA.

Imagine a family of four being stranded at an airport, going on holiday, faced with a £400 bill for two rooms, which they may or may not get back, or simply sleeping on the airport floor to guarantee they won't be left with a £400 bill. My family certainly wouldn't have had £400 lying around to waste on one nights hotel stay when we were kids. That would more likely have been their entire spending budget for a week in Spain.

I think we've reached a point with EU261 that the issue is not the legislation but the enforcement of it. I don't know when EU261 was last updated but it needs a few modifications, specifically something like:

- the airlines must either book/pay for a room themselves OR give the pax a flat €XXX at the airport (regardless of what the pax then books)
- money for food/drink etc should either be paid at the airport at the time of delay OR the airline should provide this at the time (not tell them to claim it later).

The current reg works great for those with AmEx cards or money in the bank but it's the poorest who get hit hardest - those who don't have the ability to book expensive airport hotels and so on. It isn't fair.

I always use the "what would my parents do" viewpoint and I can tell you now they would fall for all of the above problems. They would accept a measly £50 prepaid card instead of their €600 entitlement and genuinely believe they've signed away their rights; even if they haven't. They would sleep on the airport floor rather than pay £200 for a hotel because they simply wouldn't know any better.

Rant over.
HarryKUK is offline