Originally Posted by
runway27L
BA have rejected my claim on the basis that I did not travel on the delayed flight and so am no longer entitled to compensation. To quote their initial reply:
"I'm sorry to learn about the flight BA8746 on the 2 July 2017 that was delayed until the next day. As you didn't travel on this ticket, you are not eligible for EU compensation. You would have had to travel on this flight or one that we rebooked you on to be entitled to this. I understand this is disappointing to hear, but you are entitled to a full refund of this ticket. "
On the rebooking side, BA are probably in the right here, they offered a rebooked service, presumably 24 hours later and I doubt that would be regarded as unreasonable. The Regulation is unclear and untested (to the best of my knowledge) as to whether you have the right to be rebooked onto easyJet in that situation, but from a small airport there are going to be limited options.
The refund issue is clear even under BA's own conditions of carriage, you can have an involuntary fare refund after a 5 hour delay.
The Article 7 bit. Now if that was a cancellation you would be entitled to Article 7, so if the aircraft hadn't left Bergerac for whatever reason, then to me that's a delay. If the LCY departure also hadn't taken place then that seems to me to be a cancellation, LCY is a hub for BACF so they should have the ability to run an alternative service on the same day. It definitely is a cancellation if there was supposed to be a service the next day anyway. If there wasn't a service that day and BA inserted a new flight then you're in a weaker position. If you have a screenshot from BA.com or LCY airport saying "cancelled" then you are in a stronger position.
If you can argue "I waited 3 hours waiting for BA to provide me with a service and the I gave up and went to easyJet", then I think you can plausibly claim EC261 unless BA offered an alternative to you, and assuming it wasn't extraordinary circumstances. I know of circumstances where BA have paid out for this. BA didn't give you an alternative to the 3 hour delay therefore they are on the hook for that. If the easyJet service got you back within the 3 hours then personally that looks like you chose to opt out of your BA arrangements and use another carrier, either way you weren't delayed 3 hours. You mentioned that BA offered other rebooking options so without knowing the details of that then it is unclear what else may have been on the table.
Now I doubt you'll get any further forward with BA on this, so you need to think about CEDR or MCOL. In this particular case I don't think it matters which you choose.
I don't know if insurance would have covered any financial loss here.