corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk Mrlmrl, and welcome to the BA forum, it sounds like you had a very difficult time here, and the ongoing outcome wasn't very good either.

We have a thread about EC261 in the forum Dashboard. However I don't think I have come across these particular circumstances before so while that thread may help on some general issues, such as how CEDR works, it may not be that helpful to you.

You claim failed because there is a clear disagreement in the centre here, namely whether you were asked for your credit card or not. The airline presented a PNR (booking record) which says they did ask you, so a piece of evidence. There was also a statement from the ground handling company in PMI. And you couldn't produce any evidence to prove your case. Now there is an immediate response available here, it's trying to prove a negative - it would be almost impossible to prove - something the ruling did also state. But the adjudicator had to rule on the balance of probabilities and was suitably impressed with BA's documentation. I've been around long enough to have some healthy suspicion about this, including exactly when the PNR was updated (several days after the event maybe?) but clearly I don't have any evidence either of this.

Where can you go from here? Well the MCOL route (Small Claims) may get you further consideration, but before doing that you would need as far as possible to have whatever evidence you have to prove the opposite. For example, did you use that credit card physically in some other transaction that day? Even better if it was at PMI airport or immediately before it. At which point it would be evident you really did have the credit card on you at the time, and it would be perverse for you not to show it when asked. Or was there somebody with you, near you, when this all happened? MCOL may take a more passenger friendly approach here for various reasons but you really need to come up with what you can to go against the CEDR ruling.

The other thing is whether BA were reasonable in asking for your credit card, CEDR certainly think so, but would MCOL? Not sure. It's certainly in the Conditions of Carriage.

If you go the MCOL route you have to act very carefully and do a lot of preparation, BA would go into this with a head start on the CEDR ruling, and will also try to get you to pay their costs unless you can present a robust line of argument, new evidence perhaps, and do what you can to minimise BA's cost (e.g. making an out of court settlement proposal). Unlike with CEDR you can also do a "Statement of Truth" - kind of an oath - to say you had the card on you and were not asked about it. This would in turn be a significant piece of evidence for the judge, who would rate it as an important aspect of the case.

Now I'm hoping BA or your credit card company refunded the cost of the ticket, you would also get (presumably) EC261 from easyJet too, so I'm hoping you won't be out of pocket by a large amount. I think there is something in the Conditions of Carriage that if BA refuses to carry you then they will refund your ticket. If easyJet didn't reroute you then I vaguely think they are on the hook for your rerouting costs, and if BA's fare is recovered, then I'm hoping it is cost neutral for you.