Hi There,

Looking for a bit of help from the hive mind after my flight was cancelled to make sure I claim correctly. Details as follows.

Flight Details
Flight Number: BA360 (LHR - LYS)
Departure Time and Date: 07:45 on 30 September 2023
Date Cancelled: Informed of cancellation via text at 16:40 on Friday 29 September (i.e. within 24 hours of departure)
Reason for cancellation: Unknown as it was cancelled before I was at the airport. However, when I boarded my alternative flight I did hear that they had been having issues with insufficient staffing/planes so I suspect it is that rather than an extraordinary issue. I checked on Planefinder and the flight for that day is just missing so no help there.
Alternative flight: I was offered a flight in the late evening on 30 September 2023 (i.e. over 12 hours later). However this was not convenient for me so I instead requested that I took a flight a flight on the evening of Friday 29 September (Flight BA364 which left at 20:30 - i.e. well over 1 hour earlier).
Number of passengers: 2
Other issues: Due to leaving a day earlier, I had to book a last minute hotel which cost around 200GBP for the night for both of us. There was also a taxi ride to get to the hotel (there was zero availability in airport hotels) which cost 50GBP.

Questions
1. Am I eligible for a reclaim? I believe I am having read this forum as in line with EU/UK261 my chosen flight departed more than 1 hour before the schedule departure time and I was informed with less than 7 days before the flight. The flight I was offered originally would also have meant I arrived more than 3 hours later than schedule. I know this also requires it wasn't a cancellation due to exceptional circumstances but not sure how to find that out now? Am I correct that the compensation due should be 220GBP per passenger?

2. Am I able to submit the claim to BA initially for both me and my friend whom I travelled with as I booked/paid for both tickets? I believe I can submit the claim for both of us on one form.

3 .Am I able to claim for the extra night hotel cost and taxi ride in addition to the UK261 compensation and should I submit this as part of the same claim? I think it is reasonable to claim for this given the revised flight arrived at 11.10pm and I was only notified of cancellation at 4.44pm that day so I didn't have much choice and I picked the cheapest hotel I could find within a reasonable distance. I just don't want to cause my claim to be rejected if there's some rule that it is an either/or thing or if it needs to be claimed separately. Or if they argue they offered me a flight that wouldn't have needed an extra hotel/taxi if I'd gone the next day.

4. I have read elsewhere there may be a couple of specific CEDR decisions that might be worth referring to in my original reclaim for this issue as BA often try to only pay 50% of the claim in these situations. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction for these decisions (or even to another page if I should be posting elsewhere)? Should I put these in my original claim or is this likely to make BA "batten down the hatches" straight away and I'd be better only raising this if they only offer to pay 50% or try not to pay out?

Really appreciate any help with this. I have tried to read as much as I can to make sure I get this right but just want to confirm before submitting!