Originally Posted by
TN08
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!
Welcome to Flyertalk and to the BA forum. You've set the bar for a first post pretty highly there!
1) Yes, flight cancellation compensation will be payable here. Your flight was cancelled less than 7 days before departure and no alternative allowing you to leave ≤1 hour before and arrive ≤2 hours after was offered. As per post
#2437 by the ever helpful [MENTION=626839]Sigwx[/MENTION] in the BA delays & cancellations thread, the reason for your flight's cancellation is FCRY, i.e. a shortage of flight crew, which BA considers eligible for UK261 compensation. The compensation payable is indeed £220 per person as the flight is under 1500km (there are higher amounts for longer flights).
2) You can submit the claims together or separately - it's up to you. Payment will normally be made on a per-claim basis, so if your friend is OK with you receiving their compensation and then disbursing it to them (if that's what you've agreed between yourselves) then by all means submit one claim. Doing it this way also means that if you need to take it to CEDR or Court, you can process it for both of you in one case.
3) The additional night's hotel and taxi isn't recoverable under a literal reading of UK261 - that would require you to have been delayed, rather than to arrive early. That being said, there is every argument to say that a purposive interpretation of the Regulations (as the CJEU and other senior Courts have taken in recent years) does give rise to such an entitlement. Either way, BA either will or won't pay it - their position (at least before it gets to CEDR/Court) is unlikely to be swayed by any legal arguments you may make.
The ability to recover "right to care" expenses under UK261 is independent from, but in addition to, compensation. Each is recoverable based on a different set of rules - the reason for a delay/cancellation is irrelevant for expenses claims, but is crucial to compensation claims.
So long as you don't have any other expenses you want to claim back, I don't see any harm in lumping in the expenses with your compensation claim. It'll either get approved or denied and you can decide whether to pursue it accordingly.
4) See the post directly above yours where [MENTION=566057]KARFA[/MENTION] relates their experience of a comparable situation. Even though the legal position is crystal clear (the 50% reduction doesn't apply, as no flight meeting the 1 hour earlier to 2 hours later window was proffered), BA continue to act otherwise. You may well have to take it to CEDR or Court to get what you're entitled to.
There's little point including anything on this in your initial claim submission though. The shorter the text accompanying your claim, the quicker it's likely to be dealt with. Claims with 1-2 sentences tend to be processed in a sort of "fast track" queue whereas claims with more text tend to take 2-3 months. The claims handlers have most of the relevant information in their systems anyway, so don't bother writing them a rendition of War & Peace (that they won't read anyway!).
Hope that helps!