Originally Posted by
aliz786
They've mentioned that if I take this matter to CEDR, the e-voucher offer will be retracted. I'm quite uncertain about how to proceed and could really use some advice on whether to accept the £400 e-voucher or pursue the case further with CEDR.
Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum.
What matters here is not the delay in departure, but the delay in getting to your destination and the doors opening such that passengers can leave the aircraft. And the delay indeed needs to be more than 180 minutes to get part compensation in this scenario, or 240 minutes for full compensation. What BA (and other airlines) can do is come up with the concept of "countable" minutes. So if - for example - ATC had blocked departure for 20 minutes, that's non-countable, BA isn't usually responsible for that delay. So that's how BA can somehow get 5 hour delays down to under 3 hours, but as you can see what matters are the details, which we don't really have here.
Now I'm assuming that the flight crew gave you a briefing as to the reason for the delay, what did they say?
BA's as a standard do tend to say they may withdraw alternative offers if you go to CEDR. I don't think it has actually happened, but if the case is not eligible for EC261 then that's their prerogative, but terrible customer relations. But they can't withdraw EC261 remedies, that's just a matter of law. So by all means give some more details and we can give better advice.