Originally Posted by
marks7389
Called this afternoon to do that but was told by the agent to fill out the complaints form.
I'd already typed up the details and breakdown for my claim, including the Mennens calculation so have submitted that.
I went down the Bookings and Reservations route rather than the Delays, Cancellations and Diversions route as the former is very restrictive/prescriptive about what you can claim and specifically excludes claims relating to extraordinary circumstances. Let's see where that leads.
Sadly I'm getting the typical run-around from BA that seems to be their standard approach to dealing with disruption claims. They sent me some boilerplate text that completely ignored my claim and closed the case. I then went back to them via the
[email protected] email address telling them the matter wasn't settled and reattaching the detail of my claim.
They then sent a response saying someone from the refunds team would be in touch, followed up by a second response (also from the customer relations team) that:
1. Denied our downgrade claim "As you rebooked yourself in a lower cabin and were not downgraded by us".
2. Accepted our Duty of Care claim.
3. Unilaterally refunded the cash, but not Avios (or voucher), element of our cancelled booking to the original payment method.
4. Offered to refund any "fare difference" between the bookings without stating what that meant.
Obviously not surprised on point 1. They were never going to accept that without a fight even though in the absence of successful contact (and not knowing how long the disruption at Heathrow would continue) our practical options were limited. Points 3 & 4 are just odd, given that I'd provided the details of both bookings as part of the claim. The two email responses were from two different team members, I suspect in India given their timing. Is there any way I can get it assigned to a claim handler that I can have a proper conversation with?
I have gone back to them pointing out that it was a redemption booking for which they've elected to refund the cash element only and asking them to set out their full proposed settlement position. Almost certainly that will be a refund of the original Avios and the upgrade voucher for the remainder of it's validity period. I think leaves me with two choices in terms of how to proceed short of some useful engagement that gets us to a negotiated settlement:
a. Proceed to MCOL with my original downgrade claim less the Duty of Care element and amounts unilaterally refunded, based on the premise that the downgraded redemption to BKK was the only practical resolution open to us at the time.
b. Accept that it will be a refund of the original booking, but push for Avios at the full CW rate as opposed to the WT+ rate plus a return of the voucher. To be argued on the basis that we earned the voucher for the bookings they were unable to fulfil, it now has ~10 fewer months of validity on it compared to when we booked, it was valuable consideration towards the purchase of the tickets and we will now struggle to use it given it's limited remaining validity.
Any thoughts? I'd be happy with b (the difference between it and the downgrade claim is not massive) so weighing up whether that would have a greater chance of success at CEDR/MCOL.