Originally Posted by
Tafflyer
I was downgraded from F to J on an ATL-LHR last December. BA proactively made a £700 per person eVoucher gesture and told me the fare would be recalculated and refunded to the original form of payment. This of course never happened. The booking was with BA Holidays and used a GUF2 for the upgrade.
Since the £700 was “as a gesture of apology” I believe I am still entitled to 75% of the sector cost including some value to compensate 75% of the GUF2. BA today acknowledged this but told me this must come from BAH. I always believed everything EU-UK/261 related was the responsibility of the operating carrier.
Obviously I will take the email at face value for now and wait a few weeks before escalating, but am I being given the run-around?
“ An update from British Airways
We’re very sorry for the inconvenience you experienced on flight BA0226 from Atlanta to London Heathrow on 16 December 2025, particularly regarding the downgrade from First Class to Business. We understand how disappointing this must have been, especially as a valued Gold Member, and we appreciate your loyalty to British Airways.
We’ve reviewed your booking and can confirm that you are eligible for a refund of 75% of the fare paid for the affected segment, in line with our policy for involuntary downgrades on flights over 3,500 kilometres. However, as your booking was made through British Airways Holidays, only their team can process this refund. Unfortunately, we are unable to action this from our side.
We’ve already notified the Holidays team of your case and passed on the relevant details so they can assist you further. We trust they will be in touch shortly to complete the refund process.
We also hope the eVoucher of GBP700 issued at the time of travel was well received and has helped in some way to acknowledge the disruption.
Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your understanding and patience. We look forward to welcoming you back on board soon.
“
The internal processes that BA normally uses, dictate that the ticket issuer (i.e. BA Holidays Ltd) needs to provide any downgrade reimbursement - they're the ones who hold the money.
However from a legal perspective it's BA plc as the operating carrier that remains liable for paying downgrade reimbursement under UK261. You can delegate responsibility but not accountability, as the saying goes.
If you want to play hardball then you could ask BA (plc) to confirm that they're not paying the reimbursement due and that this is their final position. With this, or once 8 weeks pass from submitting your original claim, you can proceed to CEDR.
I presume the issue will be valuing your claim since you have a BAH. I would deduct whatever you think would be a reasonable guesstimate of the cost of the hotel element and then calculate 75% based on the rest (less the 'real' taxes & fees).
For future reference, if you get a Finnair e-ticket receipt then you can see some sort of indication of the fare paid with a breakdown of each tax/fee element and the fare calculation line. If you have this it'd be valuable evidence.