qwest01

I am seeking some advice on this. Our return flight from Singapore BA16 on Tuesday 7th Feb was cancelled due to the knock-on impact of the weekend cancellations. Sunday's BA15 to SIN/SYD was cancelled which would have been the BA16 back from SIN on Tuesday night.

We had 2 seats in F using miles and a 2-4-1 voucher. I finally got through to You First in the UK and we were rebooked in F on BA12 for Friday 10th which has caused us to be stuck in Thailand for 3 further days.

Fortunately our flights from Thailand to Singapore on Tues 7th on Silk Air were fully Flex J seats so they were rebooked to Friday 10th at no cost. Also fortunately we are staying with friends in a Timeshare villa and so have not had any additional hotel costs. Even all my phone calls went on my Skype Account so that cost was minimal.

So I am not looking to BA for any material compensation. Indeed many might consider us fortunate to be given 3 extra days vacation in the sun in southern Thailand.

However I have incurred some additional costs - 3 extra days car hire, 3 extra day kennel bills. These I may try and claim back on my travel insurance. Plus a visit to the local Tesco Lotus to buy more wine for 3 additional days.

So what would be suitable compensation for the disruption? I was thinking of asking for my BAEC status (Silver - which I will lose in May) to be extended for a further year, or should I ask for a comp upto Gold for a year.

This would cost BA nothing materially since all our BA flights this year are in J or F except one domestic to EDI.

itsmeitisss

A comp up to Gold? You're kidding right? BA has duty of care under EU regs, this you did not need as you were staying with friends. Last I knew, BA didn't control the weather!

ColdWalker

I'm glad you were at least delayed in a nice place. But of course, as I k ow from the ash cloud debacle, when you are spending so much time trying to reorganise your return it feels far from nice.

If you have decent insurance I would look to the monetary compensation from them. If there is any recourse to BA let your insurers have the hassle of that fight rather than you.

However, you were inconvenienced by the delays, and you may want to talk to BA about that. I suspect they would be looking to an amount of miles in compensation, but I personally don't want to get into trying to set a 'tarriff'. I would think comping will not be on the agenda, but I suppose there is no harm suggesting it.

As to my personal experience, for what its worth, when I was delayed a week for the ash cloud I claimed for my out of pocket expenses and my per deum from my insurers. But I didn't claim from BA on the basis that life's too short and I really didn't think it was their fault that airspace was closed. You may well feel that while BAA bear the brunt of the blame for the recent snow silliness, BA do bear some of the responsibility for cancellations, so the situation is somewhat different.

BAHumbug

I think your chances of this are zilch to be honest. There is a material cost to BA - if you take non-BA flights and use your OW status for lounge access there is a reciprocal charge. Similarly the 100% miles bonus for Silver/Gold is not without material cost. In any event, I just do not see them doing this.

BA would have put you up in an hotel if needed, or paid back your costs - but as you've not incurred these then there is no cost to refund.

Genuinely, I do not see you have a claim, other than that which you are going to put through your travel insurance and which I would think they'll pay out.

BAH

LTN Phobia

I do not think this will happen, and comp to Gold seems to me to be quite unreasonable. If you ask for anything unreasonable, I think you would end up increasing your chance of your claim not going through.

In fact, I do not think any 'compensation' needs to be forthcoming given BA was one of the inconvenienced parties. Perhaps reimbursement of extra expenses, but I am not sure why BA needs to 'compensate' anyone for the weather-related issues.

You should claim for the additional expenses from you travel insurance, and if none is forthcoming from them, then take it up with BA. You just need to send the receipts and details of your disrupted flights. However, the cost of extra car rental and kennel costs are beyond the EU-regulations and it will be merely on the basis of BA's goodwill if they do contribute to your costs.

David-A

BA has not caused the problem, why should they 'compensate' you for it?

Additionally, you were travelling on a flight only basis I assume, so why should they pay for your car etc? They had duty of care, and I'm sure if you had been at the airport with no where to sleep they would have looked after you.

These costs are things you should certainly try to claim back on your travel insurance, that can be partly what it is there for.

srbrenna

Doesn't the rebooked flight go into a revenue bucket? In that case you will get the TPs and miles for that sector as a bonus. They might fling some avios your way as well.

ColdWalker

The implication that BA had no control over the cancelations is quite debatable. After all, they would have been a party to the snow disruption plan and they decided on pre-emptive cancelation as a policy. They also have more control than anyone over the repositioning of the fleet and crews, which I assume is what has actually led to the OPs issue. Also, as it is BA who the OP has a contract with, it is to them he should be claiming, whether or not his claim is valid. If BA have some claim to a third party is not the OP's concern.

It of course is not totally BAs fault and I don't mean to suggest that. But it's perhaps not as black and white as BA being a wholly innocent injured party too.

LTN Phobia

If the OP's flights were short haul, I'd have tended to say BA may have targeted them for cancellations so that they could operate long haul flights, but with the OP's flight being their 'rather important' long haul, with many having diverted I tend to think they would have done what they could do to preserve it but without success (the consequences of long haul aircraft and crew out of place tend to be much worse as well as the consequences of not operating them or the severe delays) but they encountered a lot of difficulties. Those situations are incredibly difficult to normalise. You could say that they should increase the gaps in the flying programme to allow for catch-ups, but then utilisation goes down and the fares will go up (significantly, in fact), so it's really difficult to win, especially in the current economic environment and a lot of competitions.

I think we need to be very realistic about the possibilities of delays and disruptions when we travel, although we all wish it never happened to us. I also think we need to be very realistic about the expectations of what airlines can do to deal with the situation, because often, it's actually harder for them than meets the eye from passengers' perspective. It's not ideal for us as passengers, but they (airlines) suffer a significant financial and reputation-related consequences from disruptions, even if they weren't at all their fault, and they would really, really rather avoid disrupting flights whenever possible - they don't do it for fun, and they do so very reluctantly to prevent of fix the situation as quickly as they can. It's not as if they did not carry out sufficient maintenance, so I have a lot of sympathy towards their situation, knowing how incredibly difficult to recover from widespread disruptions. They genuinely have no desire to disrupt flights and what they have to sacrifice is on the basis of 'lesser of the [2,000 or whatever number of possible disruptions] evils'.

Having been at the SIN lounge yesterday and having heard so many announcements about connecting flights being delayed while waiting for flights from LHR to arrive (so that connecting passengers don't all miss the flights), I am quite satisfied that they have tried pretty hard to minimise disruptions where they could. Had I not heard those announcements, I may have held a different view, though.

I believe travel insurers will generally try to claim their payouts from the airlines anyway so regardless of the contract being with BA, it tends to be easier for the 'victim' to try the insurer first, particularly when the claim is outside the scope of EU261/2004, e.g. car rental and kennels. If they are covered by the insurance, they don't need to argue to get reimbursements, whereas it may involve arguing with BA, when it is not really their responsibility - accommodations and subsistence, yes, but not car rental and kennels. If the insurers believe they can recover those from BA, they'll just pay out to the claimant and do the claimant's leg work by claiming it back from BA themselves, making it easier for the OP.

sunrisegirl

Suitable compensation would be what you're entitled to under EU Regulations which BA are obliged to pay out.

You say all your flights are in J or F - is this paying full fare J or F, or on some form of redemption ticket. As your post also says you're about to drop from silver so to me that indicates the latter (as paid J/F earn TPs).

I'd also ask you why do you think you should be comped a Gold card? If BA did this for you and all the thousands of others (many of whom were also in J or F) who were disrupted then the entire T5 would need to be a lounge and not an airport. It's totally unrealistic and most definitely would have a cost to BA.

I think you should ask your travel insurance to compensate you, that's what we buy them for. BA didn't ask for the snow and I fail to see why you should be compensated. I'm sorry.

Rickers

I think it is fantastic that you found an insurer that was willing to pay you for the provision of your own personal deity -- that policy must have cost a bloody fortune !

* pedant hat off and back in the box

HIDDY

At least you had the sense to have travel insurance.....why people still travel without it is beyond me.
As has been said, in this case BA are only liable for duty of care which you didn't need.The idea of them allowing you to retain your status isn't a realistic option so the best you can hope for might be a few miles for the disruption caused should you wish to pursue it.
Being stuck in the kennels longer than planned......it looks to me like the poor dog suffered more through this disruption than you.

meester69

albpenny

Not sure why you feel you are owed anything more than you out of pocket expenses by BA? I was stuck in NYC for 3 extra days in August after "Hurricane" Irene, which resulted in loads of flights being cancelled. I spoke to BA upon my return and they reimbursed (no questions asked, after production of my receipts) my food, accommodation and taxis. I didn't expect anything more, and frankly that BA reimbursed me at all was very appreciated.

I find some people's expectations absolutely astonishing. I should say that on my NYC flight, I flew on BA001 and 004, paid for out of my own pocket (unlike your 2-4-1 redemption) and it never crossed my mind to make unreasonable demands of BA. Smacks a bit of DYKWIA.

sunrisegirl

Actually I was asking about his travel pattern, not what he'd used on this flight which I was able to see already.

Your quote doesn't give that.