As were mine in way of my first ever F redemption to BOS.

I contacted BA today after having no, other than an automated, response to a claim made on October 3rd for a +4 hours TATL delay. To be honest I was tending towards dropping the whole thing however the attitude I got from the adviser prompted me to continue to seek compensation.

When I questioned the lack of response I was informed this was wholly due to the larger number of spurious and quite frankly greed motivated claims being received by BA. I was then told that 99% of claims had absolutely no basis and mine was highly likely to be one of them. Aside from the manner of this individual, which I will be following up separately, this opinion of paying customers by BA left no doubt in my mind as to my next course of action. My Letter Before Action was sent recorded delivery this afternoon allowing them a very generous 21 day period to respond before I initiate small claims action.

Nice to know what BA think of those who contribute to their salaries.

I will of course post any updates as soon as I have them.

Your synopsis of BA's reply is classic. Any chance of you posting the actual letter sans names ?

If the OP is still reading this, I would check the timings though.

a. they may not be accurate.
b. the correct "end point" for time of arrival is - in normal circumstances - when the aircraft doors are open.

Thank you to the OP for posting this. As a legal professional I have been dying to see an Article 10 downgrade case where the flights has been paid for in Avios (and even more so where a 2-4-1 voucher has been used) since there is a strong argument that you should receive the cash equivalent back.

Can I ask which flight it was BTW?

It appears though that your claim involves another complication that has been discussed (I think on another thread) before in that BA I am guessing are claiming there is a cancellation 14 days+ followed by a complimentary rebooking and, therefore, on their argument, no compensation is due?

I would be keen to know how you get on.

If the claimant is entitled, under EU law to a cash equivalent of the 241 back (which is unclear) then that will not be an issue.

As far as the relevant, the Civil Procedure Rules are produced below. As can be seent he Claimant does not need to identify a cash value up front.

It is seriously arguable that the 2-4-1 voucher has a value and was part of the consideration for the ticket. I would suggest it is an intangible right (or a chose in action I think English lawyers call it). It is clear that the Regulation is to apply to redemption bookings.

As I say, I think this is all unchartered territory as far as reported cases are concerned so I would be very keen to know what happens.

Thanks to mc1973 and ComputerCommuter for you responses.

I was preparing to send a message to BA when their response finally came this morning. Unfortunately they refused my claim because the initial delay was a weather induced diversion. I had acknowledged this in my original claim but noted that since operations at BUD restarted in much less than 20 hours it was implausible that the delay could be attributable to the weather. In fact BA itself operated 2 round trips LHR-BUD before my rescheduled flight took off.

They did offer a functionally worthless voucher for 50 pounds.

I know that in American air travel weather disruptions tend to mean the passenger can be denied everything. Now that weather has been mentioned on both sides, is there any hope in replying to them and reminding them that during this "weather delay" they were still operating the route?

It may be come a little more chartered (at least for revenue fares) should the regulation changes regarding downgrading compensation that passed in February get enacted:

Final update: Got an email saying they have processed the claim and money should be in my account soon. Total of 2 x EUR300 (50% of the max, since the delay was just under 4hrs). ^

I've not read all of the amended reg but had read the parts that provide the flight price is to be the ratio of the ticket price by distance.


However, that relates to events occuring after the amendment. Not before.

I hate to disappoint however the Letter Before Action was quite simply factual in relation to the delay and the claim. I didn't mention the attitude of the adviser - that's a separate issue I'm now dealing with and given that all calls should be recorded it shouldn't be difficult for BA to confirm the facts. I spoke to a supervisor earlier who assured me they would retrieve the call records and get back to me. Should be interesting.....

On the claim front I don't expect to hear anything for a few weeks however will update as soon as I hear anything.

Indeed. But you can't use Money Claim Online to start a claim unless (amongst other things) the only remedy claimed is a specified amount of money, expressed in sterling, less than £100,000. (See PD 7E para. 4)

So if you want to start a claim like this, you need to do it the old-fashioned way: fill in a Claim Form (N1), attach Particulars of Claim*, and post it to your local County Court hearing centre for issue (with a cheque for the issue fee). (All documents (except the cheque!) in triplicate: one to be returned to you; one to be served by the Court on the Defendant; and one for the Court file).

While in theory fill the particulars of claim into the box in the claim form, but once you're claiming something complicated like return of a 241 it would be much better to set out the claim in separate particulars.

If the flight is delayed 126 minutes due to mechanical reasons, would it qualify to any compensation? I had a Delta flight that was delayed 126 minutes in Paris. Consequently, I missed my connection in MSP and was delayed well over 5 hours to my final destination, LAS. I wrote to Delta and they rejected it saying it was within 3 hours and that they judge flights individually and not the delay at my final destination.

It is the delay in arriving at the final destination that matters