London_traveller

I have some sympathy with the notion of getting the company to pay the shortfall, if travelling on business.

BA should be paying up, of course. And the complaint should be pursued. But there does come a point where the amount of energy 'fighting the machine' dissipates.

I don't quite get the notion that any traveller should be pre-equipped with different apps in case of an IRROP. I've been a frequent traveller and an occasional one and never once have I planned for the eventuality that a) my flight will be cancelled, and, b) the airline won't help me sort out the situation that follows. And, c) if I am left to my own devices, late at night with little in the way of options, I won't get fully reimbursed.

OP I do hope your next attempt is a final one and you get the remainder covered. For your own wellbeing! - seriously, the energy to pursue this kind of thing could be spent on so many other, more important things in life.

simons1

Of course. That is exactly what BA will be hoping too - if they fob the OP off enough times then he/she will get fed up, go away and/or someone else will foot the bill.

A very calculated strategy and all the more reason to pull the shutters down when there is IRROPS, tell people to sort themselves out, and have some gofer in a remote office knocking 30% off whatever they submit with some feeble reasoning.

The savings will clearly be material for BA and will probably drive insurance premiums up into the bargain.

Dave Noble

The debt is there - the court is confirming that there is a debt where the other party disputes it. Debts can be assigned without having been taken to court

HIDDY

What I don't understand is why the two travellers didn't claim separately?
I suspect if they had BA would have coughed up.

scillyisles

Agreed - this is exactly the basis upon which BA is working and is shabby business practice. BA will keep doing this while it makes financial sense and it is up to us as paying passengers to stand our ground. If more passengers stood up for their rights/complained/voted with their money(and stopped apologising for BA's actions ^) then we might have a better BA.

Certain posters seem to be suggesting or implying that doing a MCOL requires a lot of effort and time chasing - wrong it requires very little time or chasing (and would I suspect be a lot quicker and less stressful than going backwards and forwards to BA customer relations)
I did it a couple of years ago taking one of the biggest computer firms to MCOL - could not have been easier. A day or two after the claim hit them, the Head of their legal department was in contact offering to pay my claim in full which they did within 7 days.

Often1

Several suggestions, more on the practical side.

First, EC 261/2004 is personal to the passenger, not to the individual who paid the expenses. It appears from the OP that he picked up all expenses for himself and the colleague, made a claim for the total amount and is now short GBP 213. I would strongly advise OP and his colleague to each submit their own claim for their own expenses. Each with a brief explanation for the hotel which notes both that staff never mentioned any cap and that it seemed pointless to keep looking as the individuals are not London natives. Keep the narrative short and do not be either critical or defensive. If and when BA pays up, the colleague can pay his share over to the OP because that is a private matter between the two of them.

Second, some businesses pay these IRROPS expenses because it is worth their while for their employees to focus on the job, bearing in mind that this particular example is relatively out of the ordinary. Some people have insurance which does cover and provides flat rates per day/night based on a minimum delay. They prefer that because they get to choose the hotel, they do not need to wait in lines for vouchers, do research and the like and because the reimbursements may well be sufficient to allow one to make an offer to an airport property which shows as unavailable. Some corporate TA's have 24/7 IRROPS handling for exactly this reason. A simple text to the traveler with the name and address of a hotel is all the traveler needs.

Third, if OP does pursue this, it is better to break this down into two issues. Was it right for BA to set a cap and if so, was it right not to inform OP (and others) in advance? The former does not get answered here, but the latter seems clear. OP interacted with staff which told him to find his own acommodations. Either an oral caution or better yet, a simple piece of paper would have helped. Items such as the HEX could have been covered by BA vouchers (for which BA pays a fraction of the individual passenger cost) and BA could provide a list of outlying areas where hotels in range are likely to be found (and the means of transport found).

If this is to be pursued, OP and his colleague will each need to pursue their share from BA and in order to streamline the process, ought to go to the MCOL website and put their claim in the form of Letter Before Action such that if BA denies the claim, they may proceed directly to the MCOL process rather than having to proceed through another hoop.

There is no definition of "duty of care" and there is certainly no requirement that a carrier provide a room. Rather, it is required to pay for a room if it does not provide one. The reason BA tries to voucher the rooms is that at a major station such as LHR, it pays contract rates at miniscule fractions of what the public pays.

In this situation, what is inherently unfair, although it did not occur for OP, is that many people transiting LHR have no familiarity with London. It is simply a place where they change planes. Whether GBP 200 is a little or a lot for a hotel room and whether the location of OP's room was the right or the wrong place to look is an interesting question for someone familiar with London. But, even a seasoned traveler who simply connects at LHR has know reason to know London and its hotel scene.

Virazuno

OP, did you send the screenshots to BA?

Whether you did or not - do the lead-up to MCOL (i.e. letter before action), and include those images with the letter. I would be very surprised if BA didn't settle for the full amount before you even get round to submitting an actual MCOL claim.

strichener

if Ł300 is an acceptable fee to charge to change an airline ticket, it is hard to claim that the same for a hotel room is not reasonable.

theddo

The rules only say it should be covered. Not covered if they feel like it, or based on status or fare. If they delay a flight and all hotels are full and they refuse to deal with it they should pay up.

I cannot even find anything about the duty of care only being "reasonable". It seem to say the airline has a duty of care, period.

strichener

Yes, I know what the rules are. BA on the other hand are quite happy to tell you what they think hotels should charge for their service whilst charging vastly more for a small amount of administrative work.

Tiger_lily

People need to keep sending the message that they won't put up with this sort of treatment and go away quietly.

If that means MCOL then that's the route that needs to be taken. BA has a legal duty here and it needs to be enforced to the letter. Otherwise it's the thin end of the wedge.

TabTraveller

If I were defending BA against this claim I think I might point out that the OP seems to have filtered the hotels in the screenshots on Booking.com to 4* and 5* only and then those with a very good rating from other guests. This would likely exclude many cheaper options such as Holiday Inn, etc. which would have been perfectly fine for an overnight stay.

I have a lot of sympathy for the OP and am inclined to agree with him but it is very easy to say "the cheapest hotel was Ł500" when you’ve only actually searched for 5* hotels with an outstanding rating from guests. Perhaps coincidentally there were only well-rated 4/5* hotels available that night and I am doing the OP a disservice. I do find it hard to believe however.

simons1

According to who? Until a judgement takes place it is one person's word against the other.

Twoflower

I'm a partner in the company, colleague much more junior, didn't seem fair to let him have to deal with the out of pocket expenses and reclaim hassle.

As to the others suggesting I claim back from the company - given my position, the company's loss is my loss, so I want to get the money back

Will be doing the MCOL letter before action this weekend, will update this thread in the weeks to come.

Thanks all for your help.

Often1

Again, remember that each of you have a separate claim. Even though as the more senior, you were kind enough to cover your junior's expenses, under EC 261/2004, each of you have a separate claim and when it comes to MCOL, it is more than likely that even if BA caves and pays up, that it will only pay up your share as one passenger.

Simply produce duplicates so that you each make a claim for 1/2 of what is due and he can pay you his share when and if BA pays up.