JestersDance

Confirmed via phone call that Im due 400Eur. Pretty happy with that.

JestersDance

All up the time between me sending an email and getting a phone call response was less than 1 week.

Globaliser

FWIW, I had a flight cancelled on 18 August. I put in a claim on 28 August, received a response on 31 August asking for more information (which I provided by return), and then received a confirmation on 1 September that the claim would be paid. The money reached my bank account on 6 September.

StatusChallenged

Flight controller strike at CDG, flight pushed back a day and i've had to cancel my hotel booking in London (hoping to get the fee refunded) and have to rebook something in Paris today, which is not cheap.

I'm out of luck for anything since BA will claim strike, right? Flight was tomorrow, notified about 30 hours before. Oneworld Sapphire, if that entitles me to anything but based on previous experiences with BA seems unlikely.

Mattt1

Flight controller strike is outside the control of BA so I believe they have a valid defence in this case unfortunately.

Its even given as an example of exceptional circumstances in the regulations.

rapidex

Why not cancel and take the Eurostar.You should get a refund if it is a flight cancellation.

DYKWIA

I believe the Duty of Care would still apply here. So, BA would have to put you up in a hotel for the night in Paris. No compensation though, and you'd need to rely on insurance for the London hotel.

StatusChallenged

Thanks - I wasn't sure exactly what it was called, I kept typing in British Airways strike care compensation in google and wasn't getting anywhere.

I would prefer to stay with a local chain that I'm a member of, but those hotels are 230-290 euro (the hotels in general don't seem to be very cheap right now and i'm sure with more cancellations prices will only go up), is there a limit on the night rate allowed?

DYKWIA

Not officially by the EU261 rules. However, BA seem to cap it at £200. You could then try and get the rest via the legal process if they refuse any more.

DYKWIA

PS, see this post for more information :-

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27687547-post2.html

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, DYKWIA is right that there is an internal cap of £200, which has no legal force, but if you didn't want to be out of pocket/hassle avoidance I would try and get something cheaper if you can.

More information on the strike here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...g-allowed.html

holloway1000

Hello,

Im in an email exchange with BA at the moment, and im hoping i can ask for some help on this. if someone could give me some advice on what my response should be on the below?

I was on the BA0188, 13th Sep. which was delayed by 3 hours and 58 mins.

EWR to LHR.

I believe this means i should be entitled to 300 euro?

The last email i had from BA was:

I’ve reviewed your claim and on the day you were due to travel our crew needed to rest due the change of aircraft type. Our crew can only fly a certain number of hours and this is primarily for your safety but also so we meet legal requirements. I’m afraid this meant we had no option but to delay your flight BA0188.

We always want to maintain as stable an operation as possible. This isn’t only because of the disruption to our customers, but also because of how difficult it is to recover from a delayed flight.

Article 5.3 of the EU Regulation 261/2004 states that a carrier is not obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the delay or cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances that couldn’t have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. In Recital 14 and 15 of EU Regulation 261/2004, extraordinary circumstances include weather, strike and the impact of an air traffic management decision which gives rise to a long delay. This means you’re not entitled to compensation under the EU Regulation for your delayed flight.

I realise this will be disappointing for you but I hope this information will help you to understand our decision.

Best regards

corporate-wage-slave

Correct, that would be 300€, if that represents the time that the doors were open for disembarkation.

Unless there is a material fact not mentioned in your post (e.g. the entire crew going down with food poisoning at the last moment), crew rest periods is not extraordinary circumstances, since they can't fulfill the "all reasonable measure" part of the clause (which they actually use in their reply): there are about a dozen things that I can think of that BA could have done to avoid inconveniencing passengers. I would go fairly swiftly to the 16 day notice and MCOL on this one, CEDR would be my second choice since I think case law leans largely (if not entirely) against BA on this one.

holloway1000

Thank you for your quick reply.

How much rest time does a crew need?
I was only in EWR for a day and I actually had the same crew on my outbound LHR-EWR flight, and they were in the same hotel as me at EWR.

corporate-wage-slave

I'm afraid I don't know the precise details, but there is a mandatory (EASA) aspect which is non-negotiable. I know there is a 10 hour minimum and an 8 hour sleep component, but it's quite a complex area, so those minima will typically be higher. Plus there may (or may not) be crew/union agreements around it. In a sense it's not for you to prove this, it is for BA to prove it really did take all alternative steps to prevent you from being delayed. I can't believe there wasn't a single alternative seat out of JFK, for example.