andrelux

Had a think about this last night. Both the outward and return flight were booked on 4-class which has now changed to 3-class.

Outward - booked in J. MMB simply changed seat number.
Return - booked in F. For a few days, MMB showed flight cancelled, then rebooked on same flightno in J - lasted a short time, now no evidence of this activity on MMB, just shows current state of affairs.

My, perhaps simplistic, view is that you can't cancel half a flight. So if F is cancelled, then so too are J, W and Y. But the evidence of what happened for my outward flight shows that that's not what they do.

fraisse10

Thanks. Helpful data. So, an 8-day wait. I claimed on 6 June so will watch my e-mail and those of the other 4 family members in the next couple of days.

Dr Dave

Because: a. She's 12 years old; and b. She does not live with me.

Gagravarr

A couple of months ago, I was on a BA flight to LHR with an onward connecting flight after, which diverted for a passenger medical emergency. Very much extraordinary circumstances, no doubt there.

It's the afterwards I'm disagreeing with BA on... It was 20 minutes from wheels down until the ambulance crew were carrying the passenger down the steps and into the ambulance. It was then over 2 hours until we took off again for Heathrow. I understand there's quite a bit of paperwork with an unplanned diversion, 2 hours seems a lot, but I won't push that.

When we landed at Heathrow, my connecting flight had left. However, there was a later one I could've still made within conformance times, so I wasn't then too stressed. Unfortunately, the arrival of our plane into T5 apparently caught BA by surprise! We spent almost 20 minutes waiting for someone to come turn the gate guideance on, then 30 minutes waiting for someone to come drive the jetbridge so we could get off. After all that, it was too late for the later connecting flight, and I didn't make it to my destination until lunchtime the next day.

I tried to claim from BA, saying I very much understood that the initial diversion was extraordinary circumstances, but that I could reasonably have made a later connecting flight with only a few hours delay even with that. Instead, because they repeatedly messed up the ground handling, I was over 12 hours late, and I felt that part did count for an EU261 delay. BA have replied saying that they feel the entire delay was "due to reasons outside of our control" and as such they won't cough up.

What do people think? Is it worth perusing it via CEDR, or am I wrong on the subsequent delay being back into scope of EU261?

UKtravelbear

no you are not wrong.

there was a recent case involving lightening when a court ruled that yes lightening was a valid exceptional circumstance but it did not give the airline involved carte blance to faff around. The case involved an accredited engingger at the airport saying the plane was OK but the lease owner of the plane demanded only their engineer give the OK and that caused the unnecessary delay.

It said that if the flight was delayed say 6 hours but the lightening issue was resolved (safety checks etc) after 3 then EU261 did apply the remaining 3 hour delay/

I can't remember the case reference but it has been mentioned previously on this thread.

corporate-wage-slave

The case referred to by UKtravelbear is Peskova and Peska v Travel Service (C-315/15), it was a bird strike case. This has some utility to your case, but the argument was that a great deal more than 3 hours was taken by finding the appropriate engineer, whereas I don't see you saying that the unnecessary time exceeded that 3 hours here in all, though we don't have exact timings.

Personally I don't see this going very far though it's a bit difficult to be sure given the lack of precise information about timings (etc). I can't see BA shifting its position, so the decision I think you would need to make is whether you are prepared to go to MCOL or CEDR with this, in other words do you feel strongly enough about this to do the legwork and paperwork?

nikinp

Need advice on best way to get max back from BA

Wife and daughter were on flight to San Francisco Sat 27th that was cancelled. BA was unable to offer any alternative, but had taken her bag for flight. She was told go home and come back at get back tomorrow.

I booked them on United flight the following day at cost of £1150 total for both. My wife gave BA baggage tag to United.

They arrived at San Francisco and notified United of baggage issue with BA. United said they had no idea about bag. She had no clothes (and is 32 weeks pregnant) or for my daughter.

Following day we went to buy them clothes for trip - costing $500. She is 32 weeks pregnant, and pregnancy clothing is not cheap. The bag eventually arrived 2 days later

I made a cancellation to the booking via online system and got refund for original BA trip.

According I believe that 261/2004 entitles £520 per person. However, BA website says "Given the level of disruption, we know some customers made alternative travel arrangements themselves, when British Airways was unable to re-route them because of the system limitations, and they had to rebook to other airlines directly via their respective websites or through travel agents. Customers who had to do this are also eligible to make a claim."

So questions:
- If I want to claim max for flight and clothing what is the best approach?
Do I claim for alternative costs for United (as per BA site, as it is more than £520x2) - or do I claim for cancellation compensation
- how do I best deal with clothing costs?
- my wife came back home in a taxi from first day at heathrow? - is this covered by compensation - if so how do I claim?

Thanks to all who reply

corporate-wage-slave

First of all, welcome to Flyertalk, and welcome to the BA Forum nikinp. There is a lot more to this place than just this thread so I would very much encourage you to make the best use of this valuable resource. And my indirect expression of sorrow for your wife, it must have been a very difficult time for her and your daughter, all told.

I'm a bit unclear about the baggage issue: who returned the bag to you eventually, was it United or BA? The maximum claim on BA will be about £1200, and it may be better to use your insurance policy if you have one.

For the ticketing costs, your options are either to just accept the full refund from BA, alternatively to get the additional cost between United and BA. I suspect the latter is the best answer for you, though it depends on the fares obviously. In which case you need to keep the paperwork, and ring up BA Customer Relations. It's possible that it will be a case of getting a part refund from United, given the way the system works. It would have been easier to do this with AA.

For the taxi fare, BA normally allows £50, if it was more then you may be able to extract that but it will depend a bit on the end point and/or timing (in terms of public transport viability).

Robshaw236

Confirmation from BA today that I will be receiving €600 for the disruption over the bank holiday weekend.. had two cancelled flights, a delay leaving Boston and delayed arriving into Edinburgh.

Overall pretty impressed.... downgrade compensation received for LHR to EDI, replacement suitcase received for slight damage to one of my cases (and got to keep the slightly damaged one), silver extended for 2 years and had the extra tier points and Avios credited to my account for the downgraded LHR to EDI 👍

nikinp

Thanks for the response but this is inconsistent with what is stated by BA. That you are able to claim the refund (for flight missed) AND also compensation for cancellation disruption. My question is whether to make blanket 261 claim for £520 per person. Or for actual fare paid on united.

Bag was returned by united.

What are are thoughts related clothing?
thanks

corporate-wage-slave

Ok, the bag seems to have been under United's control, so their policies (unfortunately) apply. I would go down that route - and your insurers may be a better bet here - and if you are out of pocket have a go at BA afterwards, but it's probably more to do with United than BA.

There is EC261 Article 7 compensation available, at 600€ per person, for all those delayed on longer flights, including your wife and daughter.

In addition there is a free rebooking entitlement, which BA were unable to perform themselves due to their computers being out. For the rebooking aspect, there are two options open to you, but you can either have a full refund on the ticket and nothing else; alternatively you can have a refund on the difference between the tickets, to the amount that you are out of pocket. The cost of the tickets will dictate which is best for you

pumatwin

Received my compensation cheque yesterday for £217.88 (€250).

SK AAR

No, the subsequent events at LHR doesn't erase the initial "extraordinary circumstances" cause. The facts described are far from being compareable to > 3h delay in trying to find a flight engineer. You will get nowhere with this.

SK AAR

The delayed luggage is a UA issue. UA was the carrier and failed to retrieve and load the luggage at LHR. BA has nothing to do with this. Ask for reimbursement from your travel insurance or UA.

As already explained your wife and daughter are entitled to EUR 600 for cancellation. In addition they have already received a full refund of the BA ticket. If the UA fare was higher than fare paid to BA, you may claim reimbursement of the difference between the UA and BA ticket. If the difference is minor, I suggest to let it go; your wife and daughter already receive EUR 600 per person from BA as compensation.

Taxi disbursements should be claimed from BA.

SK AAR

The answer was not inconsistent. Your wife and daughter are entitled to compensation EUR 600/GBP 520 for the cancellation PLUS refund of the fare paid to UA - BUT as the BA fare has already been refunded, the amount refunded will/should be deducted from the refund of UA fare; obviously, they can't get a full refund of the BA and at the same time ask for a refund of the UA fare; i.e. travel for free)