corporate-wage-slave

The hotel refund is guaranteed if BA cancelled the flight, EC261 on right of care still applies. The Article 7 clauses on compensation is separate, so it may depend on extraordinary circumstances, but if it isn't a MF service then it seems to me to be a staff shortage (doubtless influenced by the strike) and therefore eligible for Article 7 compensation. I don't think you can take EC261 for granted, frankly, after all they may reinstate the service (highly unlikely!), so personally I would operate on the basis that you may not get it.

HarryKUK

Okay, will take that advice. As long as the £200 is guaranteed, I'm happy to book the Marriott and top it up.

botham

I understand the requirements and implications, but many caught up in this unfortunate episode will have no experience or understanding and blind panic will have set in.

Usually the airline would provide vouchers and hotel accommodation, but of course this wasn't possible on this occasion.

I think a little understanding is required. Of course, frustration mounts when it's impossible to discuss such issues with BA, as they provide no contact details.

So far, we have received about £330 of the total due of around £15k.

HarryKUK

Sorry, different question:

If I cancel my inbound and get a refund, and book myself onto SAS which is currently £160 more than I paid BA, would they look into paying that back?

The rationale being they are currently due to pay me up to £200 for a hotel AND fly me back to the UK on Monday's flight, but as I could really do with being back in the UK on Sunday night, would they pay me the £160 extra I paid for SAS instead?

Or indeed anything at all as a GOGW for cancelling my flight in the first place?

corporate-wage-slave

No, I know it sounds illogical, but unless BA had arranged it for you then you can't just make your own travel arrangements. Well, you can, but it's at your expense. The context here is that Contact Centre staff are generally not allowed or even able to rebook off IAG/Joint Venture metal, so even when it would save BA money, the usual scenario is you end up on the next BA service with the unnecessary hotel bill. What you could do, if you haven't accepted the alternative flight, is speak to the ground staff at CPH and see if they will rebook you on SAS, but even they may not be able to do this (and provide a hotel of their choice instead!). Ground staff have far greater leeway than Contact Centre staff.

HarryKUK

I have booked onto the FR flight into STN at 22:15/23:15 for £200 as the SK flight had jumped to over £400 and I can't afford the difference right now.

Financially I'm now neutral as the refund from BA roughly equals what I have just paid FR, but it means I've gone from being in CE to being on FR.

After all the criticism of BA on here, let's see if I even notice the difference!

gengar

xenole indicates he is GGL/CCR; I am Gold. As I said, there may be some method to BA's prioritization of IT fiasco weekend claims, but FT reports show it is certainly not purely by either status or time of claim submission.

As with their decisions on compensation (BA has refused every compensation request I have submitted except for my outstanding EC/261 claim - BA even refused compensation for additional transportation costs despite that I had to fly into LGW instead of LHR), the inconsistency on BA's part makes this ordeal even more frustrating.

HarryKUK

It's fine now as I have just booked on FR as above but for my own info, does this mean that BA would have paid £200 for a hotel and also flown me home on Monday, but wouldn't have paid me £160 for me to fly home on the original day with SAS?!

Also, just for future canx issues, I understand the EU261 claim has it's own requirements and so on, but all that aside, what would BA offer me just as a company who have cancelled my flight at 48 hours notice? Is a refund / free hotel stay the usual offer? Can I expect any Avios or money for the inconvenience, regardless of whether I choose to fly / amend / rebook / cancel / etc?

nesnith

Amending my timeline:

7/13 I received a check in the mail (US Postal) with my EC261 compensation. This completed my EC261 claim due to the IT meltdown. ^

p.s. I have no status, and the claim was for the EC261 compensation only.

corporate-wage-slave

BA spent £800 keeping me "stranded" on full board in a luxury beach hotel in Bermuda rather than paying just under £100 to a competitor to get me routed another way. Now I wasn't exactly upset with this, but yes, this is the way it works. They will pay for hotels (since they have no easy way to do it via Contact Centres and it's the law), and they won't pay you for alternative travel on competitor airlines (since the contact centre also has no easy way to do this, moreover the law doesn't directly require that). The ground staff may have done a rebooking since they do have the facilities to do this.

EC261 says refund or rebook more or less regardless of circumstances, and compensation if Article 7 applies. If Article 7 applies then BA won't get more compensation, understandably. If Article 7 doesn't apply then you may ask for, and get, some small customer service gesture, say 5k Avios, and you would be free to use MCOL, CEDR or (at a pinch) Section 75 to obtain more.

HarryKUK

Thanks, all clear. Talking to CS was like talking to a wall, so will keep receipts and MCOL if I have to.

Flight cost is covered now (albeit from CE to Ryanair) but I'm still maybe £120 out in taxes due to STN rather than LHR. Not looking for anything else and it's under their £200 hotel figure.

simons1

There is no EC261 figure. BA gives a *guideline* of £200 but ultimately if the going rate is £250 due to local conditions, high demand on the day etc then that is BA's problem to sort out either by arranging you something directly or paying up. A couple of screenshots should suffice.

I see no reason why you would not get EC261. The airline has 'duty of care' responsibilities regardless of exceptional circumstances or not.

wyskevin

Dear all,

Here I’d like to seek for your opinions. The story is below:

1)It was CX+BA paid J class ticket(one ticket): CX251 HKG-LHR(23.55-0540+1), then connected BA762 LHR-OSL(0745-1055)
2)Dated on May 28th, after arriving in LHR, I was told BA762 was cancelled, and BA rebooked me to later flight on that day to OSL, BA768 (16.30-18.45)
3)Dated on May 28th, BA 768 was cancelled and BA rerouted me to CPH next day(BA814 08.55-10.55). BA also host me in Hilton hotel terminal 5 at that night.
4)Dated on May 29th, BA 814 was cancelled and BA rerouted me to DUS (BA940 depart at 13.20)
5)Dated on May 29th, I finally left LHR and arriving in DUS. However, my luggage arrived in DUS in 3 days!
6)Dated on June 11, I filed two correspondences online: One was regarding the flights cancelled and requested EC261 compensation and claimed food expense. The other one was to request luggage delay compensation and attached all the expense receipts. BA customer references were received later.
7)Dated on June 30, BA customer relation sent me an email that “We're doing our very best to respond, please bear with us and we will be back in touch with you as quickly as we can.”

My questions are below:
a)How much can I get from EC261? 250 Euros or 250x3=750 Euros? (Flights were cancelled 3 times). Can I possibly get food compensation when I was stuck in LHR? How much will it be?
b)What is the maximum compensation for luggage delay almost 3 days?
c)It has been over one month since I filed the letters online. Should I contact BA again?

Thanks, guys...

caz312

aside from the EU261 which suspect will be one lot of €250 but will leave others to confirm....
food - reimbursement of amount paid from receipts (less alcohol)
luggage - reimbursement of purchases of essential items with receipts

corporate-wage-slave

BA will doubtless regard this as essentially one incident and therefore pay one round of compensation. However the wording of the Regulation itself also supports a reading that if you were duly reticketed on to each service - which would seem almost certain in your case - then each cancelled flight is entitled to compensation. I very much doubt BA will take that reading on board, so you would have to escalate that through legal or arbitration routes. A number of other people have asked that question, it happened to quite a few travellers, but we've had relatively little feedback on outcomes.

For luggage, the maxima is approximately £1200 but they pay for "essentials", which normally means cosmetics and clothing. Traditionally they have been fairly generous in this area, the only pushback that I've come across are cases where the passenger seems to have been somewhat extravagant. As ever, do what you would do if it came from your own money.

In normal circumstances EC261 claims take around 4 to 8 weeks to complete, but they really must be snowed under given no services for 2 days. However they appear not to have added too much to the backlog, by settling many status passenger claims very quickly. Unless you need the money badly I would leave it a few more weeks. There are escalation routes available, see upthread.