Dec 11, 2017, 3:39 am
Last edit by: corporate-wage-slave
BA current newsflash here / London Cancellation list for Tuesday here
Rebooking policy for operating flights on Monday and Tuesday here / EC261 main thread here
ba.com/helpme one stop shop on BA.com giving lots of advice and pointers to where to claim expenses.
For EC261, delay/cancellation compensation is not payable for this event but BA is still liable for the Regulation's “Right to care” provisions. Refreshments can be claimed after 2 hours of delay departing (3 hours for flights longer than LHR-Rome, 4 hours for longhaul), £200 guideline for hotels - OK to book your own and charge back. £50 guideline for taxis. Meals, drinks and communication costs are also covered. Keep / photo receipts. If on a Buy on Board aircraft, use Avios to buy items - it will be faster to refund. For missing baggage, it's OK to claim essential items, such as clothing, toiletries. Keep / photo the receipts.
Rebooking policy for operating flights on Monday and Tuesday here / EC261 main thread here
ba.com/helpme one stop shop on BA.com giving lots of advice and pointers to where to claim expenses.
For EC261, delay/cancellation compensation is not payable for this event but BA is still liable for the Regulation's “Right to care” provisions. Refreshments can be claimed after 2 hours of delay departing (3 hours for flights longer than LHR-Rome, 4 hours for longhaul), £200 guideline for hotels - OK to book your own and charge back. £50 guideline for taxis. Meals, drinks and communication costs are also covered. Keep / photo receipts. If on a Buy on Board aircraft, use Avios to buy items - it will be faster to refund. For missing baggage, it's OK to claim essential items, such as clothing, toiletries. Keep / photo the receipts.
Bad weather disruption - UK/AMS/NW Europe - 10 & 11 December 2017
Dec 10, 2017, 8:34 am
#107
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: london
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 79
BA is responsible for your hotel, reasonable meals, travel to and from the hotel and some communication expenses. No compensation, but they should rebook you.
Their internal guideline is £200 per night, which is not legally binding but you'll save yourself some hassle if you book something suitable yourself under that amount, and charge it back to BA in due course. In this situation I would not try and get BA to book a hotel. Hilton Garden Inn, Hatton Cross, is selling rooms to registered Honors members for £63, which would be a bargain but for the fact that the Doubletree on Bath Road is £57. I would book either hotel straightaway since these rooms won't last long. HGI is reachable by tube quite easily, and the Doubletree is available on the bus service from the central bus station at T1, last bus stop but one, bus 105 or 111 to Waye Avenue.
Their internal guideline is £200 per night, which is not legally binding but you'll save yourself some hassle if you book something suitable yourself under that amount, and charge it back to BA in due course. In this situation I would not try and get BA to book a hotel. Hilton Garden Inn, Hatton Cross, is selling rooms to registered Honors members for £63, which would be a bargain but for the fact that the Doubletree on Bath Road is £57. I would book either hotel straightaway since these rooms won't last long. HGI is reachable by tube quite easily, and the Doubletree is available on the bus service from the central bus station at T1, last bus stop but one, bus 105 or 111 to Waye Avenue.
Sorry wasn't too clear, I'm stuck in Stockholm Airport at the moment and its 4 of us on my booking.
I'm here with another 200 people all waiting in the queue for rebooking etc.
Any point of calling BA to sort out accomadation tonight or must be done at the desk here in airport?
and is the £200 per person or between all of us?
Dec 10, 2017, 8:46 am
#109
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Bronze
Posts: 1,090
BA, Heathrow and all the airlines there have done lots to prepare for snow events. Today, the initial forecast was for heavy rain and snow staying north of London. Up to early this morning, it was just heavy rain, which then turned to snow. It's that unexpected turn that has resulted in the heavy delays and cancellations at LHR. Heathrow has got better at preplanning for these events and once known, cancellation plans are usually drawn up to keep operating flights as close to schedule as possible. There were no pre planned cancellations today as it shouldn't have been required under the forecast up to late last night. Interested, I've seen times here when many of you have complained about tactical cancellations based on forecast. Damned if you do, damned if you don't comes to mind.
As for de-icing, BA carries this out both on stand and at a dedicated pad, but again, forecast for snow wasn't expected. Result is that there is a greater demand than planned, which leads to backlog.
Heathrow and indeed BA are far from perfect, but rest assured that had the forecast yesterday shown the heavy snow fall, then the necessary preparation would have been there.
As for de-icing, BA carries this out both on stand and at a dedicated pad, but again, forecast for snow wasn't expected. Result is that there is a greater demand than planned, which leads to backlog.
Heathrow and indeed BA are far from perfect, but rest assured that had the forecast yesterday shown the heavy snow fall, then the necessary preparation would have been there.
Dec 10, 2017, 8:52 am
#110
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: London, UK
Programs: Virtuoso, FSPP, Hyatt Prive, Hilton Impressario, Marriott Stars/Luminous, Roswood Elite, MO Fan Club
Posts: 560
I timed this trip well! Just arrived in GRU. Originally before work called I was going to AMS this weekend so I would have been caught up in it all.
I suspect for those unfortunately on BA1342/3 it will be a case of rebooking on to the later BA1344/5, or rebooked on to a MAN flight if there is space, or make your own way on the train.
Sorry for those caught up generally in all this. I have been caught up in problems before so I don't feel too guilty missing it this time, but I hope everyone gets to where they want to go without too much delay.
I suspect for those unfortunately on BA1342/3 it will be a case of rebooking on to the later BA1344/5, or rebooked on to a MAN flight if there is space, or make your own way on the train.
Sorry for those caught up generally in all this. I have been caught up in problems before so I don't feel too guilty missing it this time, but I hope everyone gets to where they want to go without too much delay.
Dec 10, 2017, 8:52 am
#111
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: @somewhere, if help needed use my email address [email protected]
Programs: BA & QR
Posts: 1,014
LHR-AMS BA446 & BA436 cancelled
AMS-LHR BA447& BA437 cancelled
AMS-LHR BA447& BA437 cancelled
Dec 10, 2017, 8:53 am
#112
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: London, UK
Programs: Virtuoso, FSPP, Hyatt Prive, Hilton Impressario, Marriott Stars/Luminous, Roswood Elite, MO Fan Club
Posts: 560
Whats the latest? I was due out of LBA on BA1343..now rebooked for tomorrow evening!
Dec 10, 2017, 8:54 am
#113
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 7,464
Whilst that may be true from an operational point of view, in usual BA fashion they are failing to cope with the issues - friend of mine currently at LHR at has been on hold to BA Gold line for over an hour to get rebooked onto another service. Typical BA not having the backup to assist passengers in making alternative arrangements when things go wrong. A better website could allow customers to be more self sufficient, but BA has not invested.
Dec 10, 2017, 9:02 am
#116
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: Some
Posts: 5,250
All remaining BA flights today from MAN cancelled earlier other than BA1405 which I fortunately booked as my back-up. Still running but showing as 11.10pm departure :/.
Last edited by lost_in_translation; Dec 10, 2017 at 9:16 am
Dec 10, 2017, 9:05 am
#117
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,768
You can't call BA to sort out accommodation, but you're OK to sort it out yourself and send the bill in afterwards. I can't recall a single case where BA has refused to refund the cost, other than when the bill goes over £200 (and that's legally dodgy). Now that is per room, with some expectation that people share rooms if that is sensible (e.g. a married couple). So if your group is 4 unrelated colleagues of different genders then 4 rooms it would be, down to one room if that is sensible (a couple with very young children). In terms of rebooking, if you must go soon, and perhaps via another airline [from memory SAS is not an option, there's no agreement, but KLM and Lufthansa are options] then stay in the queue. If you're actually able to be relaxed about it and happy to stick with BA, IB, AA, AY metal, then personally I'd book a hotel yourself and then when you're in the hotel with a coffee in hand, use Skype to contact BA to get rebooked.
Dec 10, 2017, 9:07 am
#119
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold / Hilton Diamond / IHG Diamond Ambassador / Marriot Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 2,532
BA continues to provide absolutely no service, no service recover and simply abdicates its responsibilities to passengers.
This weather event was forecast back as far back as Wednesday / Thursday with the BBC weather man sating specifically that although it forecast to remain to the north of High Wycombe it would not take much to shift it. 22 miles is surely sufficiently close Heathrow for the countries main airport to justify preparing for it!
I appreciate that many on here will defend BA to the death but in the real world there are passengers stuck on aircraft for 5 hours without so much as a coffee. BAs Twitter feed is full of complaints and the best they can post is "sorry for the inconvenience". As the passenger stuck on an aircraft for 5 hours states....with not even a cup of coffee in that time... its more than a inconvenience.
Others point to BA again refusing to pay for hotels or offer what is their legal obligation to provide.
Between BA and Heathrow airport, it continues to be a national embarrassment that an inch of snow can cause so much disruption at Heathrow.
The best tweet so far is a request from a passengers asking BA if the ca provide some
"pile cream" as he has been sat on his arse for hours. He says a free coffee would have helped but even that he has to pay for.....Shocking and unforgivable once again from BA where to fly would useful, but to serve unheard of.
This weather event was forecast back as far back as Wednesday / Thursday with the BBC weather man sating specifically that although it forecast to remain to the north of High Wycombe it would not take much to shift it. 22 miles is surely sufficiently close Heathrow for the countries main airport to justify preparing for it!
I appreciate that many on here will defend BA to the death but in the real world there are passengers stuck on aircraft for 5 hours without so much as a coffee. BAs Twitter feed is full of complaints and the best they can post is "sorry for the inconvenience". As the passenger stuck on an aircraft for 5 hours states....with not even a cup of coffee in that time... its more than a inconvenience.
Others point to BA again refusing to pay for hotels or offer what is their legal obligation to provide.
Between BA and Heathrow airport, it continues to be a national embarrassment that an inch of snow can cause so much disruption at Heathrow.
The best tweet so far is a request from a passengers asking BA if the ca provide some
"pile cream" as he has been sat on his arse for hours. He says a free coffee would have helped but even that he has to pay for.....Shocking and unforgivable once again from BA where to fly would useful, but to serve unheard of.
Last edited by binman; Dec 10, 2017 at 9:15 am