Compensation for mistake with special meal
Mar 15, 2018, 2:16 pm
#76
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 509
No, but how is this relevant?
Think about it this way: EU rules define a €600 compensation if a flight is over 4 hrs late. If airlines would reduce the rate by €600 for a flight that often arrives 4 hours late, then offer customers to pay €600 in order to somehow ensure that they arrive on time, how many do you think would pay that €600? And yet, the EU thinks that €600 compensation is fair... why? The passengers got to where they needed to get, got the meals, and even IFE, so why shouldn't an apology suffice?
Think about it this way: EU rules define a €600 compensation if a flight is over 4 hrs late. If airlines would reduce the rate by €600 for a flight that often arrives 4 hours late, then offer customers to pay €600 in order to somehow ensure that they arrive on time, how many do you think would pay that €600? And yet, the EU thinks that €600 compensation is fair... why? The passengers got to where they needed to get, got the meals, and even IFE, so why shouldn't an apology suffice?
i think everyone has been giving you a consistent message and been trying to illustrate the value of avios
Mar 15, 2018, 2:18 pm
#77
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Dallas, TX
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 47
But.. you received an alternative meal. I assume you ate it, correct? You still haven't indicated where you were flying. I don't think you're going to get the response you want here. Will be interesting to know though if the Avios posted yet.
Mar 15, 2018, 2:24 pm
#79
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2011
Programs: TK E+
Posts: 398
It's like you're trying to make the point that €50 is a generous compensation for a 4 hour flight delay, whereas the EU ruled that €600 is fair.
Mar 15, 2018, 2:45 pm
#80
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 509
you just don’t seem to get the point or are being ignorant
it would actually be helpful if you post in future if you include the necessary info in your post or answer questions rather than be defensive as that’s how your coming across as well as greedy
Mar 15, 2018, 4:26 pm
#81
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
You've been given compensation that is way in excess of what BA would normally give you. The value of the Avios you've been given is probably somewhere around $100 (it's almost certainly in the $70-$140 bracket). It is beyond almost all of us to see how you think that you have not yet been properly compensated for what happened. Not getting your first choice of airline food is probably worth no more than a tenth of that.
If you are serially disappointed by the compensation offered by different airlines, then it may be your expectations that need to be reset.
Mar 15, 2018, 4:41 pm
#82
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 624
No, but how is this relevant?
Think about it this way: EU rules define a €600 compensation if a flight is over 4 hrs late. If airlines would reduce the rate by €600 for a flight that often arrives 4 hours late, then offer customers to pay €600 in order to somehow ensure that they arrive on time, how many do you think would pay that €600? And yet, the EU thinks that €600 compensation is fair... why? The passengers got to where they needed to get, got the meals, and even IFE, so why shouldn't an apology suffice? Surely the vast majority of passengers' time isn't worth €150 an hour...
Think about it this way: EU rules define a €600 compensation if a flight is over 4 hrs late. If airlines would reduce the rate by €600 for a flight that often arrives 4 hours late, then offer customers to pay €600 in order to somehow ensure that they arrive on time, how many do you think would pay that €600? And yet, the EU thinks that €600 compensation is fair... why? The passengers got to where they needed to get, got the meals, and even IFE, so why shouldn't an apology suffice? Surely the vast majority of passengers' time isn't worth €150 an hour...
You expectations are that you’re due 20K Avios. Call that (conservatively) $250USD cash value. Do you really think failure to produce an airline meal is worth that level of compensation?
If so, please do let me know what business it is you run. I’d love to get 10%, 20% of my money back for what I bought from you for a relatively minor service failure.
I’m not sure what relevance EC261 has here...that is a legal framework for flight delays, cancellations, downgrades etc. There is no such legal framework for inflight service mishaps. Are you due something for the inconvenience? Yes, probably. But it seems your expectations are quite out of kilter with the consensus of what that something should be.
Mar 16, 2018, 1:34 am
#83
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: IHG Spire Ambassador, Club Carlson Gold, HHonors Gold, Best Western Diamond Select, BA Blue
Posts: 1,335
Surely the compensation should be the rather small number of vegetables that would have been in the special meal versus the meal the OP actually _ate_ ???
Mar 16, 2018, 4:31 am
#84
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: ±38,000 feet
Programs: LH HON, BA GGL, AF Plat, EK Plat
Posts: 6,428
It’s relevant to the extent that you’ve been given compensation with a cash value somewhere in that range. If you don’t value the meal at that price, why should BA (even accepting a generous margin of additional compensation for the inconvenience of not having your special meal delivered).
You expectations are that you’re due 20K Avios. Call that (conservatively) $250USD cash value. Do you really think failure to produce an airline meal is worth that level of compensation?
If so, please do let me know what business it is you run. I’d love to get 10%, 20% of my money back for what I bought from you for a relatively minor service failure.
I’m not sure what relevance EC261 has here...that is a legal framework for flight delays, cancellations, downgrades etc. There is no such legal framework for inflight service mishaps. Are you due something for the inconvenience? Yes, probably. But it seems your expectations are quite out of kilter with the consensus of what that something should be.
Mar 16, 2018, 4:47 am
#85
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,683
But surely that's just because your value system places higher worth on following some cult/religion, than choosing not to eat animal flesh. BA would be right to compensate them equally in my view.
Mar 16, 2018, 12:26 pm
#86
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Glasgow, UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 624
But BA doesn’t see it that way (per the recent Complaint Response decoder thread: Complaint response de-coder) ... they have to be consistent to ensure fairness to all passengers
Mar 16, 2018, 7:54 pm
#87
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Battleaxe Alliance
Posts: 22,127
Example from other airlines, all of them are for normal revenue tickets in J or F, all of them suffered by me, and holding SEN or other Star Gold / OWE:
Missing wheel on checked baggage from SQ, flights in J: zero comp or costs, they deny all liabilities for wheels and handles, apparently, ignoring the fact they pretty much render the suitcase useless...
Broken seat with zero padding and zero recline, ZRH-HKG in J on LX, no replacement seat even in Y: 4,000 miles (!!)
No meal loaded for anyone in J, LHR-MUC on LH in J: Zero - crew did manage to hand out some yoghurt pots...
9-day delay in baggage on SQ in F and a variety of broken items: I think it was 12,000 miles? Might have been a bit more
QF lost baggage: zero, and I was forced to go back to the airport the next day at my cost to re-file the baggage irregularity report because the staff didn't file it properly and lost the file.
Compared to those, 10,000 for a special meal not given BUT a full replacement meal given seems ridiculously generous....
Can we stop the compensation culture, unless you were severely disadvantaged directly as a consequence of what happened?
Mar 16, 2018, 8:11 pm
#88
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,754
If the OP had been totally unable to eat any other meal on the flight due to some severe allergy, and had therefore been starving on a long haul then I can see a decent compensation pending. But we don't know how long the flight was and we do know that an alternative meal was offered and eaten. So a replacement was accepted. That to me is the end of the story. Right there.
The OP also talks about having ordered a vegetarian meal for ethical reasons. What about the ethics of trying to screw a company out of something for no reason other than what appears to be a tantrum. If your ethics were that strong, you should have requested some salad from the front one of the other Y meals or perhaps from J, where I am sure they would have had something left over.
This whole thread stinks of the compensation culture.
The OP also talks about having ordered a vegetarian meal for ethical reasons. What about the ethics of trying to screw a company out of something for no reason other than what appears to be a tantrum. If your ethics were that strong, you should have requested some salad from the front one of the other Y meals or perhaps from J, where I am sure they would have had something left over.
This whole thread stinks of the compensation culture.
Mar 16, 2018, 10:37 pm
#89
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: ±38,000 feet
Programs: LH HON, BA GGL, AF Plat, EK Plat
Posts: 6,428
I see your point, but what about genuine dietary requirements - eg no nuts or no fish meals or no gluten? Those surely are not 'made up' and would you agree failure to accommodate for those should attract different level then some hippie vegetarians?