dobba

I'd just call them. This got it sorted for me but may take an hour or two of your time.

Once they comfirm an amount you being paid (converted form the fixed Euro amount) then all should be fine (although actual payment may take 7-8 days from here.

florens

New reply from BA regarding BA464 claim:

(my bolding)

You really couldn't make it up.

armouredant

bisonrav

Ask them for a final rejection and take it to CEDR. Someone has obviously decided to dig their heels right in on this.

Garimi

We should get BA all to small court after BA464/465 cancellations....
but in the end BA don't learn just move on to make another mess...

Richmond_Surrey

I will add new comments to my CEDR case reg BA465, thanks for your posts. They should agree on one response to everyone.

gemscot

I was booked on BA2214 LCY - GLA on 25th July, which was cancelled. There was no availability on any other BA flight and I ended up travelling back from LGW on Easyjet.

I submitted a claim via the website and got a response this week that said it was being rejected due to "adverse weather conditions and no First Officer being available for this flight". I've had a look at thebasource.com and it appears that there were a fair number of services operating across the London airports, which suggests to me that the problem is more to do with lack of crew.

I'd appreciate some advice on best way to respond. Should I just reply saying that I don't accept BA's position using the argument above, or is there anything else that people think I should include?

bluemoon68

I'm not 100% sure that this post should be here and not on the thread about the strike, but my main argument is about the duty of care under the legislation, so I thought it's place is here.

I had reward flights, using a 2-4-1 voucher return in business LGW to BGI (Barbados). The return flight was on a strike day and cancelled.

When I spoke to someone in the call centre, they offered us to return in Business on 13 September (4 days later) I enquired about BA paying our hotel costs and was told they wouldn't. We were staying in an expensive all- inclusive, so the cost for 4 days would have been significant, so I declined that offer. They then said they could bring us back on a combination of AA and IB via Miami and Madrid all in business on the day we were due to fly. I reluctantly accepted that option as they weren't offering anything else. While we were at our resort we discovered that there was a Virgin flight direct on the day we flew back with seats available in PE. I feel BA should have offered this as a reasonable alternative to the cancelled flight (with a refund of some Avios Business to PE calculation.
We eventually got home around 8pm instead of 8am.
I have some out of pocket expenses because we flew out of LGW and back to LHR so took a train to LGW the night before and a taxi home rather than driving to and from LGW, but I don't expect that to be contentious.
I phoned BA today and explained why I was unhappy.
a) they breached rules by telling me they wouldnt pay anything for hotel costs.
b) they should have offered the direct virgin flight rather than send us via Miami and Madrid.
They have offered us 15,000 Avios each or a space available gate upgrade voucher. I rejected that and they said there is nothing else and I should go to Cedr if I want more.

I would be interested if people here think I have a case.

armouredant

EC261 doesn't require that BA keep you in the hotel you're staying in; just to get you a hotel, and with provisions for food, until they take you home. Perhaps you were offered that but didn't mention it (and obviously didn't accept it). Did they offer, or did you ask about an alternative hotel? If they offered any hotel at all, they breached no rules.

BA offered you a flight home in the cabin you were booked it. Did you tell them that you'd be willing to accept a lower class of travel? Regardless, BA phone agents generally can't do that kind of gymnastics; you'd have had to go to the airport to arrange it, annoyingly.

You'll be entitled to extra TPs and Avios for the extra routing via MIA and MAD. Also, you arguably got a better seat on IB/AA than you would have on BA.

A case for what? The regulation sets out no fixed amounts for airlines failing to conform to it. You're going to have to decide what you want from them. You've been offered the total cash equivalent of £250 in avios by my valuation, or an upgrade voucher that has an equivalent cash value of, potentially, thousands. What do you have in mind?

AdBoy

Was flying USA-LHR-EU.

USA-LHR delayed 2 hours due to mechanical failure of an ageing 747.

Missed connection to EU. Next available flight was 9 hours later due to full flights that day and a cancellation. No flights on SAS or AY.

Decided to abandon my journey after 5 hours of waiting / standbys not clearing.

BA are saying all that’s due to me is the LHR-EU sector, but reading Point 17 of the FT guidance that doesn’t seem correct.

Any advice greatly received.

bluemoon68

Thank you for your response. I was told that BA wouldn't pay for any hotel. BA wouldn't have known where I was staying as it was booked separately. They said they wouldn't pay for a hotel. If they had offered something for the 4 nights I may have considered topping it up myself to the hotel I was staying in, but they said they wouldn't pay anything for hotels. Remember also that this was the day after the strike was announced, it was difficult to speak to anyone, so I certainly felt pressurised to agree something in that call.

I think the amount of Avios is derisory and the upgrade voucher would be nice, but it's a gate upgrade, so I would have to book the cabin I wanted to travel in and an upgrade would be a bonus, not something I can attach a value to as I can't rely on it happening.

What I want is the compensation I would be entitled to for a flight arriving very late.

Prospero

I received BA’s determination to my EC261 claim today. Like the claims submitted by others, it was rejected on grounds of unforeseen circumstances leading to the cancellation of BA465. I believe the logic for the rejection is flawed because the flight we were rebooked on, the 11 Aug BA457, was originally rostered to operate with the same aircraft but proceeded without cancellation because on the 11th BA was able to find an equipment substitution. Do you think that is a sound argument?

bisonrav

There was plenty of time to roster a replacement to BA464 and hence BA465. They've been giving inconsistent and occasionally downright untrue accounts, but the most important point is that they were at their home base and it's reasonable to expect them to be able to roster a replacement aircraft for BA464 in the time they had available. There may have been operational reasons why they didn't do this, but that's operational not extraordinary circumstances. They may have chosen not to send a replacement because the BA465 return would be prohibited by Heathrow night flying restrictions, but that again is an operational choice. There was plenty of time available to deal with the situation from the time of the go-around anyway.

The gist of the CEDR defence is that they were unable to download a diagnostic file and had to get assistance from Airbus - this is interesting but irrelevant as it points to a intrinsic technical failing (or lack of training of engineering staff). Airbus as contractor to BA are effectively working on behalf of BA, it may be that Airbus equipment failed but that's not the passengers' problem. They are claiming this as extraordinary circumstances which it certainly isn't.

I hope anyway that their defence has been fatally damaged by the fabrications and factual inaccuracies in the official documents, which I'm still astonished by. That they are still sending different explanations out and paying people by mistake is absolutely beyond belief. This would be an extremely juicy tabloid story and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where it ends up.

megaloman

I've replied to BA with the following:

And it got me (and @florens) a €250 payout and 10k avios for BA465. Still no response for my BA464 compensation claim.

If the above doesn't score you a compensation payout, then I'd recommend to wait and see what CEDR will say to those who started the process.

bisonrav

My CEDR response is due next week. Not done one for BA465 yet. So let's see what happens then.