Gmutt01

Thanks for advice. Is there a reason for not now putting in a claim separately for the cancelled flight, considering no reference was made to it by CS in giving their reason for the compensation awarded for the delayed and late arrival aspect?

rtl198

hi there

thanks in advance for any thoughts on this - looks similar to Ned's so I assume the outcome of "pursue" will be the same.....

original flight LHR-TLS 10/9 (strike day) cancelled for strike over 2 weeks beforehand
rebooked onto LHR-TLS 11/9 1025 (1st day post-strike). this was then cancelled less than 24 hours pre departure.
ended up on LHR-TLS 11/9 1415.
flights to Toulouse from LHR on 11/9 departed early that morning before the 1025 cancelled one, and also my eventual flight at 1415.

claim submitted as per this forum's instructions on BA website - thanks for the helpful guidance.

reply back from BA yesterday says....
"Your claim's been refused because BA0378 on 10 September and BA0374 11 September was cancelled because of industrial action was carried out by BALPA on the day you were due to travel. Strikes are an extraordinary circumstance and are outside of our control.
We take all reasonable measures to avoid disruption to a flight and we always consider if there are any other alternative solutions before we make a decision. The cancellation was out of our control and caused unforeseen disruption to our schedule."

I have replied, mentioning that strikes in their airline are their problem (that's my understanding of the TUIFly case summary), and also that 11/9 wasn't a strike day.

do I wait for them to confirm they're not budging, and then proceed to CEDR for a decision?

thanks in advance for any thoughts

lu94

I was recently delayed by around 20 hours on a Intereuropean trip with BA due to a missed connection at LHR, which was caused by the software glitch they suffered at the beginning of August.

After the flight, I filed a claim for EU261 compensation as well as reimbursement for expenses (meals only, hotel was provided by BA) incurred during the delay. Now, after more than 2 months, I received a generic response “An apology from British Airways” saying sorry for the bad experience and noting that 15,000 Avios were added to my account. In this message, my EU261 claim was not mentioned.

I find this very unsatisfactory as I believe that I am entitled to €250, plus reimbursement of expenses.

In your experience, what would be the next step? Should I argue with BA or should I directly contact CEDR?

Any insight or experience with similar situations would be appreciated.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, by all means claim specifically and separately for the cancelled flight and see what happens. Keep your submission short!

corporate-wage-slave

Customer Relations only occasionally change their position, so my advice after the first reply - assuming it is not acceptable to you - is to re-iterate the reason why they are wrong (TuiFly) and ask them to allow a CEDR referral "if your answer will not change". Then your CEDR submission should have 3 or so quotes from TuiFly to back up your claim, plus a bit on failure to take all reasonable measures to run the advertised schedule given they had multiple weeks notice of the strike.

corporate-wage-slave

It looks to me that you haven't had your specific claim assessed yet. If it is now 8 weeks since you submitted your case then I would now go to CEDR, alternatively call Customer Relations in the UK weekday afternoons. It may need several attempts to get through.

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum lu94, it's good to see you here, and I hope we will see more of you in the future.

petez

Hi All,

Got downgraded from PE to Economy during the strike in September from JFK to LHR (flight actually operated by Spanish Charter plane). I was Economy on the other leg which was fine.

After little response, all I was offered was 15,000 avios and no refund, despite having asked for a refund. Next step is to notify that I am planning MCOL but can't work out what I might be due under EC261.

Any views on working out a reasonable % of cost of ticket that would sit OK in a MCOL?

Many thanks

corporate-wage-slave

If you look at this thread's wiki, there is a reference and link to Mennens. This is how downgrades should be assessed, which is a bit complex admittedly, but I think it's ok to estimate to say a 5€ level of accuracy. You can use CEDR as an alternative if you prefer, but actually I would also go MCOL on something like this. Note that if BA have sent it off to the Refunds team, it will take them several weeks to calculate your refund. In this case I suspect Mennens will be more generous than BA's calculation method, but maybe with the Avios it is close enough (?).

UKtravelbear

There is a formula- see the ‘downgrade’ section in the wiki at the very top of this thread.

Finkface

Bumping this, what number does one call for claims? The twitter rep will not give me a number instead directing me to the contact page which gives only the Reservations phone number under Customer Relations.

corporate-wage-slave

Assuming you are inside the UK, the number is 03444930787 then option 3, followed by option 2, open UK office hours Monday to Friday, but they often don't take calls in the morning.

If you are somewhere else, go to the bottom of your BA.com area to the blue border / Help and Contacts / Contact Information / All other enquiries / Telephone number and addresses / [select country] / Contact Customer Relations.

On the main IVR, you can work your way to Customer Relations too, bearing in mind you are enquiring about a completed trip.

Finkface

Thank you! I am outside the UK but will call that direct number nonetheless. I did go to the contact page for Customer Relations for Canada prior to asking but it only gives a fax number.

ft434

We have a business class Oneworld Classic Flight Reward (280k points, 35k miles) booked directly through Qantas using Qantas points, that includes a BA operated sector from LHR to CAI in December. We've just received a letter from BA advising of a type change from a BA to a Titan operated aircraft that doesn't have a Club World cabin.

The letter included the following options:
1. You can travel with Titan Airways in the Premium Economy Cabin with the same flight number, date and departure time. We'll refund the appropriate amount.
2. You can use the value of the ticket towards cost of travel to an alternate destination we fly to.
3. You can choose not to travel and receive an applicable refund.

As changing anything on these kinds of tickets is a nightmare we are probably going to go with option 1, but want to understand our entitlement for being downgraded. As a category 3 flight, we think we are due a 75% refund of something, probably the cost of the sector. But is that the cost of the sector in (Qantas) points, or in cash, and how are either of those things worked out? Also should we be talking to Qantas or BA about this?

We called BA to try to establish the "appropriate amount" they would refund us, and they told us to deal with Qantas.
We called Qantas and they told us that no refund was due, and that BA should never have sent us the letter.

So we're a bit confused. Any insights would be appreciated.

serfty

Firstly, this is not Qantas' issue and I would avoid any further communication with them if you are sumply looking for eu261 downgrade compensation.

After travel on this sector, you are entiteled a refund from BA of any difference in Taxes/Levies/Surcharges (APD would be significant) for the segment.

You would also be entited to a refund from BA of 75% of the points value pro-rata based on the proportion of the sector distance against the total distance of the booking with 280000 Qantas points.

Since BA are unlikely to be able to credit QFF points you could look at how much it would cost to purchase that many points on Qantas.com.

ft434

Thanks serfty, that's useful info.

I think we're avoiding APD because we're flying in and out of the UK within 24 hours, but it's hard to be sure as the taxes were calculated on several occasions by different people with different results, and we were unable to obtain a breakdown or see the calculations. We'll follow up with BA after our flight.