ringingup

Would they consider rebooking on AerSpace?

corporate-wage-slave

I don't think it's being offered for sale at the moment, but normally BA will maintain cabin when transferring people to other airlines.

ringingup

It’s definitely available on Aer Lingus, not on BA.

The are two issues for the passenger:

1. They want to avoid sitting next to someone if possible
2. They need extra luggage allowance

I tried to call BA but they closed at 8 pm. There is no way of saying which booking class they rebooked them on.

corporate-wage-slave

I seem to recall that if you are booked via a codeshare, BA's codeshares on EI are in economy only for shorthaul. I seem to recall a case where someone was rebooked on to Aer Lingus for a transatlantic service and while the long haul was rebooked in Business, the short hop to Dublin was in economy, and in that scenario the Mennens formula did come out at virtually nothing. BA couldn't book into Aer Space because this simply wasn't a codeshare option.

If it's that important, then consider the refund and direct rebook idea mentioned above, for peace of mind.

ringingup

I called today. Well I had to HUACA, as the first representative in India had no clue. A lovely gentleman on my second attempt was able to rebook the outbound on AerSpace, but it was only possible on the flight operated by the A330. He also said that they should honour the 2 bags baggage allowance.

KARFA

Yes, for EI/BA on the DUB route they are supposed to rebook you on the BA codeshare for the EI flight. For A320 EI flights, only economy selling classes are shown under the BA codeshare and business selling classes are not. For A330 flights the BA codeshare does include business selling classes. I have no idea why there is a difference.

Foofighter69

Sorry to bump this post - need to decide whether I trust this offer as one they will support as I need to book accommodation soon-ish. We have 5 days and then nowhere booked!

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, but it's largely subjective isn't it? Do you / we trust what you were told? If you have been rebooked now then you have used your shot at the goal. If you haven't, would you really return early? What I can say is that it is in conformity with EC261 (and their usual guidelines for spending, including the £50 for taxis), but it does sound over generous given the Miami option is potentially available to you. In your shoes I would take the offer at face value, but would book the other nights on the basis that I could end up paying for it in the end.

hunter747

Another data point

In June 2020, booked on the BA website 2 tickets BNA-LHR in business class for. Dec 2020. The fare was incredibly low and they fly the only direct on this route. In June, I thought "this all will be over by Christmas". Boy was i wrong LOL

At the time I booked, this particular flight had been cancelled since early March IIRC. Understandable but did not deter me.

Kept an eye on the flight through the summer and into the fall. BA would cancel the flight, a month at a time. By September, I was getting nervous, but still hopefully.

Then in late October, the flight was no longer "out there" to purchase. I had no contact from BA, and when I logged into the website and the "Manage my Bookings", it sure looked like the flight was a go.

I was pretty sure the flight was cancelled and at this point did not want to travel. Now I was worried that I would be rebooked on some AA connection via ORD or DFW. I waited a few days, then called them.

It was a Monday morning, and was on hold for all of 2 minutes. Spoke to a personable BA employee, gave them my booking reference and other details to prove who I was and asked for a refund. Was put on hold for a couple of minutes, then they came back and confirmed my request. Did not try and reschedule me on some other itinerary. That was all there was to it. Took a week for the credit to show up on my CC.

Remarkably easy to be honest, I had read a lot of horror stories and knew not to use the website as I would be steered towards a flight voucher. I have to give props to BA for the way they handled my situation.

NWIFlyer

As BA settled today, I can now document a recent Duty of Care claim which should have been extremely straightforward but in the end required legal action.

Mrs NWIFlyer & I had a DUB-LCY flight which BA (Cityflyer) cancelled at more than 14 days' notice. The only alternative flight offered was the next day, entailing a 21 hour delay and obviously a further hotel night. (Why they didn't offer one of the same day LHR options, which would have been within the guidance on EC261, is something of a mystery.) After a few days I accepted BA's revised itinerary as an involuntary change.

As the revised flight was early the following morning we booked the Crowne Plaza near the airport on a flexible corporate rate which included breakfast, at about half the cost of BA's £200 per night internal policy, and also ate two meals without alcohol during the day which were clearly commensurate with the length of delay. The total bill for two of us was £172 - so the four meals came to less than £70 in total, which I thought was pretty reasonable for a capital city with most places closed down and therefore a pretty limited range of options.

On 6th November, the day of our return, I submitted the receipts to BA Customer Service and categorically stated I was claiming under the Duty of Care clause, expecting it to be paid without a murmur. BA came back and denied the claim, stating because they had given 14 days' notice it was "consequential loss", very generously also offering to help with a travel insurance claim. I pushed back and asked them to re-look at it, quoting the exact text from EC261, but was again refused. On 8th November I requested and received a deadlock letter and issued MCOL proceedings the same day. (Worth noting that I issued them against BA Cityflyer as the operating airline, using Waterside as their registered address with Companies House.)

BA asked for more time to respond the day before the deadline, as is usual, but within a few days I received an apologetic response from CS admitting liability and offering to pay the £197, which included the £25 court fee. I pointed out that the total debt had now attracted some court interest (not much, of course, but as they'd messed me about I was going to argue on principle) and unfortunately I wouldn't be able to advise the court that the full amount had been settled if they didn't also pay that.

So, back it went to the paralegal over the grand total of about a quid, who had to take the time to write me another e-mail denying liability for the interest and stating they would defend that part of the claim because it wasn't a debt under the County County Act. I sent it back advising that I didn't accept their offer, but suggesting that they might like to throw some Avios my way in light of the inconvenience I'd suffered as a result of CS getting it wrong in the first place.

Now I imagine the paralegal probably just wanted rid of me at this point, so the offer came back of payment of the £197 plus 1,000 Avios - which I thought reasonably fair given it was worth more than the interest value, but at least some recognition that I'd had to waste time going through a process that really should not have been necessary - so I accepted. By this point it was 5th November.

The Avios credited almost immediately, but by 10th November I still hadn't seen the money, so I e-mailed back chasing it given the next court deadline was approaching. The paralegal responded that she would tell the court BA had agreed to pay, but that it would take up to 21 business days for the payment to reach me. Now obviously EC261 mandates 7 days, and a BACS transfer takes 2-3, so this was still BA trying to hold out as long as possible.

I wrote back pointing this out, but expressing sympathy that staffing may be stretched and therefore on this occasion I'd be happy to wait. However, as her declaration to the court had been to reject my claim rather than accept it, in spite of admitting liability, I pointed out that I would now have no option but to advise the court that I had not received payment - which would trigger the next stage of setting a court date. I assured her that I would do this at the last possible moment to avoid creating any more paperwork for both of us. My deadline was today.

Miraculously, this morning, the 21 business days reduced to two because the money appeared in my account ...

So it seems that even on the very simplest, most clear cut of claims BA is trying it on at the moment to conserve cash. What's interesting is that normally a paralegal would admit liability in the event of MCOL action being taken, but the acceptance came from CS, which presumably means somewhat got a "why are you wasting my time with this nonsense" message from the paralegal. This might or might not mean that future claims (and I don't doubt there's a lot of them in the system) will get paid more easily if the claimant is clear on the law.

Im a new user

This is not true.

The regulation mandates 7 days if your flight was cancelled and you ask for a refund of the ticket cost. The regulation also mandates 7 days if you were downgraded to a lower class of travel. In other situations, the regulation does not stipulate a minimum timeframe. Instead, you'd have to look at national laws to see when the payment is due.

FlightDetective

The reason is because AerSpace is not a business class product. It is an enhanced economy product with a seat kept free next to you, any choice from the paid catering offering given free if you want it, plus other perks like a refundable ticket, more Tier Points in AerClub and so on. The purpose of it was for connecting transatlantic passengers heading onwards over Dublin to not have to pay for their food and to sit up the front, rather than those people being relegated to anywhere on the plane and also having to pay if they wanted food or drink.

EI were at pains when creating the product not to call it business class and for it not to be business class. And so it's not. But....
.

chimichanga

BA cancelled my LHR-DUS-LHR flights in August less than 14 days in advance. I have now sent them a claim for EC261 compensation, which they rejected twice citing that the flight was cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Is there any experience from other users about recent compensation claims? Does BA simply reject any EC261 claim because of Covid-19? Are they in right for using Coronavirus as an excuse here? After all, the flights in question were in August where Covid-19 case numbers were low and neither the UK nor Germany had any form of lockdown, travel restrictions or quarantine requirements.

LondonElite

It’s being widely cited as an exceptional circumstance.

corporate-wage-slave

Have a look at posts 484 and 485 above.