IAN-UK

I'm guessing (OK, hoping!) the Regulation morphed seamlessly into UK law in the transition period. But I'm not sure exactly how our domestic version manifests itself. Did it make it over with its full package of interpretations, and will it evolve in parallel with EU261 - or is it in the basic, bare-bones version I think Switzerland follows.

And how do we refer to our home version?

KARFA

There is an article here about the detail https://www.dlapiper.com/de/austria/...e-end-for-261/

It is incorporated directly in to UK law with the amendments in The Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers’ Licencing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

amendments were only done to the extent necessary to do the incorporation. There was nothing which changed any of the effects of the substantive entitlements in the European Regulation - so for now there is no difference and you could refer to EC261 and the UK law interchangeably. It’s possible it could diverge in future.

NickB

I agree. Legal entitlement is one thing. Whether it is sensible to pursue it is another. As long as this did not result in additional expenses for the OP nor create substantial complications for him/her and given that BA seems to have behaved entirely reasonably throughout, I too would be tempted to let it slide.

PGberkshire

ask for 10,000 Avios and move on?

IAN-UK

Thanks!

That's quite a mouthful - and use of the EU261 nomenclature has the further advantage in the potential irritation it causes Bexiters

tobsw

Why do you all feel SO empathic towards BA, when BA did clearly make a massive mistake? We all are aware of the current pandemic, but BA should be aware of changes in entry requirements and the required documents.

Why should the OP not claim compensation, having arrived almost 8 h late to the destination (based on current schedule), because BA didn't get it right?

In this situation I think the OP did its homework clearly - did absolutely nothing wrong -, while BA did fail massively, I would absolutely seek monetary compensation.

BA did not act reasonably - it denied boarding to a pax that had full rights to enter the destination country - whether you like it or not, that's not reasonable.

GUWonder

I am generally more inclined into holding the airline accountable as much as possible — financially too — for such situations because:

a) Spain does accept the CDC cards, speaking of those cards which meet the Spanish requirements for vaccinated Americans to enter Spain from beyond the Schengen zone; and

b) any delay or denial based on agent misunderstanding induces extra stress on the typical passenger at a foreign transit airport.

How long was the scheduled transit at LHR? After a BA supervisor was called up to come into the matter, how much time did it take until BA acknowledged the traveler should have been permitted to fly? Did BA properly acknowledge that they caused the passenger an inconvenience on the basis of their agent’s misunderstanding of the situation? Did the original BA agent involved in denying timely travel from LHR have anything to say about having been found to have made a mistake that inconvenienced the passenger?

That said, the OP has done other US-vaccinated travelers a favor by not giving up on the matter and seeing the matter through to CDC cards being recognized in the proper manner by a BA supervisor. If it were I, I would chalk this up as another travel story to share and hope inspires others not to just accept “the agent/computer/whatever says so”. Infallibility isn’t human.

beachmouse

There will probably be a few more of these incidents in the early days of the assorted EU border reopenings and the OP's actions will help the right memo get issued to all GAs clarifying with pictures that the CDC card is acceptable proof of vaccine. So thanks for taking one for the team!

GUWonder

I’ve been fortunate to not have an issue yet because of using my CDC card to fly around internationally more easily. Personally, I wouldn’t have expected BA@LHR to be a more likely candidate to be an issue over such circumstances than some other airlines with flights to Spain, but glad to see that someone already won one for the Gipper.

TomMM

Me neither. I recently booked a trip to Madrid and was presented with some very tempting Business Fares connecting through LHR but given the current state of travel it didn't seem prudent booking that connection.

NickB

BA made a mistake, yes, but I would not call that a "massive" mistake (if you call that "massive", I dread to think what words you would describe to qualify something that I might regard as a serious mistake: 'seismically apocalyptic mistake', perhaps?).

I do not think that it would have been self-evident to a non-US airline that does not operate direct flights between the US to Spain that a CDC card is a document that would satisfy the Spanish authorities. Acceptance of evidence of vaccination as an alternative to evidence of non-contamination is a relatively new development and expecting all airlines in the world to have knowledge of every document issued by any authority of any country as valid evidence of vaccination is setting the bar rather high when the available data at their disposal does not make it 100% clear.

So, yes, they got it wrong but, from what the OP said, they did not persist in their mistake and, instead, worked to check the issue and rectify it.

Now, had BA simply said "no" and sent the OP away without listening to him/her and look further into it, that would have been a different story. Similarly, had the OP incurred expenses as a result of BA's mistake (let us say, having to spend an extra night in London and get a hotel room; lost a non-changeable ticket for an onward train connection, etc...), that would also be a different story.

From what we can gather, this is not the case. All we have is a late arrival the same day in Barcelona which, in the covid era, is something that could easily have happened for all sorts of reasons that would not have given rise to compensation. In that kind of context, while I tend on the whole to be towards the more critical end of the users of this forum towards airlines dragging their heels at complying with their obligations towards consumers, I am not sure that compensation in this situation is a hill I would want to die on.

PUCCI GALORE

I suppose that as NickB says - legal entitlement and having better things to worry about come into play and we are all different. My view is was this a genuine mistake or downright negligence. Was the OP left to his own devices and cut adrift or not. Long since I have been at FT and have read these sort of threads I have long decided that it was one thing to ba an Armchair Warrior and another to actually be on the spot. In this instance I would have been more relieved that the correct rules were agreed and were acted upon by a supervisor who from what I read did a very good job. These rules are changing constantly here in Europe and in the UK - there are strings of instances about this in the Corona Virus thread. I apologised for asking a particular piece of advice regarding testing on arrival in the UK and the person who had already replied that the rules had already changed two or three times (perhaps more) in this year alone. I mention this as it is a glaring example of there being so many rules that not only am I not surprised that any entity gets it wrong; indeed I would be astounded if they did not. I imagine that they are very much veering on the side of caution at this time.Thus I would just be glad to resume my journey and get to my destination even though I was right in the first place. Like many I am not litigious, others are.

What I am curious to know is who or what is The Gipper?

corporate-wage-slave

The FT hive mind will be aware of the CDC card situation, and the reasons behind that, but I suspect that many (most?) people in the UK would be surprised that the USA couldn't come up with an App or official certificate for this - it feels counter intuitive given this is the land that invented databases. Plus it was a few days after Spain removed its restrictions, so I suspect the OP's problems were perhaps predictable but hopefully short lived.

TomMM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gipp

PUCCI GALORE

Thank you I had read that but now I now who is was (fascinating bit about his exhumation) in what context would one use it? Sorry to be dim - but it seems to have been used by two ex-Presidents and before this afternoon I have never heard the expression.