This is exactly why the courts use the omnibus test… if we as frequent flyers can’t agree what’s reasonable, then someone else might have to.

To me, reasonable in the event of disruption is…
- ask BA for help, either in arrivals or departures
- if they can help, accept it gracefully
- if they can’t, or the queue is enormous, move on to…

- look quickly at kayak/Expedia/etc (using HAL’s free and reasonably fast wifi)
- see what I think is a decent combination of price/convenience. The map view helps if unfamiliar with the area
- book it and go
… all of which collectively takes no more than about 15 mins.

What I personally would not do is say ‘I can walk to the Sofitel, so I’ll book it whatever price it is’. That to me is unreasonable, particularly since it implies I know enough about hotels in the area to know that. But of course EMMV and that doesn’t mean any of us is more right or wrong than another.

We have arrived in Sicily and the flight was perfect, albeit a late departure so the total overun was greater than 25 hours.

My origional post was written when tired and underwhelmed at the Sofitel.

On leaving Arrivals we headed straight to Boots, prepared for a hotel stop over; without any luggage we considered tooth brushes essential. They were totally sold out, I now know from others staying at the Sofitel they cleared Boots out of tooth brushes.
After greater than 3 hours of delay, my first thought was go home and return in the morning. Our car had been remotely parked by Meet and Greet. The cheapest 24 car rental I could find was over £425 for a compact car.
At this point I thought the Sofitel seemed the best option given it was now 19:30 and 90 minutes after ariving landside.
Their quote was £241 room only (others paid this). Or £281 with breakfast. BA would have to fund our breakfasts so the room with breakfast option seemed sensible. Joining their 'Club' got the price to £251.
Had we used a taxi to obtain a better hotel price and added breakasts I will suggest to BA we would be back to the £251 price point. We have no other expenses apart from £55 for fish a chips for two with 2 beers at the Sofitel.

As a side note the Sofitel really disapointed. Two requests for single use toothbrushes never arrived, I dreamed of a disposable razor. Our mouths had to wait until we returned to the lounge the next day. No robes or slippers, the only clothes we had we were wearing. The Sofitel felt 3* at best, so the price did rub a bit. However there were families with young kids in the same boat.
The C-W-S suggestion advising getting a couple of wine boxes from the hotel for our gin worked a treat and we are now about to have G&T on the Sicilian balcony and the last 24 hours seems a storm in a teacup now!
Thank you all for the very useful information - isn't this forum wonderful?

Except that the issue, here, is that what we "need" in theory is to ask BA and take what they give. That is the legal entitlement. If the EC261 provision was: "Passengers whose flight is cancelled will be entitled to reimbursement of reasonable expenses for hotel, food and drink", the matter would be different, but that is simply not the case. The regulation is very clear and precise on how the duty of care is operated.

As a result, I think that the whole discussion of reasonableness above (not in your specific post, but the whole sequence within the thread) is simply mistaken in its object. The actual question is not whether £251 is a reasonable price for a hotel night, nor is it whether it is reasonable to book the Sofitel when you are looking for a hotel airport, but rather whether it is reasonable for BA to say: "If we cancel your flight, we will provide you with a hotel as per EC261/2004. However, if you prefer to make your own arrangement, you can do so and we will reimburse up to £200 bed and breakfast." Personally, I think that it is all the more reasonable that it is voluntary.

One simply cannot create a random, non-regulatory obligation on BA if the airline is able and willing to fulfil what the law requires it to do (again, it would be different if the airline was unable or unwilling to perform its regulatory obligation, but that is simply not the case here). Indeed, many airlines would point blank refuse to refund a hotel room booked directly when they can provide their own at significantly discounted rates.

I think that anyone who has seen my posts will know that I do not shy away from criticising BA when I think that they are being petty or unfair, but in this case, BA is simply unilaterally offering an additional alternative here above and beyond its regulatory obligations, and it is arguably going to be very difficult to make the case that they should do so on some different terms.

BA has a duty of care to affected passengers. In my opinion, this includes providing support for passengers arranging accommodation and transport. BA did not fulfill this requirement. If BA had done so, I do not think we would be criticising. If BA effectively abandons passengers or has a gate agent hand them a letter on disembarkation which essentially says „you‘re on your own“, then „reasonableness“ is always going to be from the passengers point of view.

Do I consider £251 at very short notice for an airport hotel within very short walking distance and breakfast reasonable? Yes I do. If BA do not, then they can provide staff to make the arrangements they prefer at a cost they are willing to bear.

I am still unclear where the OP has said that they were abandonded and given a letter saying "you are on your own", in fact I do not think the OP embarked the aircraft to then be able to be handed a letter on disembarkation.



I have given advice to the OP to the best of my ability based on the information they have provided. if the situation was different than that suggested then maybe the advice would be different

as the OP has not accused BA of abandoning them then I will not suggest that is what happened. Nor has that been my experience at LHR when my flights have been cancelled and alternate arrangements needed made

Apologies if I’m missing something but I’m just not seeing that from the op. If your reading is correct and Ba told the pax “sorry we can’t provide you with a hotel room, you’ll have to arrange that yourself if you want one”, then I totally agree with you. I’m just not clear that this is what happened.

No, I was answering the question of reasonableness in general and not to this OP specifically. Sorry for the confusion. The example from me is based on my actual experience. BA just gave up under the mass disruption, had no resources available and handed out letters.



I have had good and bad. But when it was bad, it was very, very bad and I did feel abandoned. I paid more than £251 and got reimbursed without much fuss.

As I just answered Scottishpoet, it was based on my own experience when BA goes into meltdown. I do not know the specifics in this case. Although, to be honest, having been in the situation a couple of times, standing in a long line to get to the front of the queue to be told no more rooms can be booked, I would tend to also immediately take matters into my own hands these days. Knowing how much BA is stretched makes that decision easy.

thank you for the clarification.

yes in the circumstances you have described the advice may be different. Unfortunately for the OP it is not what they described, hence the advice that has been given

I would not want to set false expectations

according to a post in this thread, it seems on the day in question BA staff at zone E were available to provide rooms

Thanks, I saw your answer to Scottishpoet and it does indeed clarify where you come from. I basically agree with him: in your case, I think you have a very strong case and it would be utterly unfair if BA to expect you to know let alone go out of your way to meet their internal arbitrary target.

if I read the op correctly, however, there is no reason to believe similar messages were conveyed and simply assuming ba would be unable to provide hotel rooms just because they failed to do so on some other occasion would be one assumption too far from me and not a reasonable one in my view. And if indeed they could have provided the room, then the situation becomes a lot more problematic.

I’m rather glad the OP has replied with his further info and view of Sofitel. Having found myself there at BA’s behest after a LHR-JFK cancellation one Friday in October 2019 (mercifully armed with a BA overnight pack containing a huge white T-shirt and a toothbrush) I can honestly say I was extremely underwhelmed.

Large queues everywhere dealing with various IRROPS (and it must have only been a tenth of what was going on at T5 during this weekend). The room was ok but slightly tired. And most dispiritingly the food laid on for evening meal and breakfast was a hot buffet of items that had probably last seen an oven about 48 hours previously. I certainly wouldn’t want to stay there again and certainly not pay between £150/250 for the experience. The Sheraton is far superior, usually about £70 and is a five minute bus ride away.

As a data point we were caught up in the February disruption when trying to connect from a long haul flight to short haul which we discovered had been cancelled when we landed at LHR. The connection desk offered us vouchers for the Renaissance I think but we weren’t up for getting bus/taxis etc so we declined the voucher and booked into Sofitel ourselves. We were warned that as they offered us a voucher we may not get reimbursed but my claim for c£355 for a junior suite (there were 4 of us) at the Sofitel was accepted within a matter of days and payment received within 14 days.

you were within ba’s limits. As cws mentioned, £200/room assumes two people sharing so for four, the expectation/guideline would be 2x£200.

It doesn't say whether the OP had access to the Internet at the time. If your phone's battery is flat, then you can only make use of the two phone calls ("a few phone calls") that BA has to offer.

Absolutely true.

based on the fact two people were travelling, in this day and age both probably having multiple wifi capable devices, my assumption is the calls were made on their own phone,

if the batteries were dead on all their devices it may have been easier to allow BA to sort out the accomodation.

I accept that this is a huge assumption

It would also be an important piece of information the OP neglected to give us when they sought advice and could change the advice given