SheepyAFC

I have been waiting 8 weeks regarding a EU261 claim from BA without any response at all apart from the initial email confirmation.

if I go to MCOL can you advise if the £70 charge is charged regardless if it goes to court or not.

sorry for being naive as not used to things like this.

ScienceTeacher

Yes, you do pay the court fee when you lodge the claim.

SheepyAFC

Thanks so you would pay the £70 regardless if it goes to court or not and this is how MCOL make their cut /money for helping in the process?

Sorry I am just trying to understand.

:D!

Firstly you write a Letter Before Action to BA. If they don't reply to that within 2 weeks, you can open a case with MCOL. At that point you pay the MCOL fee.

If BA wants to settle after receiving the court papers, but without going to court, then they should reimburse you the court fee in their settlement. Then you can withdraw the court action.

SheepyAFC

Thanks for that and one last point. If my wife and I claim do I make 1 claim or 2 separate claims ?

ThatT1Feeling

Hmmm. My most recent action cost me £35 for 2 passengers, which BA agreed to refund when BA withdrew their defence. I then withdrew the case once all the money arrived. I also didn’t do a letter before action - I dived straight in!

Airprox

Don't forget you also have the CEDR abitration route before MCOL if you so wish and it's a fairly straightforward case. Will be quicker than MCOL by far.

haroon145

I don’t think CEDR is quicker, my last submission to CEDR took 10 months till a decision was made by the adjudicator. At least with MCOL, there are set Court deadlines to abide by for all parties and CEDR have given the airlines significant extensions due to Covid-19.

LCY8737

Not necessarily. If the case is clear cut BA will not let it go all the way to court, but rather settle a long time before. My experience is that they ask for an extension and then pay, so from letter before action to money in the bank ca 2 months.

NWIFlyer

It's not unknown for BA to put up a defence that they are not liable for both passengers because only one of them is named in the action. Now of course this is only a delaying tactic, and once one case is settled the second passenger would just re-raise the paperwork and pay their own fee.

It does, to some extent, depend on the circumstances. I've made two claims - one for a downgrade, where BA mounted that defence (but eventually dropped it at arbitration) and one for a simple overnight hotel and meals, where everything was on single receipts and therefore it wasn't practically possible to make separate claims (and BA legal was so embarrassed I even got a call to apologise for the CS error in denying my claim in the first place).

So details matter here in terms of giving the best advice.