Flight compensation - Anyone claimed?

[VincentHanna]

Not usually one to complain, but had a bit of a mare with BA on a recent trip.

Flight out was cancelled with 36 hours notice, the replacement flight flew from a different airport. They hadn't automatically moved my wife's meal choice request across, so the "vegan meal" she was offered, on a 10 hour flight, was this:

Then the flight back was delayed by 5 hours and my seat recline was busted.

Because the flight was over 3500km, apparently we're entitled to €600 euros each, per flight thanks to EU law.

Seemed easy enough to submit, just wondered what others experiences have been of claiming and how long they took to process the complaint?

Obviously BA are inundated at the moment.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I know someone did (@Phate) quite speedy in fact, and was successful for the delayed flight.

As for the meal, you can try but probably not going to get very far but some vouchers.

 

[stockhausen]

Flight compensation - Anyone claimed?

How long have you got?

Claiming compensation from an airline makes mythical Greek riddles (and quitting the EU) sound like a doddle, stock up with lots of food, drink, reading matter and candles!

Good luck with that

 

[VincentHanna]

To be honest, if we end up getting the full €2400 euro compensation (two people, two flights) then i'm not bothered about compensation for the meal, I was just making a point with BA that it was rubbish to expect that 'meal' to fill somebody up on a 10 hour flight.

I had complained on twitter already about the food, but their response was more of a "Sorry, but we don't really give a toss"

 

[Deleted member 651465]

My brother and his wife got £900 back after his flight back from Thailand was delayed by >24hrs. He used a template from MoneySavingExpert and there was no trouble.

 

[Brizzles]

Why was ther flight cancelled in the first place ?

If it was weather , then you are out of luck

 

[Dis86]

Meal looks fairly tasty to me!

 

[Thecaferacer]

I had a similar experience with Air France and I don't think you will get much joy on the outward bound leg. The crux of the compensation seemed to be if the flight you are checked in on arrives 3 hours late you are entitled to the €600

Changing or cancelling flights before hand, even with barely any notice, or even changing airports appeared to be allowed as part of standard airline operating.

When I flew to Barbados we paid extra for tailored morning flights meaning we could travel to Heathrow in the morning and had short flight connections. Flight times were changed 6 times and ended up with a flight so early we had to pay for a hotel overnight. It also meant it we had 9 hours to wait in Miami when originally it was only 2 and arrived at the resort significantly later than originally planned

Same thing happened on the way back. I complained and got given a big F.O.

 

[Bony Maloney]

I used Resolver for my delayed flights out of Manchester to Aberdeen. All sorted in a timely manner (within 2 weeks). Resolver dealt with the communication I had just had to fill in flight details on their website. Resolver is a free service so no commission to them.Will use again without hesitation in the future

 

[VincentHanna]

Why was ther flight cancelled in the first place ?

If it was weather , then you are out of luck

The first flight? They didn't even say why. The weather was fine. It was about 23°C and sunny.

The second flight was delayed because some power thing in the back of the plane that supplies things like air-conditioning wasn't working before it flew out from the UK. It provides the standby power, so they literally had to drive around the airport with the engines on to drop the cabin temperature....our flight used this same plane going back so the delay out of the UK affected us going back to the UK

 

[VincentHanna]

Changing or cancelling flights before hand, even with barely any notice, or even changing airports appeared to be allowed as part of standard airline operating.

When I flew to Barbados we paid extra for tailored morning flights meaning we could travel to Heathrow in the morning and had short flight connections. Flight times were changed 6 times and ended up with a flight so early we had to pay for a hotel overnight. It also meant it we had 9 hours to wait in Miami when originally it was only 2 and arrived at the resort significantly later than originally planned

Same thing happened on the way back. I complained and got given a big F.O.

This is on BA's own website:

When you can claim compensation


1. If you're delayed at your final destination by more than 3 hours and that delay arises from causes within our control (rather than extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided by all reasonable measures); or

2. If we inform you of a cancellation less than 14 days before the planned departure date that arises from causes within our control (rather than extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided by all reasonable measures), unless:

• We inform you of the cancellation between 7 and 13 days before the scheduled time of departure and offer an alternative route that allows you to depart no more than two hours before the scheduled time of departure and to reach your final destination less than four hours after the scheduled time of arrival; or
• We inform you of the cancellation less than 7 days before the scheduled time of departure and offer an alternative route that allows you to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach your final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival.

We were told of the cancelled flight less than 2 days before we were due to depart, the flight they changed us to meant we arrived 5 hours later than originally planned.

 

[Adam]

Yes I have. It was originally declined twice but I used a no win, no fee solictor who successfully won my case (Bott and Co). They took a decent chunk of the compensation but it was more about the principle than the money.

 

[uncle_rufus]

This thread and all the recent news scares me; meant to be flying in September with BA for our honeymoon (and after all the other problems we've had along the way to finally be about to go on it it's starting to feel like we're cursed!)...

Not heard anything yet which is hopefully a good sign, we're not flying on any of the announced strike dates or the immediate days before/after so fingers crossed we've missed the problems... though our flights were booked through Trailfinders so it's possible they might have been told and just not notified us yet...

Either way it sucks for those getting messed about... and what for? an 11% payrise - 11%?!?!?! That's a ludicrous payrise; I could only dream of getting that much extra in my job

 

[JBuk]

The first flight? They didn't even say why. The weather was fine. It was about 23°C and sunny.

The second flight was delayed because some power thing that supplies things like air-conditioning in the back of the plane wasn't working before it flew out from the UK, they literally had to drive around the airport with the engines on to drop the cabin temperature....our flight used this same plane going back

Strangely enough I was watching something on YouTube this morning explaining about the APU (power thing) and air con and the problems with planes sitting waiting at airports in high temps

 

[VincentHanna]

Strangely enough I was watching something on YouTube this morning explaining about the APU (power thing) and air con and the problems with planes sitting waiting at airports in high temps

I mean, yeah 33°C is unusual in the UK, but it was a plane flying to Las Vegas, which is 42°C during the day in August.

So I don't think they can use 'Unexpected temperatures' as an excuse.

 

[JBuk]

I mean, yeah 33°C is unusual in the UK, but it was a plane flying to Las Vegas, which is 42°C during the day in August.

So I don't think they can use 'Unexpected temperatures' as an excuse.

Airports in warm climates have hoses they attach to the plane that provide the aircon at the gate so the plane doesn’t need to burn any fuel to power the air-con, there’s also some rules about using engines whilst parked up

So my guess is they may claim 33c is unexpected because airports in the uk generally are not equppied for it

 

[Robzere31]

We were delayed 2 years ago with flights to & from Crete.
5 hours outbound, 12 hours inbound.
In both circumstances when we tried to claim we were told it was due to extraordinary circumstances so were not entitled to anything.
I did try to fight it but gave up in the end as you could tell I wasn't going to get anywhere with them.

 

[cheesyboy]

I was praying for my return flight from Spain earlier this month to be delayed by 3 hours, as we'd be quids in with four of us flying back

It was already delayed when we got to the airport, but wound up taking off only about an hour behind schedule. Disappointing.

 

[VincentHanna]

We were delayed 2 years ago with flights to & from Crete.
5 hours outbound, 12 hours inbound.
In both circumstances when we tried to claim we were told it was due to extraordinary circumstances so were not entitled to anything.
I did try to fight it but gave up in the end as you could tell I wasn't going to get anywhere with them.

Who was that with? Did they have to tell your what those circumstances were?

Otherwise surely they could just always say this about anything?

 

[Robzere31]

Who was that with? Did they have to tell your what those circumstances were?

Otherwise surely they could just always say this about anything?

Tui, outbound delay was due to late arrival of previous flight, inbound was due to a damaged window on the plane flying from UK to Crete, which we would be flying back on.

I did argue the points with them, but after several weeks of emails I was getting nowhere.
Haven't flown with Tui since, so there loss.