British Airways Cancelled flight refusing compensation.

Doltanian

Last month I flew to Dubai and my flight was cancelled and I was rebooked on a later flight 24hrs later. Anyway I was severely unhappy with this and rang to complain and they moved me to an earlier flight and as result I arrived in Dubai the same day as my departure, this necessitated I booking an extra hotel night as I was arriving in Dubai at 11pm instead of around 8am the following morning. This cost me an additional €92.00.

I complained around a month ago seeking compensation for the €92.00 due to British Airway's cancellation.

And today I received this:

Dear Doltanian

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what happened on your recent journey to Dubai on ## July and I’m sorry for the delay in our response. You’re clearly disappointed you didn’t receive the service you expect from us and I’m so sorry we let you down.

There was severe disruption to our schedule over the May Bank Holiday weekend because of an IT failure, so it’s taking us a little longer than usual to get back to our customers. I’m sorry I haven’t responded specifically to the issues you’ve mentioned, but everything you’ve told us has been passed on to the relevant teams so we know exactly where to focus our attention.

I’d like to inform you that we're not liable for any consequential loss a customer or third party may have as a result of a delay or cancellation. So I'm afraid we are unable to reimburse the cost of your hotel. If you have travel insurance, you may be able to make a claim through your policy and we will be happy to provide documentation to support this where possible. Please use the blue link below to let me know if this is something you need.

However, to show you how much we value your support, I’d like to offer you an eVoucher for €55.00 as an apology. I've included your eVoucher details below with a link to some helpful information about what you can do with it.
eVoucher number: ###########
Name: Myself
Value: 00.00
Expiry: 01/08/2018

If you have any questions about how to use this eVoucher, or for the Terms and Conditions, please go to: www.britishairways.com/travel/evoucher/public/en_gb
We know there are many airlines to choose from when you fly and we really appreciate the confidence and trust you place in us. Please feel free to contact us using the blue link below if I can help you with anything else and we look forward to welcoming you on board again soon.

Best regards
Agents Name

British Airways Customer Relations
Your case reference is:#########

I wonder if I can get anywhere with them as they cancelled my flight and by having to fly the following day would have really wrecked my trip there so instead I actually arrived 9hrs ahead of my anticipated time thus requiring an extra hotel night.

I don't think I should have to claim off my travel insurance which probably would cover it but its BA's fault so they should be the ones to compensate me. Also their pathetic €55 is of no use to me as I am unlikely to fly them again and even if I did their own website is too expensive compared to where I got my flights from.

vg88

Was Dubia your final destination with BA or did the ticket with BA have a connection?

Doltanian

moloner4 wrote: »

Was Dubia your final destination with BA or did the ticket with BA have a connection?

Final destination was Dubai, I flew Cork-Heathrow-Dubai

afatbollix

Claim off your insurance that's what it is for.


BA won't pay for your hotel.

vg88

From my understanding of 261 directive, you agreed to be rerouted and didn't arrive late with BA. From BA point of view they don't owe you anything I'd saw.

Doltanian

moloner4 wrote: »

From my understanding of 261 directive, you agreed to be rerouted and didn't arrive late with BA. From BA point of view they don't owe you anything I'd saw.

They did agree to compensate me for the hotel when I contacted them by phone. Knowing that something like this might happen I recorded the conversation so I might have to throw that back at them.

Former Former

I'm not sure your insurance will pay out anything either.

Doltanian

Former Former wrote: »

I'm not sure your insurance will pay out anything either.

They won't, I contacted them today. But i'll be trying BA again to see if I can get anything back from them.

Zhane

Doltanian wrote: »

They did agree to compensate me for the hotel when I contacted them by phone. Knowing that something like this might happen I recorded the conversation so I might have to throw that back at them.

I hope you told them you were recording. Otherwise it's not worth the data it's taking up

Ineedaname

Zhane wrote: »

I hope you told them you were recording. Otherwise it's not worth the data it's taking up

Why? There's nothing illegal about it.

Zhane

Ineedaname wrote: »

Why? There's nothing illegal about it.

Having looked into this, I think you're right. Soz everyone!

jimmycrackcorm

Zhane wrote:

Having looked into this, I think you're right. Soz everyone!

Just add long as one party is aware.

endofrainbow

I don't see where compensation is due. With a flight cancellation, you have 2 options - accept they changes offered (which you did, albeit after a phone call) or accept a full refund.

The IT outage that occurred affected millions of passengers all over the world , some who were delayed for days. You arrived at your destination early.

Your travel insurance probably has an excess which means you won't get E92.00 anyway.

Doltanian

endofrainbow wrote: »

I don't see where compensation is due. With a flight cancellation, you have 2 options - accept they changes offered (which you did, albeit after a phone call) or accept a full refund.

The IT outage that occurred affected millions of passengers all over the world , some who were delayed for days. You arrived at your destination early.

Your travel insurance probably has an excess which means you won't get E92.00 anyway.

I had a more expensive policy with a zero excess but it wasn't covered by them. British Airways failed me by being unable to transport me to my destination on the date I had originally booked for, I accepted to arrive earlier rather than later which for me was the lesser of two evils but it still caused me disruption and the cost of an extra hotel night. I also had a rather anti-social very early morning flight rather than my booked afternoon flight, again I'm not complaining but the extra €92 is a kick on the guts what was a €400 ticket, I could have booked Emirates direct from Dublin and taken the bus to the Airport for less than the €492 it ended up costing me.

keith_sixteen

Doltanian wrote: »

I'm not complaining but the extra €92 is a kick on the guts what was a €400 ticket, I could have booked Emirates direct from Dublin and taken the bus to the Airport for less than the €492 it ended up costing me.

55 quid is pathetic and 92 is a kick in the guts? I'd not lose too much sleep over it. Disruption happens to everyone, get over it.

Gooser14

Doltanian wrote:

Last month I flew to Dubai and my flight was cancelled and I was rebooked on a later flight 24hrs later. Anyway I was severely unhappy with this and rang to complain and they moved me to an earlier flight and as result I arrived in Dubai the same day as my departure, this necessitated I booking an extra hotel night as I was arriving in Dubai at 11pm instead of around 8am the following morning. This cost me an additional €92.00.

How long before your departure were you notified of the flight cancellation?

Doltanian

Gooser14 wrote: »

How long before your departure were you notified of the flight cancellation?

8 days prior to my flight by SMS.

Victor

endofrainbow wrote: »

The IT outage that occurred affected millions of passengers all over the world , some who were delayed for days.

Not Doltanian's fault, BA's fault.

Gooser14

Then surely you are entitled to compensation under EU Regulation 261. If not why not?

notharrypotter

Gooser14 wrote: »

Then surely you are entitled to compensation under EU Regulation 261. If not why not?

He was offered an alternative which he accepted.

I accepted to arrive earlier rather than later

So no compo due.

ArthurG

BA suffers a global meltdown in its IT systems. You complained and arrived in Dubai (not noted to be one of the cheapest places in the world) a few hours earlier than expected. All in all it cost you 92 quid, and BA have offered you a voucher for 55. So you're 37 euro out of pocket, probably the cost of 2 or 3 drinks in Dubai.

Why on earth are you wasting your energy on something so trivial as this?. If you missed out on a large part of your holiday or something I could understand it, but all that happened was you arrived early, probably ultimately benefitted from the extra time, and now are complaining about something you accepted up front.

Jeez......

stronglikebull

I would think you are eligible for compensation in this case of up to €600.
https://www.aviationreg.ie/air-passenger-rights/cancellation.209.html

The airline must provide at least two weeks notice to avoid paying compensation and they must then offer either:

The airline is liable for compensation if they have not given at least 2 weeks' notice. If your flight is cancelled with less than 2 weeks, then you are due compensation, regardless of what alternative flight you accept, or refund you receive.

If you have been given between two weeks and seven days notice the airline must offer a choice between:

an alternative flight departing no more than two hours before your original departure time and allowing arrival at your final destination within fours hours of the original scheduled time of arrival; or
a full refund of the ticket.

Accepting the alternate flight does not negate their responsibility, all though the standard response from an airline is always to deny, in the hopes you'll give in and go away.

Fight the good fight, as BA are liable in this case, and you are due compensation for their cancellation.

It is very important to note that compensation is distinct from and separate to the notion of reimbursement of expenses and/ or the refund of the cost of an unused flight ticket.

Also important, that the expense of having to book a hotel room is separate from the compensation due, and they should have to refund you that on top.

Doltanian

stronglikebull wrote: »

I would think you are eligible for compensation in this case of up to €600.
https://www.aviationreg.ie/air-passenger-rights/cancellation.209.html



The airline is liable for compensation if they have not given at least 2 weeks' notice. If your flight is cancelled with less than 2 weeks, then you are due compensation, regardless of what alternative flight you accept, or refund you receive.


Accepting the alternate flight does not negate their responsibility, all though the standard response from an airline is always to deny, in the hopes you'll give in and go away.

Fight the good fight, as BA are liable in this case, and you are due compensation for their cancellation.



Also important, that the expense of having to book a hotel room is separate from the compensation due, and they should have to refund you that on top.

Thank you very much for this information and to be honest I would have been quite happy to drop it if they had just accepted their mistake and offered to cover my €92 hotel expense, heck I'd even have settled for the €55 they gave me if it was cash/bank transfer and not a voucher off another booking which I certainly won't be making after how I've been treated. But I am definitely going to pursue them now.

Former Former

stronglikebull wrote: »

I would think you are eligible for compensation in this case of up to €600.
https://www.aviationreg.ie/air-passenger-rights/cancellation.209.html

Yes, except:

If an airline can prove that the cancellation was caused by an extraordinary circumstance which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures were taken no compensation is payable.

Since we don't know why the flight was cancelled, then we don't know if he's entitled to compensation.

ArthurG

Former Former wrote: »

Since we don't know why the flight was cancelled, then we don't know if he's entitled to compensation.

Yes we do - it was due to their IT meltdown, which was widely reported on, and mentioned in the OP.

A fair chance that could be categorised as an 'extraordinary circumstance'.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

omagh776

ArthurG wrote: »

Yes we do - it was due to their IT meltdown, which was widely reported on, and mentioned in the OP.

A fair chance that could be categorised as an 'extraordinary circumstance'.

IT Meltdown is completely avoidable if you look after it properly.

Doltanian

I don't know why my flight was cancelled and I'm not really too sure if it was related to their IT meltdown which happened in May as my flight was in July and was cancelled 8 days ahead of time. If a flight gets cancelled on the day it maybe unavoidable, but surely one could argue that when they cancelled it 8 days before that they had other options besides cancellation. Apparently their IT meltdown was caused by pennypinching corporate managers who outsourced the whole thing overseas, so in this regard I have zero sympathy for the airline and the whole fiasco cost the airline in the region of £150m, any outsourcing cost savings were wiped out right there I'd say.

I have emailed them about my EU compensation rights but haven't heard anything back yet.

Former Former

ArthurG wrote: »

Yes we do - it was due to their IT meltdown, which was widely reported on, and mentioned in the OP.

A fair chance that could be categorised as an 'extraordinary circumstance'.

The flight cancellation was not due to the IT meltdown.

keith_sixteen

Doltanian wrote: »

I have emailed them about my EU compensation rights but haven't heard anything back yet.

I am shocked. Do please let us all know as soon as you hear. The suspense is killing me.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.