How I claimed my €250 EU261 compensation from British Airways

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• John says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:23

  Anika, BA are very good in this regard. You ought to try EasyJet. 18 months of stonewalling. A claims company did eventually get a payout but they had to initiate court proceedings.

  • Graeme says:

    17 Feb17 February 08:35

    I’ve also had problems with easyJet lately. Over three months they just wouldn’t answer e-mails about refunding the cost of a flight they cancelled – then when they do reply they just send some C&P nonsense. I took to Twitter in the end, then within a week it had been refunded. Customer Services do not speak English as a first language whereas the Twitter lot seem to.

  • Harpo says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:48

    You should see Ryanair’s response to EU261 – no surprises there!

    My wife and two 5 year olds, with grandmother and auntie in tow, went to stay with family on the farm in Kerry last half term – 4 hour delay on an evening flight back, and the kids were miserable – the airport cafe ran out of food. All communications stonewalled, for ages, then refused on what seems quite spurious “extraordinary circumstances” of the plane being delayed earlier in the day on another route.

    Looking into others’ experience on MSE seems that they’ve appealed a lot of Small Claims judgements both in UK and Ireland – the customer then has to weigh up, do I take it to Court, do I litigate in person, is instructing representation worth it, and is it worth risking costs when they instruct a QC for the sake of under a grand of comp. I’ll take it so far but sometimes not worth it.

• John Myerscough says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:31

  For a recent 3 hour plus delay LCY to Zurich (which was subsequently cancelled) I wrote to BA claiming the €250 and was offered 20,000 avios as an alternative. I had also complained about troubles in the booking process and these avios were described as an “enhanced compensation package” so this is perhaps a higher offer than usual.

• Joan says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:34

  I had a flight from city airport to Zurich cancelled as I was actually in the car on the way to the airport – they said it was for operational reasons . I think they meant it was because the plane didn’t have enough passengers booked in ! This was a Friday lunchtime . They offered me a flight 36 hours later from Heathrow ! As I was only going for the weekend , this was ridiculous . I had to go to Gatwick and get an easyJet flight! Basically I used the compensation procedure but it took 2 months , endless phone calls and lots of stress to get that money , plus the refund for the flight that didn’t happen . I wasn’t impressed .

• Frenske says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:37

  I have claimed twice compensation; once from BA and once from SAS. Fortunately both times I was flying for company meetings so I did not care that much plus I got the money not the boss.

  For both companies was a bit a puzzle where to find the forms or right contacts.

• Mark says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:02

  Norwegian are another airline like Sleazyjet who continually try to wriggle out of their obligations by claiming extraordinary circumstances. So far I’m 3/3 for €250.

  My suspicion is that the do a blanket refusal of all claims, hoping to whittle down the number by at least half.

• Rebecca says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:03

  I had both flights cancelled on a weekend trip top Berlin last year with BA. As I had expenses (and the customer service I received was actually appalling) I had decided to send an email with all my points listed and all my paperwork attached. I received a confirmation they received my email and nothing more. A month later I printed everything out and sent it by post. Three weeks following this I received two cheques, one for €500 compensation and another for the bare minimum of the expenses that they could get away with paying. I have repeatedly chased them for something in writing to explain why my flight was cancelled on the Friday as I needed it to claim on my travel insurance for the hotel (I was rebooked onto a Saturday morning flight) but they are apparently unable to do this. I’ve given up now.

• Rod says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:04

  Just wondered if someone can provide advice. I was delayed on BA 799 from Helsinki to LHR by more than 3 hours in June 2015. The flight was actually delayed from a knock on effect of earlier delays caused by a French ATC strike. At the time BA refused EU261 compensation citing the ATC strike although it is likely it did not affect this flight directly. Do you think it’s worth persuing again in light of the fact that knock-on weather delays are eligible for eu261?

• Joe says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:05

  I am trying to make a claim at the moment (RAK-LGW) but BA are stating the time, the aircraft stopped at a passenger gate or parking stand was 178 minutes delayed – 2 minutes short of compensation. I have read on various forums that the time needs to be when the doors are opened and passengers free to leave. Does anyone know where to find this recorded time? Or if BA make a record of it? Normally it takes more than 2 minutes to open the doors!

  Joe

  • C77 says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:09

    It’s not for you to prove but the airline to prove if it went to court. I’ve been stuck at gates in the past where no staff have been present for 10-20mins before it lights up and swings to life. Take it to CEDR and let them decide whether it worthy of taking to court. I’m 99.9% certain BA never go that far and settle in the days leading up. Just not worth their time.

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