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How I claimed my €250 EU261 compensation from British Airways

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A couple of weeks ago I was out of the office on a week long review trip (Ibiza, Madrid and Frankfurt … you may have read about it). As I wanted to be back in London for the weekend, I booked a Friday late afternoon flight back to Heathrow.

I got to Frankfurt, had food and drinks in the JAL lounge (the review of that is still to come) and boarded the plane on time. The crew did the safety briefing, the plane taxied around for a bit – and then stopped.

After a while we were told that the engine was broken and an engineer would have to look at it.  He would decide whether or not we could fly to London.

What followed was a back and forth of information and decisions that went a bit like this: we will stay on the plane, we need to get off, we will wait, ok we will get off in a bit and go back to the terminal, [more waiting and crew serving water], we are going to leave now, ok we might need to stay in Frankfurt, LONDON IS SENDING A NEW PLANE.

As confusing as this sounds, I did appreciate that the crew gave us every update they had and that the captain came through the plane to answer questions.

After two hours on the runway the plane taxied back to the terminal.  We were told that we’d have to be back by the gate in 30 minutes.  I went back to the JAL lounge where the receptionist assured us that she’d make an announcement. After another hour the plane from London landed.  Unfortunately there was no food on board but at least I didn’t have to spend another night in Frankfurt.

Claiming compensation

When I got back to the office, I decided to seek EU261 compensation.

Under EU law you can claim compensation for flights that are more than 3 hours delayed:

Up to 1,500km within the EU – €250

Over 1,500km within the EU and all other flights between 1,500km and 3,000 km – €400

All other flights – €600

Confusingly, flights TO the EU must be operated by an EU airline for your claim to be valid.  Flights FROM the EU are valid irrespective of the nationality of the airline.

My flight was 4 hours delayed so I decided to make a claim.  As Frankfurt is under 1,500km from London I was theoretically due €250.

How do you make your claim?

Unfortunately there is not an easy click through menu to claim your compensation on the BA website.  You have to file your claim using the general ‘Contact Customer Relations’ form.

Bad IT design or a cunning plan to make it more confusing to claim?  You decide …..

You need to go to this page of the BA website and fill out your personal details, flight information and a detailed description of your request.

I put:

‘I’d like to claim EU261 compensation’

The answers that followed on the screen did NOT provide me with immediate help:

…. so I clicked ‘Submit’.

Three days later I received an email from an Andrew Washburne apologising for the delay and informing me that

‘the distance of [my] disrupted journey (calculated in accordance with the Regulation) was less than 1,500km, and this means entitled to €250.00 in compensation. This equates to £213.86 in local currency.’

I had to go back to the BA website and enter my case reference number as well as my bank details for the money to be send to my account.

Three days later I received an email that the payment had been made and after another three days the money was in my account.

BA EU 261 compensation claim payment confirmed email

Conclusion

Once I had figured out how to make my claim the process was straightforward. A few emails back and forth and the money was in my account within 9 days of my initial contact.

The email mentioned the option of getting Avios instead of money, but it didn’t say how many. Rob’s recent article on BA’s Avios offer to people who are due €600 suggests that it would probably not have been close to 21,386 Avios (1p per point).

Flight delays are annoying, but when they do happen it’s good to know that it’s fairly easy – although not quite as easy as it could be – to claim the compensation you are due from British Airways.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (110)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Gavin says:
    17 Feb17 February 11:14

    O/T – Mrs Gavin needs to get a travelcard season ticket from Reading to Moorgate (approx. 5k annual) starting on Monday. She was going to get just a monthly ticket for the first month, before getting a longer length ticket to take the end of the calendar year.

    The plan is to use the next month getting the necessary cards to maximise points. I already have a Gold card, and have recently churned BA so no signup bonuses there. Will she be able to apply for a Gold / BA card herself if she is referred? She doesn’t have much of a credit rating in this country, and this will be her first job in the UK. My thought was to get the signup bonus on the SPG Card, and then put the rest on my Lloyds Amex to trigger the voucher (I’m about half way there already). Can anyone better this? I hope if we pick a quiet time at the ticket office they will be amenable to splitting the payment.

    I also wondered if we are better off buying an annual season ticket now (as this is about the same cost as 10 months of tickets up until Christmas), and then cancelling before Christmas to get a refund, and then buying a new annual season ticket a few days later to lock in before the annual price rise. This would mean forgoing any signup bonuses however bar getting the Lloyds voucher.

    I should also add that these are effectively ‘free’ points as her company ‘grosses up’ the commuting cost through the payroll and pays her the net cost of the season ticket .

    • mark2 says:
      17 Feb17 February 11:38

      Advice from my commuting Swindon/Reading and Swindon/Paddington.
      1) but a ticket for five weeks rather than a month so that you miss out an extra weekend. You can buy any length ticket over a month. It used to buy five/six/eight week tickets and avoided paying for holidays, Easter etc. (This is not so important if she can reclaim the fares).
      2) I did not know how long I was going to be working at a particular place and when I changed from Reading to London I got my fingers burned. I had some time left on my Reading season ticket so cancelled it and bought one to London. BUT you do not get a pro rata refund as per American Express. They use a complicated formula based on how much it would have cost you to buy tickets for the time that you were able to travel. This can be a lot less than pro rata; I got virtually nothing back and should have bought an addition ticket from Reading to Paddington.

    • Fenny says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:13

      Don’t forget the article Rob ran a couple of weeks ago about ticket splitting and how this can be used with season tickets. Although if the company are paying and you want to maximise CC points, you may not be bothered.

    • Sundar says:
      17 Feb17 February 14:03

      Gavin,
      I would suggest an Annual Gold Card as the benefits of discounts that you get with a Gold card on the Rail network(2 for 1 ticket, Other rail ticket discounts). You could put it on any Amex(or Split based on annual spend criteria or sign-up bonus) and then if you need to cancel a part of it owing to “Job Location changes”, you could ask for a refund to be sent to your home ? They will calculate based on no of months/weeks/days used and then refund the difference minus a processing fee(if I remember it).
      I am in Reading too, so care to meet for a drink sometime and discuss more strategies ?

  • sam says:
    17 Feb17 February 11:25

    my daughter had a 1.5 day delay in BHD due to fog at LHR in dec. she contacted BA and was told no. LHR was not closed completely. waited in airport 10 hours before being sent home. was booked on 6 am flight next day which did not leave until after 5. 2 claims 1 claim or 0 claims??

    • Mark says:
      17 Feb17 February 11:54

      Surely that’s weather related so no claims?

      • sam says:
        17 Feb17 February 13:32

        that was what she was told even though LHR was open to other flights. was booked at 6am and then there was no plane for her presumably for logistic reasons – i thought that would count as a delay

        • JAXBA says:
          17 Feb17 February 13:50

          There are stages between simply open and closed; when there’s a reduced flow rate needed, airlines are asked to cancel a percentage of flights. It’s still a weather delay/canx as the airport can’t run at normal capacity during that time – due to the weather.

  • Lewis Watson says:
    17 Feb17 February 12:19

    They must no who you are that’s not my experience of trying to claim from BA

    • Rob says:
      17 Feb17 February 12:29

      Wasn’t me, was Anika. My brother also got €3,000 paid within 10 days recently (5 people).

    • Michael says:
      17 Feb17 February 22:08

      I am afraid I have to agree. I have had several failed attempts at claiming for delays with BA.
      Including similar engine issues to those Rob experienced.

      • Rob says:
        17 Feb17 February 22:35

        You should reclaim, you have 6 years.

        Case law is changing month by month. Huzar vs Jet2, which I covered, was the real catalyst because that was the one which decided that technical issues were not an excuse. Any claim made pre-Huzar should be resubmitted.

  • Trots Van Het Noorden says:
    17 Feb17 February 13:27

    I flew from Groningen to Southend in October, on a £50 basic fare booked with flybe but operated by Stobart Air. On arrival at GRQ airport we were made aware of a c.1.5hr delay, however this kept increasing. We were given a €5 voucher to spend on food and drink at the terminal. Eventually we took off 3 hours 20 mins late, and landed at SEN with the same delay.

    On the advice of regular HFP reader ‘Friend of Biffin’ I used moneysavingexpert.com’s Resolver tool to claim. After a bit of back and forth and a delay of about 6 weeks I was offered €250, or a €350 flybe voucher. I chose the former, and had £216.47 paid into my account a couple of days later. The process was fairly smooth – possibly slightly longer than other claims because flybe had to refer it to Stobart Air.

    Anyone who has had trouble claiming from EasyJet, Ryanair or others may wish to try likewise – details here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays

    • Harpo says:
      17 Feb17 February 14:02

      Tried that tool but Ryanair bounce it. That was my first port of call in the scenario I posted earlier.

      • Trots Van Het Noorden says:
        17 Feb17 February 20:19

        Sorry to hear it. Did you decide to chase them through the courts? I suppose the question is whether it is worth it for the €1500 (6 pax IIRC?) you might get vs the costs and time of doing so. Good luck if you do down that route.

  • trickster says:
    17 Feb17 February 13:41

    I was just starting to fill this in for a past disruption and I’m starting to think that due to the comments about insurance and expenses it’s not the right form for EU261 claims.

  • Michael Jennings says:
    17 Feb17 February 14:14

    I had a three and a half hour delay out of LCY on a BA flight to Geneva last August. I used the same form as Rob to claim compensation, got a response within a few days and a 250 euro compensation payment (in my case by cheque – have they changed this?) within a few more days. Really nothing to complain about.

  • Darren Cobb says:
    17 Feb17 February 14:42

    When claiming EU261 from BA I find the best and often quickest way is to send them a direct message on Twitter with the flight number,date and booking ref, they are very quick to respond using this medium

    • Jas Gill says:
      17 Feb17 February 15:47

      I used resolver for my EU261 last year. Claim was dealt with within a couple of weeks and 3000 euros paid out promptly.

  • Simon says:
    17 Feb17 February 16:28

    While we are on the subject of BA and saying some nice things about them I thought I would tell you about my recent experience. I was booked with Avios to fly to Punta Cana on 7th Feb but had a fall that morning and was checked at the airport and ruled unfit to fly. Went to casualty and to cut a long story short am having further tests for a possible seizure which now means I cannot drive. BA / Avios had no obligation to refund my Avios or the Lloyds upgrade voucher I had used as the cancellation was within 24 hours but have fully refunded everything as a gesture of goodwill. The car hire company in Punta Cana also did the same.

    BUT Gatwick Airport parking are so far refusing to budge and have charged me the full cost of 2 weeks parking for only 6 hours use AND Eurotunnel are refusing to refund me a Eurotunnel ticket which I now cant use as I am not allowed to drive. I am appealing both – I think the parking will be accommodating but Eurotunnel!!!

    Eurotunnel say i can transfer the ticket to anyone else so if anyone wants a standard 5 day car return usable anytime up to and including the firt week in October (originally it was going to use it last october but had to change my plans but the ticket is valid for 1 2months) please contact me directly simon.cross1@btinternet.com

    • Nick says:
      17 Feb17 February 16:35

      With all due respect, I don’t see why you should expect eurotunnel to take a hit because you can’t use a non-refundable ticket you bought. Sounds as if they’re already being rather generous by allowing you to transfer it to someone else. This is exactly the situation travel insurance is for – this would pay out immediately if you have medical advice not to travel. If you don’t have any, more fool you.

      • Simon says:
        17 Feb17 February 18:51

        The Eurotunnel ticket is transferable as standard and changable (but how does an individual in my position find someone wanting to go – so I posted the info here in case someone is interested and have also posted on a local to me website). As for travel insurance yes I have it but I was simply doing what everyone is required to do in any insurance policy and that is to try to mitigate the insurers loss and I was pointing out how amenible BA was and the car hire company when neither had to do so with a NON flexible, NON refundable ticket / booking where they would have had NIL chance of reselling the ticket / booking within the 2 hours left to take off where as Eurotunnel who say the ticket is FULLY transferable is not providing me with any assistance in making such a transfer when there is some 6 months left on the ticket that is usable.

        • Simon says:
          17 Feb17 February 19:02

          Update – wow – Gatwick Airport parking have now made a full ex-gratia refund(not even charging me for the 6 hours I used the car park while in A and E) – so this means BA, the car hire company in the Dominican Republic and Gatwick parking have ALL made full ex-gratia refunds even when there was NO flexibility in the tickets / bookings and only Eurotunnel are sticking to the letter of the contract and saying feel free to transfer the ticket to anyone (but done expect any help in finding someone who wants to travel to France anytime in the next 6 months).I know who I will travel with and recommend in future. BA have certainly lost money as they could never have resold the ticket with only 2 hours to take off (unless overbooked which they weren’t) while Eurotunnel could easily resell the ticket which had 6 months left to run on it.

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