A reader wins EC261 compensation for a BA flight cancelled during covid

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• Tom says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:07

  I am wondering if your account is marked as someone who has claimed against BA.

  Wouldn’t surprise me if this popped up when calling BA.

  Of course that might mean that BA would be more careful and could be an advantage.

  • Anna says:

    21 Mar21 March 06:29

    I successfully claimed compensation for a delayed flight from JFK to LHR in 2019 via CEDR but BA continues to try to fob me off over things like re-routing rights whenever I speak to them so I don’t think they have any idea, tbh.

  • Nadeshka says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:13

    I did a MCOL against BA in 2014 for an Eu261 claim and they only conceded the day before the court date and paid up.
    Have had no issues earning and burning avios, 241s etc. No sign to me at least of any worse treatment.
    Obviously I don’t make a habit of suing them but I don’t think one case is enough to mark your card. I have been lucky enough to not have had cause to claim compensation again though.

• EB says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:52

  Our flight to Lisbon in August was cancelled within 14 days and I definitely remember seeing that the flights next day were still operating. Is there a way to retrieve that data? Thank you.

  • FCP says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:17

    A 1 month Gold subscription to flightradar24.com will cost you $3.99 and provide 365 days of flight history.

    • EB says:

      21 Mar21 March 07:19

      Thank you!

    • Michael says:

      21 Mar21 March 19:20

      I had a flight that was cancelled too 4 days before. On flightradar24.com I can see the flight operated the following day, how can I tell if the flight the following day was passenger or maybe BA were using plane for cargo only?

  • kk says:

    21 Mar21 March 22:22

    I don’t believe you need that, unless you want to confirm things in your own records. As long as the information is accurate, BA will not contest it, not there is a reason for it to not get accepted by MCOL/arbitration.

• abc says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:56

  Good decission. The guidance from the EU concerned the specific situation in March that airlines obviously could not foresee so it were clearly ‘extraordinary circumstances’ out of the airlines’ control. It wasn’t intended to provide a blanket excuse for airlines to cancel flights without compensation by claiming ‘related to Covid-19’ what BA apparently tried to use it for months later. (You could potentially argue that if the cancellation was due to a specific change in government regulation or guidance that would be different, though this does not seem to be the case here.)

• tony says:

  21 Mar21 March 07:21

  This is interesting as we flew PMI-LCY in August. They dropped the second rotation of the day, so we had to travel about 9hrs earlier.

  Again, BA fobbed me off – I assume CEDR rulings aren’t binding however and they can appeal this through the courts?

  • John says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:48

    CEDR adjudication is binding on BA but not you so you can take it to court if you disagree with the result

    Rob uses the word arbitration incorrectly – CEDR aviation scheme is not arbitration which would be binding on both and can be enforced in court

  • Mouse says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:52

    It’s binding to the extent that the airline can be thrown out of the CEDR Aviation Adjudication scheme and reported to the CAA if they don’t comply with the judgement. Any appeal to a court by the airline would need to relate to its contract with the scheme rather than simply appealing a particular case. The whole point of the scheme is to avoid courts on both sides – for the airlines they win some and the lose some but it’s much cheaper than going to court. Also, specific adjudications don’t set precedents – someone else could take an identical case to CEDR and get a different result, with no right of appeal (other than retaining the right to take the matter up separately with the courts).

  • ChrisC says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:26

    How much notice did they give you for the cancellation of your original flight though?

    Without knowing that it’s impossible to verify if you were fobbed off or not.

    • Tony says:

      21 Mar21 March 12:42

      They gave me 10 days notice. The alert hit my phone once I turned it on having landed at PMI, so with my car at LCY we couldn’t easily reroute via LHR on the way home.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Mar21 March 13:57

    if you fly or take a refund you have no more rights in the matter.

    I would have insisted on reroute and had them pay all my duty of care hotel meals etc till the replacement flight.

    If they want to switch either end to another airport eg LCY to LHR then especially if travelling with grandma, young kids, baby paraphernalia etc or if in any other way onerous, if I am forced to accept that change such as if I’m due back at work tomorrow then I am going to insist on taxi, minivan, one way car hire or other direct transport back to the airport I booked. Airline contract is between the departure and arrival airports so airline is responsiblr for any extra transport costs to fulfil this.

    You aren’t going to get anything for extra parking charges though.

• meta says:

  21 Mar21 March 07:33

  Really pleased for the reader. They really messed up those Porto flights in August. There was really no reason to cancel flights as Portugal was put on the green list just a few days before.

  Mine was cancelled within 17 days and BA has refused a reroute, but in the end I won the MCOL case (well settled).

  • EB says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:57

    Great to hear. What evidence did you need pls? Thanks.

    • meta says:

      21 Mar21 March 08:51

      You don’t need to submit any documents unless court orders you. But I put under the list:
      1. Flight cancellation email
      2. Correspondance with BA CS
      3. Replacement ticket on TAP
      4. Various receipts for additional costs
      5. Receipt for postage cost for sending letter before action to BA
      6. Audio recordings of the calls I had with BA.

      I also claimed interest on all the costs.

      • EB says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:18

        Thank you.

      • WZ says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:39

        Were you able to claim any costs for the extra time it’s taken you to put together evidence, communication, etc for MCOL?

        • meta says:

          21 Mar21 March 10:04

          I didn’t. MCOL rarely awards extra time, but you can claim any real costs like postage or phone costs.

          As part of the settlement I also got my Avios back on top, so I guess that covered my time. I spent more time on 3 phone calls trying to get BA to re-route me than writing and submitting the actual claim or corresponding with BA post-factum.

• SammyJ says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:08

  I considered this with Virgin, but for a different reason. They’ve known for months that they’re not flying to Orlando over Easter, and stopped selling the flights we had booked for 26/3 about 5 weeks ago, but refused to cancel the ones booked, citing the nonsense about some flights operating for essential travel, while also agreeing that the next flight wouldn’t operate until 1st April. Yet despite this they haven’t been cancelling them until around 10-14 days before (trying to get people to voluntarily cancel and pay amendments for packages etc, and not have to refund). Mine was cancelled on the 14th day before however, unlike many others I know, or I’d have had a pop at them just for being so underhand!
  They’re still refusing to rebook cancelled flights at a later date beyond 31/5 without paying the hefty fare difference.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Mar21 March 13:16

    sneaky behaviour of Virgin (I would have kept dated scree shots of my flight no longer appearing for sale or payment failing) – not conclusive but helpful.

    No they can’t ask a single penny extra and no extra points for your replacement flight(ie your reroute).

    Look at this thread for past 3-10 days it’s been covered a few times how to sort it.

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:08

  So if both the outbound and return flights are cancelled, do you get compo for both legs – or since you couldn’t take the first one then it is just compo for that?

  • AJA says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:51

    Interesting question. I’m not sure it would apply to the return trip unless notification of cancellation is separate and is within 14 days of the return flight. Though it would apply if the return flight is on a separate booking and is cancelled within 14 days.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Mar21 March 12:45

    I think the judgment was fair only because the flight was cancelled less than 14 days before and there was no new restriction of govt(s) within the 14 days.

    I think it’s perfectly acceptable for airlines to cancel whichever flights on any day or within any week they choose given the overall exceptional circs whilst Covid is prevailing. Duty of care (rerouting, refund both at passenger choice plus any extra accommodation nights and meals needed if it takes longer to reroute assuming nearest reasonable reroute option is chosen) still applies even if airline cancels 1 year ahead.

    But compo doesn’t apply in Covid or not, ever, for flights cancelled more than 14 days ahead.

    What this judgment seems to imply is that less than 14 days, if a more negative relevant government edict had been issued less than 14 days before the flight, either worse than edicts in force before the 14 days ahead of the flight or some other edict or exceptional circ had arisen less than 14 days before the flight, then compensation would not have been payable. But none of those things were the case in the 14 days before the flight so compensation was payable.

    Good, as it hints judgments in future may look for a worsening of Covid circumstances to have occurred within the 14 days to let the airline off compensation. The judgment opened by giving some examples that might have been accepted.

    On the whole, good, but better would be to see an MCOL that went the same way.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Mar21 March 12:51

    on one booking I would expect you to get one lot of compensation. Reason being that if even just one flight – perhaps the returning domestic leg, say – is cancelled then your rights (such as rerouting or refund) apply to the whole ticket so only 1 incident.

    Of course if your return was on a separate booking this happened to then that would be treated separately. I can see furious HfP minds weighing up the cost of a £1-£35 cancellation fee against potential events…

• Ikaz says:

  21 Mar21 March 08:25

  Lufthansa cancelled my flight the evening before departure (UK to Germany) last summer and put me onto a flight later the same day. I requested the 250€ on their website and they paid me without issues quite fast. It was actually a painless experience

  • tony says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:35

    I wonder if that was a consequence of the massive state bail out they received, which I think was around June? As I recall, it was conditional on all passengers being refunded and a general demand that they start playing fair.

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