Reply To: BA flight cancelled. Downgraded from Club to Traveller on earlier flight.

[JDB]

Yes, refund and reimbursement are in effect almost the same things, except here it’s simply important to use the words carefully in these specific circumstances. What BA has proposed is a refund as if you had made a voluntary change to your booking when you would just get a refund of the difference between the Avios for the different classes and that would be the correct process..

In this instance the OP is NOT seeking a refund, but rather a reimbursement of 75% his fare to give effect to his Article 10 rights engaged by an involuntary downgrade upon a post-cancellation rerouting. The distinction here is that the reimbursement required by Article 10 effectively includes a penalty on the airline, so the law requiring reimbursement of 75% on long haul is almost always requiring payment of a greater sum than a corresponding refund.

BA is deliberately confusing refund and reimbursement as that suits their book and they can sometimes get that past adjudicators so BA’s accidental error needs to be made crystal clear to CEDR.

PS it’s incredibly boring but the language of these things really matters to be confident of a successful claim at CEDR or MCOL. It’s the same with Article 9 ‘Right to Care’ that sometimes people refer to as duty of care which is a totally different concept, not explicitly provided for in UK261 and the English translation ‘Right to Care’ was not only carefully chosen drafting but is also specifically circumscribed, in a way duty of care cannot be.