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Forums Other Flight changes and cancellations help Flight home from AMS cancelled for tomorrow Reply To: Flight home from AMS cancelled for tomorrow

Olly 312 posts

BA finally responded to say that they weren’t willing to refund me the cost of the replacement flight, instead only offering a replacement voucher of £200, so now I’ve had their final response, I’ve lodged the case with CEDR. I’ll report back on the outcome.

As part of the back and forth though, the BA agent mistakenly included their default response email template beneath their actual response so I thought I’d share it here for resonance:

(Email heading) An update from British Airways

Thank you for coming back to us about (your flight from / to / your recent problem with / specify).

***PLEASE ENSURE EVERY CUSTOMER ISSUE HAS BEEN ADDRESSED***

(IF NOT OFFERING A GESTURE)
I’ve reviewed what you’ve told us and our position on this matter again, (reiterate briefly what’s been discussed with customer already and explain why you can’t offer more compensation/a full refund).

We do understand how strongly you feel about this. When a customer has any kind of concern, we share the feedback with the relevant manager, and focus on what we can do to avoid the issue happening in the future. (IF WE CAN SAY SOMETHING SPECIFIC ON ACTIONS) In this case, we’ve (changed x / provided extra training / changed the information we provide on x to be clearer).

(IF OFFERING A GESTURE)

I’ve reviewed what you’ve told us and our position on this matter again. We’re now able to pay your expenses/offer you (an eVoucher for XXX.XX/ XXXXXX Avios/ High Life Shop vouchers for XXX.XX), which I hope will go some way towards making up for what happened.

I can assure you that we’re also focusing on what we can do to avoid this issue happening in the future. In this case, we’ve (changed x / provided extra training / changed the information we provide on x to be clearer).

(ADD RELEVANT GESTURE PARAGRAPH IF NEEDED)

(UNHAPPY WITH REASONABLE COSTS – STANDALONE)

I see from your comments that you feel we should pay more towards your expenses, given what you went through, and you also noted that we don’t detail exactly which costs we will cover in these situations.

Under EU regulations, we have a legal responsibility to pay you ‘reasonable costs’ in this situation. I’ve double-checked the amount we’ve offered, and we do feel that the amount we’re paying you is reasonable.

We do understand how strongly you feel about this. When a customer has any kind of concern, we share the feedback with the relevant manager, and focus on what we can do to avoid the issue happening in the future. (IF WE CAN SAY SOMETHING SPECIFIC ON ACTIONS) In this case, we’ve (changed x / provided extra training / changed the information we provide on x to be clearer).

(UNHAPPY WITH REASONABLE COSTS – FOLLOW-ON FROM PREVIOUS PARAS)

I see from your comments that you feel we aren’t paying enough towards your expenses, given what you went through, and you also noted that we don’t detail exactly which costs we will cover.

Under EU regulations, we have a legal responsibility to pay you ‘reasonable costs’ in this situation. I’ve double-checked the amount we’ve offered, and we do feel that the amount we’re paying you is reasonable.

(NO PAYMENT FOR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS)

We cannot cover the items you asked us about. This is because we’re only legally responsible for the cost of your flight itself, and any expenses you had to pay out due to the (delay/cancellation) These expenses might include accommodation or food and drink.

You can find more about what we do and don’t cover here.

(CUSTOMER MAY BE ABLE TO CLAIM THROUGH TRAVEL INSURANCE)

I know this is less than you were hoping for. If you haven’t already, you may be able to claim the rest through your travel insurance provider. If I can help by providing any information for your claim, please let me know.

Thank you for getting in touch with us about this. We do appreciate that you have a choice of airline, and hope you’ll choose us again in the future. If there are any other issues I can help with, please contact me directly.

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