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Hi.
About to write a complaint to BA regarding a cancelled flight and looking for advice on what BAs legal obligations are because I know they like to just ignore them.
We were flying from Portland to Edinburgh via Heathrow. They cancelled our connection as we were going through border control to get our connection. I downloaded my boarding pass fine and just as my wife was downloading hers it told her it was cancelled even though my App did not show this.
We then spent an hour speaking to rude uninterested staff who didn’t even know the flight was cancelled. No apology, ignoring what we were trying to tell them, texting on their phones. Truly disgraceful service. We were then told that we would have to go to London City to get back to Edinburgh. First agent told us we could claim the cost back which I now know was a complete lie. She also told us that we would be able to take the 7 litres of duty free we had delivered on the plane through security. Another lie. After over 2 hours in an Uber across London we then had to spend 40 minutes trying to get 7 litres of duty free into our already full bags. No empathy from agents here either insisting they couldn’t be a gram over. By some miracle we eventually managed to get through. Then found out London City is a total ####hole with no fast track security with a huge queue and no lounge so really no value from Club World ticket to be honest.
Any advice on what I should be saying or legislation I should be quoting would be much appreciated.
For reference the cancelled flight was BA1448 scheduled to leave 15:10. The replacement flight was BA8710 scheduled to leave at 19:00. It was more like 19:30.
BAs service to us and many other passengers was totally disgraceful. While in London City we overheard another poor passenger who had been sent from Heathrow only to be told that the flight they were rebooked on had now also been cancelled.
What a lot of messing around for you! I take it there was no other LHR-EDI flight with seats available that day?
BA are actually pretty good at paying out compensation/reimbursement claims these days, however as you said, you need to know what to ask for.
What time were you originally due to land at EDI and what time did you eventually arrive?
Was a reason given for the cancellation? Unfortunately eligibility for compensation will depend on this, although you can still make a claim if you don’t know the reason and await BA’s reply. Any extra costs you incurred getting to EDI will still be covered.
You can also look at the very informative threads in “delays and cancellations” and “EU/UK261” on here.
In your ranting you failed dailed to tell us the date this happened.
Don’t ever accuse staff of lying especially when YOU are the one that’s 100% wrong – BA will pay expenses for getting between the two airports
Hi,
Yes, when things go wrong, they can go badly wrong. And – from my experience too – BA is definitely needing to pay some attention to misconnects at LHR.
Heathrow Airport is operating at full capacity. So when weather, for example, goes bad – wind, rain, visibility etc – then air traffic control will limit arrivals and departures. For BA, it often makes more sense to cancel short haul flights than long-haul ones. First, there are more opportunities for alternatives (as you discovered), and second it means fewer aircraft out-of-place when things improve. BA has no control over the weather!
(It could be argued that BA have control over which flights to cancel etc, but I am just grateful that everyone wants me to Fly Safe)In that case, you don’t get any compensation
Of course, the other thing is that there could have been a problem with the particular aircraft that was scheduled to take you from LHR-EDI. In that case, BA should be able to do something – ie rustle up a spare aircraft, find a spare crew etc. Indeed, when I started flying between LHR and Scotland in the 1980s, they did exactly that with their Super Shuttle service. They promised an extra aircraft is even just one last-minute passenger needed it!
In this case, you are eligible for compensation if your arrival at Edinburgh is a certain number of hours late.
In both cases, British Airways has a duty of care – so your transport to London City, and snacks bought en route or at LCY, etc. If you had had to pay for extra luggage for your duty free, you could have claimed that too.
The general thought is that it is simpler to make two claims: one for duty of care and another for any delay compensation. It seems BA are using AI to sift claims, so by doing this and keeping things very simple and unemotional (just like the robot!), it speeds things up.
Finally, well done on getting to Edinburgh – I know many of the staff at LHR might have seemed uncaring. The truth is, they were probably powerless to do anything – BA (unbelievably, to me) don’t even have anyone on the ground at their main base when can ticket anything!
So they may have been on their phones trying to keep up-to-date with issues so they can offer what help they can – even if it is only to call various numbers yourself, or just take action and pay now and claim later.
PS: London City’s unique selling point is that it has late check-ins and a simplified ground service. But, yes, it can get crowded! Thanks goodness it is there, otherwise you’d have been stuck in London, or on the train.
As a ps: with both kids married to US citizens, we used to travel a lot via LHR, to Denver in particular.
We got so fed up with connection issues at LHR we now try to travel via anywhere else – Madrid and Dublin being the favourites (both Iberia and Aer Lingus being part of BA’s parent IAG).Was this on 19 June 2024 by any chance? Something weird happened that day as I think the flight shows as cancelled if you search google but actually it did operate. It departed at 14:30 arriving in EDI at 16:03.
I suspect that you arrived from the transatlantic flight too late to catch the flight since you mention a departure time of 15:10.
The thing is BA would reject cancellation compensation as the flight operated.
You need to go back to BA and explain this.
You should definitely get compensation probably for delay rather than cancellation given your eventual arrival was well over 3 hours. And since you flew from the USA you should get £520 per passenger.
BA should also pay for transport between LHR and LCY and for any food and drink you may have purchased while delayed.
@Colin, We’re going this way as well as MAN services continue to decline. LHR is a massive faff, especially if you need to transfer to T3 and re-clear security on the outbound.
It was very poor to tell OP that they would be allowed to take 7 litres of booze through security at LCY though, when they were clearly no longer going to be in transit at that point! (We’ve taken the odd bottle or 2 through T5 security, though I am now wondering if eyebrows would be raised at 7 😂).
I think it has to be a 4 hour delay for the full £520? But we haven’t got the exact arrival times from OP yet (I’m aware there’s an ongoing argument elsewhere about doors open/passengers able to disembark!)
@NL I never get that time delay correct. 😒 Though if they only departed LCY St 19:30 they might exceed the 4 hr mark assuming I got the date correct. Also depends on the original scheduled time of arrival.
Indeed – and I’m now wondering if the long haul flight was delayed (and why?) resulting in the missed connection, which gives a different slant on it (and also needs to be cited in a delay claim). If so, again surprised by BA, as when this happened to us a few years ago, there was an agent waiting at the gate with new boarding passes for us for a later MAN connection (appreciate there may not have been a LHR-EDI alternative, but BA could have still been more proactive if they knew the connection would be missed due to delayed inbound flight).
Thank you for all your replies.
This was yesterday September 5th. The flight from Portland was actually early and we had plenty of time to connect.
BA sent us this text which clearly says they will not cover the cost of travel between airports. This is also written in the complaints leaflet they gave us.
We’re sorry the BA1448 on 05 Sep 2024 LHR-EDI is cancelled. You are rebooked on BA8710 05 Sep 2024 LCY 1900 EDI 2020. Please accept flight on ba.com/mmb or call +443444930787. Travelling to or from a different point may incur additional expenses BA will not cover.
The original flight scheduled to land at 16:45. The flight we were on landed 20:24
They told us there were no seats available on any other BA flights from LHR and they could not book flights with another airline.
Just about to leave the office at 2pm and get the coach to Heathrow, and my flight to Edinburgh this evening is Cancelled.
Joys.
They’ve rebooked me for stupidly early o’clock on Monday instead. I don’t think I’ll be accepting that.
It’s an ATC cancellation. Guess there’s no compo.
@MR87 if you look at flight status on the BA app / website for LHR-EDI it says your flight was cancelled due to weather so no compensation is payable.
2 other EDI flights were cancelled yesterday and several others were significantly delayed.
LCY we also affected.
It’s the same same today.
If BA were cancelling flights it’s likely that Ryanair and EasyJet were too. Sometimes there really aren’t any rebooking options available. I think the trains were also affected badly. BA has a deal with LNER amd has no problem issuing tickets for that.
Can I just gently say that you should have given the date in your original post.
BA will reimburse the cost of getting to LCY as well as any food / drink you may have purchased and have seats for.
Claiming via the form on the website is the quickest way. Sending in a letter as per your original post might make you feel better but realistically would just delay any reimbursement and generate a sorry not sorry email.
@Andrew – correct.
If you manage to speak to BA ask them about giving you a ticket for LNER.
@MR87, as noted above, BA will pay for your taxi to LCY. The message about not paying refers to if you choose to fly from another airport, rather than accepting a BA re-route, which was what you did.
Use the web form, upload your receipts and you may well have your money within a couple of weeks, as happened to me last month.
@Andrew, definitely look at trains – it’s crazy to expect you to wait 2 days for another flight between 2 UK cities when there are plenty of other options.Reimbursement of your taxi LHR-LCY is explicitly covered under EU261/Article 8.3. Also this b*&^%it about not being able to book on other airlines is nonsense – also covered by EU261.
But I think what people seem to forget in 2024 is that air travel is complex, and delays happen. I live near LHR and at 4am there was thunder/lightening – not a problem but if it was 2 hours later causes delays at an airport already running at 100%. LCY also had delays this morning due to fog. It’s just business as usual…!
@MR87 The BA text says “may not”. It doesn’t say: “will not”.
So if you rent a stretch limo with champers and a hostess, they won’t pay.
But a black cab or an Uber, they will.
@MR87 The BA text says “may not”. It doesn’t say: “will not”.
So if you rent a stretch limo with champers and a hostess, they won’t pay.
But a black cab or an Uber, they will.
Sorry, how else is one to get from LHR to LCY?? 😀
Indeed, given the absence of a lounge at LCY, BA should pay for the limo 😂
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