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I applied for compensation (circumstances are a slam dunk as far as I can see) on BA’s website on 6th May. Its now coming up for two months with no firm response to my claim. I’ve had four emails since submitting, apologising for the delay and assuring me they were on the case. Last one of those was sent on 10th June. Nothing since. I’ve rung BA and was given a “customer relations” phone number, which just gives options for lost baggage.
Any pointers of what I can do to given them a kick?
If they don’t reply to mine before Sunday, I’m doing a letter before action.
I applied for compensation (circumstances are a slam dunk as far as I can see) on BA’s website on 6th May. Its now coming up for two months with no firm response to my claim. I’ve had four emails since submitting, apologising for the delay and assuring me they were on the case. Last one of those was sent on 10th June. Nothing since. I’ve rung BA and was given a “customer relations” phone number, which just gives options for lost baggage.
Any pointers of what I can do to given them a kick?
I would reply to them via the reply button saying you haven’t had a response in the xx days since making your claim and that in the absence of a proper substantive response within 14 days you will refer the matter to CEDR/MCOL without further reference. With every website under the sun recommending sending a Letter before Claim or writing to Sean Doyle, the currency has been devalued to the point of uselessness and one isn’t required to write one anyway for the MCOL procedure, although it is for many other types of claim. You just need to demonstrate you have attempted to resolve the matter.
If you do still choose to write a Letter before Claim, make it a good one! They get so many ridiculous ones, including general rants that a properly structured one with a chronology and structured legal argument might catch their attention and get settled.
PS ‘slam dunk’ is not in BA’s dictionary and in reality, not many claims fit that bill.
What notice is required before CEDR?
Sorry to hear this hasn’t been straightforward. As a data point, two friends and I were on a delayed flight to Glasgow (technical issues, 3.5 hr delay) on 17 June – we all applied for comp on 18 June (each seaparately), had a response from BA on Friday 23 June confirming the claim, and money in all 3 accounts on Thurs 29th.
What notice is required before CEDR?
It’s the earlier of receiving a deadlock letter or eight weeks. CEDR Rule 1.8.
I’m in a similar situation – flight back from BCN was cancelled three days before it was due, BA put me on a flight five hrs later than the original (even though there were two in between it could have put me on).
Given BA did this three days in advance (& other flights completed the routing on the same day) I’d be surprised if it could claim extraordinarily circumstances. But you never know.
This was end of April, nine weeks and numerous chasers later I’m still waiting.
Jampot’s is an interesting data point (& contrast) though.Sorry to hear this hasn’t been straightforward. As a data point, two friends and I were on a delayed flight to Glasgow (technical issues, 3.5 hr delay) on 17 June – we all applied for comp on 18 June (each seaparately), had a response from BA on Friday 23 June confirming the claim, and money in all 3 accounts on Thurs 29th.
@Jampot – would you mind sending the link you used to submit your claim please? ThxSorry to hear this hasn’t been straightforward. As a data point, two friends and I were on a delayed flight to Glasgow (technical issues, 3.5 hr delay) on 17 June – we all applied for comp on 18 June (each seaparately), had a response from BA on Friday 23 June confirming the claim, and money in all 3 accounts on Thurs 29th.
There is a certain pattern. At times of major disruption to multiple flights, BA often pays the Right to Care costs within a couple of weeks. Equally, with certain random cancellations/delays for which they can’t find any hint of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ they also pay compensation and costs quickly. Once one hasn’t heard for a couple of months, the chances of initial rejection seem quite high.
I’m in a similar situation – flight back from BCN was cancelled three days before it was due, BA put me on a flight five hrs later than the original (even though there were two in between it could have put me on).
Given BA did this three days in advance (& other flights completed the routing on the same day) I’d be surprised if it could claim extraordinarily circumstances. But you never know.
This was end of April, nine weeks and numerous chasers later I’m still waiting.
Jampot’s is an interesting data point (& contrast) though.Were your flights affected by either French or Spanish air traffic control strikes? Cancellations three days out are relatively unusual and unfortunately the fact other flights flew the same routing while yours was cancelled doesn’t mean anything either way.
I’ve had two compensation claims processed this year. Both seemed to be very simple and clear cases. The first took 1 week for confirmation and payment came soon after. The second took approx. 8 weeks and payment came soon after that. No idea why it took so long.
I sent in a letter before action to BA legal after three years of on-off attempts to deal with customer services.
Four weeks later, no reply. So filed a Scottish Simple Procedure (our version of Small Claims). Also downloaded it and sent it to BA legal – even though the court would serve it.
Around 10 days later, customer services got back to me: we’ll refund you in full. But, when asked, not the £20 legal fee.
Another two weeks, and BA legal got in touch to say they thought I had been paid. Could I call off the case, and they would send me the £20.
So it seems legal had passed on my “letter before action” to Customer Services for them to settle, but taken so long that by then I had filed the Small Claim!
ps. In Scotland, you can download a draft of your claim before you submit it. So next time, I might skip the actual filing of the claim and just send the draft to see if that jogs things along.
I believe the problem with Customer Services is queue management (workload management and apparent lack of triage), and the risk of any of your communications landing with an incompetent part of Customer Services.
Incompetence could be for a variety of reasons including work overload of that centre, team, or person, poor organisation and lack of a means to prioritise existing ongoing cases or certain types of cases in a way that satisfies customers, lack of training (home or outsourced centers may have different issues), lack of powers to actually provide solutions etc.
For this reason, if 2 months have passed and I’ve been dealing with Customer Un-Services without result, I would not do a Reply to them but would follow @Blair Waldorf Salad and send an LBA. I might cc it to Customer Services as a courtesy but frankly 2 months is long enough.
Naturally I wouldn’t send an LBA unless I was ready and willing to actually pursue that action with an external body though.
I had a flight delay 3hr 4 mins late landing into Mia from Heathrow , flight delayed due to one of the pilots being sick at Heathrow and they had to source another one . Raised case 14 Jan , didn’t hear anything till March ,BA said delay was due to ATC and declined comp. Wrote a snail mail to head of legal, I also emailed them too . Got another email again saying delay was due to ATC and no further correspondence regarding this matter would be sent by BA and it was suggested to contact CEDR which I did. End of June , BA settled via CEDR and paid the comp of 560 a couple of days later
Defo would put case to CEDR
Well done hugo r and thanks for reporting your success.
This is an excellent result and proves lying, cheating BA can be found guilty of sins against pasengers they refuse to admit, even at CEDR.
Perhaps I’m being naive. But how is it that airlines keep getting away with blatant lies to get out of paying compensation.
I have had this a couple times myself and going off the forums this is a regular occurrence.
It’s clearly a tactic to frustrate the uninformed and those who cbb going through the arduous process.
Really annoys me how they just get away with itI have been lucky, my last 2 flights from LA and Dubai had just over 3-hour delays, I submitted claims after returning and got 2x £520 within 3 weeks or so of submitting, which is not bad for spending a few extra hours in the lounge.
Have a holiday booked for Thailand in September, is it wrong if I hope for another delay? ha!
Perhaps I’m being naive. But how is it that airlines keep getting away with blatant lies to get out of paying compensation.
I have had this a couple times myself and going off the forums this is a regular occurrence.
It’s clearly a tactic to frustrate the uninformed and those who cbb going through the arduous process.
Really annoys me how they just get away with itThe simple reality is that regulators across Europe are very unsupportive of EC261 as it currently stands and enforcement/sanctions is a matter for national governments, not the EU. There are no penalties for failure to comply.
The legislation is hopelessly outdated, very unclear and you now have a twenty year old piece of legislation de facto rewritten by some 70 CJEU judgments some actual but many hypothetical. It’s a complete mess, governments/regulators by and large only pay lip service to enforcement, and many regulators lack powers of enforcement.
I have been lucky, my last 2 flights from LA and Dubai had just over 3-hour delays, I submitted claims after returning and got 2x £520 within 3 weeks or so of submitting, which is not bad for spending a few extra hours in the lounge.
Have a holiday booked for Thailand in September, is it wrong if I hope for another delay? ha!
Thanks also to you @duggie1982 for reporting your success.
It’s been ten weeks since submitting my compensation claim – I’ve heard nothing. Tried several times now to get through to BA to speak to someone about my claim. Can’t even get through the IVR without being hung up. (Option 3 then Option 3 again).
Emailed them a week ago to say I would be going down the CEDR route if I heard nothing, which I’ve now done this morning. Will update with how I get on.
Captain’s log. Stardate 03 August 2023. Day 97 since raising my compensation claim with BA, and 19 days since escalating to CEDR. Response from CEDR today:
We wish to advise you that your application for CEDR’s Aviation Adjudication Scheme appears to be eligible and can progress to the next stage of the process.
However, due to the current exceptionally high volumes of cases that CEDR has received, we may need to extend some of the timescales for processing your case. This needs to be done so that your case can be given thorough and careful consideration. Rest assured that you will receive a final decision from the adjudicator within 90 calendar days of the date on which we receive the complete case file.
We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Kind regards
CEDR
Is there another outfit that I can raise a case with to kick CEDR, who then kick BA? (I’m joking. I think).
Honestly, why is everything. So. Damned. Hard.
Send supplies, blankets and smokes.
As a data point: I applied for compensation from BA on 29 July (for a delayed flight due to tech issues) and received an email today awarding full comp of £520 p/p (email mentions payment will arrive within 14 days). Very happy with the quick turnaround. I had raised an expense claim a few days prior for the same flight and the money was in my account a few days later.
As a data point: I applied for compensation from BA on 29 July (for a delayed flight due to tech issues) and received an email today awarding full comp of £520 p/p (email mentions payment will arrive within 14 days). Very happy with the quick turnaround. I had raised an expense claim a few days prior for the same flight and the money was in my account a few days later.
It’s really strange how some people have quick responses and some are waiting many weeks/months. The claims are clearly not dealt with in chronological order. My claims this year have all been simple but have taken very different times to resolve.
Perhaps long haul claims go into a shorter queue? My long haul claim (£520) was sorted within a week in January, but my first short haul claim this year took 4-5 weeks, and the second I’m still waiting after 4 weeks.
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