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Good morning all,
On Tues 26 Apr 22, my wife, 5.5 month old son and I travelled on BA0207 to MIA. The flight was scheduled to take off at 1040 and land at 1455. However, due to an aircraft fault, we were eventually moved onto another aircraft which took off at 1509 and landed at 1904. This resulted in a delay of 4hrs10 mins. I think we are due compensation under EU271?
It now gets a little complicated. The original flight was LGW to SJO using a companion voucher and avios in Business Class. However, BA cancelled that route, but agreed to fly us via MIA to SJO with the codeshare with AA.
We were surprised to learn our connecting flight had also been delayed and we received an ’Express Connection’ envelope from the ground staff on leaving the plane. Scheduled to take off at 1838, but ultimately delayed until 2026 (1hr48mins late). When we arrived at the gate at approx 1950, the last remaining passengers were boarding. However, we were informed “your AA booking doesn’t exist” by a member of the American Airlines staff, even though I had already booked the relevant seats on the AA website and we had been issued boarding passes for the flight when we checked in at Heathrow. My wife had also received two emails from American Airlines notifying her of the MIA to SJO delays under the UDSPKS record. Later, another member of staff informed us, we were assumed to be no shows and involuntary denied boarding for the flight and replaced with someone on ‘standby’ due to overbooking. After a long wait, we were eventually re-booked flights for the following morning, an overnight stay at an airport hotel and $24pp (dinner and breakfast voucher). My wife and son managed to get the last remaining seat in business class, however I sat in premium economy.
I will be asking BA to compensate for the cost of the night in SJO we missed. Is there a way to calculate the difference for avios/air miles for the MIA-SJO leg, or is this too much hassle?
TVM for taking the time to read.
It sounds like one booking as a replacement. It sounds like BA to MIA then on to SJO on a BA flight number. EC261 is to the final destination (SJO), not on the MIA flight.
You are all due: £520 each for delay from BA, which as you arrived next day is well over 4h. As well as all hotel/food costs if not already covered (not alcohol).
You are due: 75% of entire fare paid (including YQ) for MIA sector to SJO as compensation. There is a formal calculation for this based on total ticket cost and the miles flown for the downgraded sector. You are due this from BA as well.- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Thanks points_worrier.
Regarding the 75% of entire fare paid, do you know how that works when it was avios and taxes?
Your trip that matters here is indeed all the way to SAN. You were well over 4-5 hours late, so whatever delay compensation kicks in , presumably £520, per seat (including same for 241 seat and same for infant, if own seat had been booked).
Yes as points-worrier says you should also claim reimbursement of hotel for the night in MIA, transport to and from the hotel, and put in all your receipts for meals. the $24 doesn’t count if it’s inadequate – and it is. You were also entitled to 2 phone calls or internet – claim that too plus all relevant taxes etc. off your hotel bill.
You are not due 75% for the entire fare paid, just for the seat and sector on which you were downgraded. This will likely work out peanuts as the fare construction would probably have attributed a very low value to MIA-SAN. If that distance (check on gcmap.com) is less than 1500 km you only get 30% back of the cost attributed to it not counting true government taxes and things like airport and immigration charges on that actual flight. If over 1500km and under 3500k km it’s 50%. Needs to be more than 3500km on the flight you were downgraded on to be 75%.
To calculate your downgrade calculation, personally I’d try on them as follows :-As you paid with Avios and ended up flying a longer journey because of the reroute via MIA, I suggest you look up how many avios flight to Miami on its own would have cost, then separately how many avios MIA to SAN would have cost(I think maybe just the avios as you didn’t really pay for it), then demand whatever % for downgrade is accurate based on distance, off the pro rata amount that MIA to SAN represents of the actual miles you flew across the 2 new flights when they rerouted you. So you will get some avios back, don’t bother about the rest it was probably only about $5 and you wouldn’t have had to pay that anyway as they rerouted you. But your bum in seat miles flown were downgraded for whatever proportion MIA to SAN is, out of UK-MIA plus MIA-SAN, and I would demand that proportion of avios back for the downgrade, or at least 30% or 50% of whatever that proportion of avios works out to. (You’ll be better off with it being an avios ticket, funnily enough, as that sector would have cost practically zero on a cash ticket I suspect).
So : compo for original flight cancellation, duty of care reimbursements, and a cheeky request for reimbursement of avios pro rata for the proportion of the actual miles flown that was represented by the flight MIA-SAN you got downgraded on.
PS you might have to phone BA to find out how many avios MIA-SAN costs if you’d booked it separately, I don’t think they show internal US flights online for avios.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I will be asking BA to compensate for the cost of the night in SJO we missed. .
They won’t reimburse consequential losses like a hotel night you didn’t use or tickets for an event you missed.
That’s down to your travel insurance.
I will be asking BA to compensate for the cost of the night in SJO we missed. .
They won’t reimburse consequential losses like a hotel night you didn’t use or tickets for an event you missed.
That’s down to your travel insurance.
Hum. Then I guess the OP will have to be content with £520 compo and reimbursement of hotel, transport to and from hotel, meals, and internet for the delay.
Would be fantastic as you point out @ChrisC if OP has travel insurance that would also pick up the night lost in SAN…. 🙂
Re the downgrade reimbursement OP was travelling on an Avios ticket and it was the revised flight from MIA where he was downgraded so it would be easier to claim some Avios as a goodwill gesture rather than trying to go for downgrade reimbursement.As the distance between MIA and SJC is over 2500 miles I’d ask for 15k Avios.
Wow. Thank you for all the feedback!
As an update, the insurance via Amex paid out for the missed night in SJO within a week.
This morning BA agreed “ The total amount of compensation you’re due is €1,800.00 (£1,553.23) as there are three passengers included in your claim.” There was no mention of compensation for the downgrade, but did spot tier points were mistakenly added.
Thanks everyone.
To be pedantic there is no compensation for a downgrade but a reimbursement of part of the fare.
Down to you if you chase it it but it’s likely to be a very small proportion of the entire trip cost. In any case it was AA that downgraded you not BA so you’d have to deal with AA on that.
If you got or will get a better BA status because of those TPs (and I assume the avios too) I’d be tempted to let it it go but I can see the opposing view point.
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