Downgrade – Compensation Amount

[Firefly]

Hi,

Hoping for some help on compensation calcs – was downgraded from business to economy on a Naples to LHR flight back in July. Payment was via avios: 21750 points and £120 total expenditure for the entire roundtrip. BA have been very slow in providing any refund and looking to raise with CEDR now, but wanted to ask, what is the best way to calculate the appropriate refund amount? Have had a look at the EU261 rules and other threads around the 75% refund, but not 100% clear on how it works for this type of booking!

Thanks in advanced.

[JDB]

@Firefly – for a flight of this distance, the downgrade is calculated at 50% of the Avios paid and 50% of the cash element for the downgraded leg only. In calculating the cash element, all actual disbursements such as government/airport fees/taxes need to be deducted. On these shorter routes this will probably give a marginally higher result than BA’s preferred but incorrect method of refunding the difference between the classes. CEDR will be very slow and this isn’t the sort of case where BA will reject your claim so I would be inclined to chase them first which ought to resolve the matter in days.

[AJA]

Firstly it is downgrade reimbursement.

Be very clear with using the correct terminology. If you refer to compensation BA will simply reject the claim

Secondly the 75% reimbursement is for l9ng haul flights. Yours is a shorthaul flight so if the distance is between 1 500 and 3 500 kilometres you get 50% and if it is below 1500km you get 30%.

Thirdly it is only payable for the sector downgraded, not the total for the return trip.

So you need to work out how much Avios and cash you paid for Naples to LHR, work out the distance flown and multiply that by the appropriate percentage.

Be careful as BA has a habit of simply refunding the difference in Avios between Club Europe and the Economy fare That said that may actually work out to be a higher figure.

[Firefly]

Thanks both, have actually chased BA around 3/4 times and keep getting told they are looking into it, but noted on using the correct terminology. Naples is just above 1500km, so will go with 50%. My booking itself doesn’t break down between the two flights, just shows it as one whole price, so will assume a straight split?

[AJA]

No you can’t just assume it is split equally between outbound and inbound. Also 21750 Avios for the entire return trip sounds low.

Also was the flight a peak or off-peak fare?

[Firefly]

Outbound was off peak, in bound was peak. Avios points is low because I decided to use the option to pay more cash and less points with the avios booking.