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Hello all
I would be very grateful for any advice you may be able to offer.
My poor sister was due to fly BA284, SFO to LHR, on Thursday. Mechanical issue with the A380, kept them sitting in it for hours before saying it was delayed until late afternoon on Friday (too late for her, and it was actually eventually cancelled). No ticketing agents at the airport by then so, after many attempts, she got through to the call centre who booked her via Phoenix on AA on Friday with a really tight connection (that she fought against but was told it was fine).
The plane to Phoenix had a mechanical issue so she never left SFO. She has now been put on virgin SFO -LHR, it will arrive far far later than she needed to arrive into London and she is in a middle seat in economy rather than the business class seat she originally paid ($ not avios)for.
With all the twists and turns and changes in operating carrier, we are unsure what she should claim by way of refund/compensation? She had a hotel booked in London that was non refundable within 24 hours of arrival. The tier points from this flight would have got her BA gold status.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank youI’m sorry to hear of your sister’s travails. There are several elements of compensation and reimbursement to which she may be entitled.
1) £520 for the originally cancelled flight which ought not be disputed if cancellation was for ongoing BA A380 technical issues
2) 75% reimbursement of the total fare paid for the downgraded sector, less any actual disbursements. Although she ultimately flew on Virgin as the operating carrier, claim from BA
3) BA is liable for any additional, reasonable hotel, food, ground transport and communications expenses incurred as a result of the cancellation until the rerouted flight departure.
4) Request ORC (original routing credit) from BA for the TP and Avios she would have earned if BA had transported your sister as booked. There’s a slight tension here because of the downgrade reimbursement. Your sister could also get points from Virgin.
5) BA isn’t liable for the missed hotel night in London – that might be claimable on insurance.
Re 4) there was a post on Flyertalk recently where ORC was denied because they’d claimed points from the new operating carrier. I don’t know how BA can tell or why they’d care but I’d only claim any other points after BA credited me
@SamG – that’s interesting. The trouble is that ORC is entirely discretionary and it’s a well established principle that you can only claim once for a given flight. BA doesn’t really need to know whether you did or didn’t claim any credits/miles from Virgin, just the fact one could is really sufficient.
I have also seen BA push back, as I alluded above, refusing ORC on the original basis because the downgrade compensation/reimbursement is supposed to cover all the inconveniences suffered, logically including TP/miles. As you suggest, these things need to be handled carefully and sequentially seems sensible. There are times when over claiming causes one to end up with less.
Interesting refusing ORC TP and Avios based on the downgrade reimbursement. The reimbursement is specifically not compensation so claiming it compensates you for not receiving what you originally booked is wrong.
I can however see an argument that what it is doing is putting you in the position of having just booked and paid for the cabin you actually flew in. In which case you arguably should only receive TP and Avios for the cabin you actually flew.
But I’d argue that is only true if the airline automatically reimburses you within 7 days as per the regulations. The fact that you have to ask the airline to comply with the regulation and refund you suggests a goodwill gesture is warranted in addition and that is what awarding the TP and Avios via Original Routing Credit is doing.
@AJA – the nomenclature for downgrades is ‘reimbursement’ but it is still compensation and the CJEU explicitly says so in the leading case of Mennens. 75% is already very generous and is supposed to cover all aspects of downgrade, so one can’t really expect any goodwill gesture on top. Thus BA’s offer of ORC is extremely additionally generous so it’s unwise to push one’s luck.
Article 10 expresses the compensation as reimbursement so as to distinguish it from the fixed rate Article 7 compensation. Statutes are very carefully drafted which is why we also have Article 9 entitied ‘Right to Care’ not ‘duty of care’ but that doesn’t affect the underlying nature or purpose of a given clause.
I used the two terminologies in my response to the OP advisedly in light of the experience of @sayling at MCOL on another thread where I believe focussing on the word reimbursement may have contributed to his pyrrhic victory – winning the case but not getting the 75% (or any) of his Avios back.
Thank you very much for such detailed advice. Very much appreciated!
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