[Anonymous]

[Fastflyer]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone had any success in claiming for compensation against an airline (in particular BA) for a cancelled flight. I believe you can do this under EU Regulation 261/2004 but hear the airlines often claim exceptional circumstances as a way of getting out of this.

BA cancelled my flight back to the UK and gave technical issues as the reason and put me on a flight 4 hours later which caused significant inconvience. Any tips appreciated.

[GoonerLondon]

Actually – BA has a section on its website for claiming compensation as per the rules:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/eucomp/public/en_gb

The amount of compensation to which you are entitled depends on the length of your journey and how long a delay you suffer.

In the case of delays of two hours on a journey of up to 1,500km you should be eligible for free meals and refreshments and two phone calls, emails or faxes.

For a journey of between 1,500km and 3,500km you must be delayed by three hours for this entitlement, and if your journey is 3,500km or more the delay must be at least four hours.

If you are delayed by five hours or overnight on any flight you will also be entitled to hotel accommodation. If you decide not to travel you will be entitled to a full refund of your ticket price and a free flight back to your original starting point.

If you are not offered these you should complain to the airline operating the flight.

The levels of compensation for cancelled flights are specified as follows:

EUR 250 for flights of 1500 km or less
EUR 400 for flights within the EU of more than 1500 km and for all other flights between 1500km and 3500 km
EUR 600 for all other flights.

Compensation is reduced by 50% if any re-routing offered to your final destination results in a scheduled arrival time which does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the original flight by:

Two hours for flights of 1500 km or less
Three hours for all flights within the EU of more than 1500 km and for all other flights between 1500km and 3500 km
Four hours for all other flights.

Key to weather the airline will pay out is consideration of “extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken”. Generally, this means delays caused by broken planes mean no compensation will be paid- likewise extreme weather, and controversially in some airlines, Strikes.

A Dec ’08 test case went some way to making the law clearer by ruling that technical faults, unless they stem from ‘events which, by their nature or origin, are not inherent in the normal exercise of the air carrier’, DO NOT count as examples of extraordinary circumstances. In the past, airlines have routinely cited them as such to excuse themselves from paying out, so this is great news for consumers.

[PaulJennings]

Have a look at http://www.euclaim.co.uk – claims handler on a no-win no-fee basis. I can only imagine that the airlines hate them.

[Fastflyer]

Thanks for the advice – will try BA first and see where I get. Though past experience is they accept no responsibilty for the vast majority of the problems passengers encounter

[LuganoPirate]

I think compensation also depends on how you tackle the airline rep. On a recent intercontinental flight with a well known European carrier (not BA, and they were so kind I’ll not embarrass them by naming them) I was traveling in F with my 3 kids in Y class. The flight was overbooked and we were offered the following for my 2 sons.

€ 700 each (more than the cost of one of the tickets), 4* airport hotel being allowed to keep the room till 8pm for the next day 2220 departure. 2 dinners, lunch and breakfast and taxi to from hotel. In addition they allowed them to change the return date at no charge, despite the fact it was a non changeable tkt and extended this to my daughter so we could all return together.

This was dealt with discreetly compared to the American at the next counter who was shouting how he will bankrupt the airline (it’s still flying) and attracting as much attention as possible. He ended up receiving the absolute minimum whilst others were probably also discreetly negotiating nice compensation deals.

So negotiate in a friendly and discrete manner directly at the desk. If this does not work then try the http://www.euclaim.co.uk/ firm. I have never had to use them but several of my friends have (even against Ryanair) with great success and I understand that for the fee they charge, which is reasonable, they will take all the hassle out of you trying to claim correctly, and will most likely be more successful as they have access to all flight and weather records etc.

[CMoir12]

Was it the BA981 from TXL on Monday?

I too want to try and claim but the website doen’t seem to be working.

[Fastflyer]

yes was the Berlin flight – used the normal BA contact Customer Services web facility – BA called yesterday to say they had passed it to their “EU claims dept “- so we will see what happens

[Fastflyer]

BA have accepted my claim and cheque for €250 in the post – so credit where credit due they handled this quickly and was easy to do

[CMoir12]

that is good to know – I will get mine done today!

[Author]

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