Yorkieabroad

No, not like that - mind out of the gutter please!!

I guess most of the Houstonites are aware of the problems BA were having at IAH before Christmas, with a seeming total inability to operate anywhere close to the published schedule (actually, I heard from someone yesterday that they were having problems at the moment too).

I'll preface my "story" to say that I am not normally an ambulance chaser, and I think this is the first time I have ever pursued a claim like this, but BA just pi$$ed me off so much with their total arrogance, total disregard for customers, and total dishonesty in dealing with passengers at the airport, and with my claim in particular, that I didn't want to let it go. Embarrassed to say I am a BA shareholder....

Anyway, our story was that our flight back to the UK at Christmas was seriously delayed. The incoming LHR- IAH flight never left London, so we were delayed till the next day, total 21 hours. We were told they had found a fuel leak on the plane before takeoff at LHR, and didn't have a substitute aircraft.

The rescheduling was a total farce, with us even being asked for credit card details at one point to rebook the flight we "missed" BA totally forgot to comply with the EU regulation that requires them to advise us of our rights on delayed flights....

Other passengers we knew on another flight were not told of the rescheduling, and were re-booked 48 hours later, while our 24 hour delayed flight was only 2/3 full. We know of one family that missed their African Safari, and another that didn't get back till Christmas morning, having been due to arrive on the 23rd.

Anyway, ours all got sorted eventually and we went off and had a good Christmas.

When we got back, I did a bit of research on Flyertalk, and decided we could be in for some compensation under EU261. That regulation applies to EU carriers where an EU airport is at one end (or both) of a flight. It sets compensation levels based on flight length, and delay time. Based on our flight, we were potentially in for EU600 per passenger, or just shy of USD3500.

So I filed an online claim with BA. Instant bounceback saying claim rejected due to extraordinary circumstances, and referred to the fuel leak at Heathrow.

I replied that that did not fall within the definition of extraordinary within EU261 as it didn't occur "immediately prior" take off for our flight.

Again, a cut and paste reply quoting extraordinary circumstances.

I replied with a request for the time and location of the fuel leak, along with maintenance records() which under EU261 they are obliged to give. I also referred them to a case that went through Macclesfield County Court that found that problems on a flight prior to the flight booked could not be used as "extraordinary circumstances"

I then received another cut and paste reply referring to extraordinary circumstances such as weather and air traffic control problems.

At that point, I asked for compensation within 7 days or going to court.

10 days later I got an email confirming the compensation was being issued!

From Flyertalk forums, this appears to be the standard airline response - deny, deny, deny, then pay when threatened with Court action.


EU 261 claims can be backdated to ( I think ) 2008 (?), and it appears there are quite a few folk on Flyertalk that are successfully making claims against the airlines.

Bink

My Mum is over in Houston at the moment (arrived on Saturday) and she had a 6 hour delay on BA flight due to a fuel pump.

I hope they fix their issues - I'm also very frustrated with United and there aren't a whole lot of other direct flights to Heathrow that are convenient for me.

Uncle_Bob

We've had nothing but problems with BA on the LHR to PHX flight the last few times we have flown. Including poor cabin service, delays with poor notification. Going through the gate to board and then being pulled back so the LHR to LAX flight could depart first (and on time, despite there being loads of empty gates at T5).

The massive delay at LHR last summer was due to problem the previous day at LHR and I can't remember what it was. I was just glad i check the flight departure on line and found out about the delay. Useless BA only sent a text an hour or so before the scheduled departure time when we would have already driven half way to the airport

We were so happy with BA in the past, but not anymore.

rebs

As well as flyertalk, there is good info here on claiming delay compensation

Airlines operating flights within EU seem really switched on to the compensation stuff these days... we were in Greece in the summer and on the way back a flight was delayed long enough to trigger the issueing of refreshment vouchers. Within minutes, the small cafe in the tiny airport was suddenly overwhelmed with a huge queue of people

markonline1

I could pass on a few stories that show BA really don't give a shit about their passengers!!

kins

I recently won 600 euros compensation from BA. They didn't fight it as such, they just kept referring me back to bits of their website that didn't exist, then referred me to their UK organisation which told me they had a 3 month waiting list. But after that the money came through very quickly.

I wouldn't fly with them again though. Not just that the flight was delayed - I get that, and I understand it can't be helped.

It was the appalling customer service, including various people giving out inaccurate information or simply not answering the phone even when they were not busy.

Yorkieabroad

That's what really pi$$ed me off too. It surely wouldn't cost that much to put on a few folk to hand out sympathetic smiles and free drinks to schmooze the inconvenienced paying customer...but it would be a huge culture shift for a company that seems to have built itself on treating customers like cattle. BA customer service really is appalling. Plus when we got to T5, all the planes looked old and dirty
We hadn't flown them in over a decade, but decided to give them a try because we were thinking of switching card reward programs. After this latest performance, we're going to stick with KLM and leave our card rewards elsewhere.