Cancelled Flight, what's the score?

Haych

My wife and her friend have been on a girlie holiday in Florida for the last week.

They should be over the Atlantic on the way home as I type but British Airways cancelled their flight at the last minute.

Apart from booking them on the next flight tomorrow night, BA have been pretty appalling and have offered them nothing at all.  They've had to find and book their own hotel for the night, book and Uber to get them there and obviously all other expenses incurred they've had to foot themselves.

Oh, and of course, there will be more expense when they get back to Gatwick as their onward travel arrangements home will have been missed, too.  Not to mention she will also lose income from having to miss at least an extra day at work.

Should they not be entitled to compensation?  When America South West cancelled my flight some years ago which caused me to mss a connection home, they put me up in a hotel and arranged food and transfers.

Google seems to suggest that they should be entitled to cash, a rebooked flight, hotel and other expenses, but I'm not sure if that's applicable to the US.

Does anyone have any insider knowledge or experience of these things who can advise whether they can hold BA to account for expenses incurred?

The wife does have travel insurance but I expect they will first tell her to take it up with the airline?



TIA

strumjoughlamps

We have literally just had it with TUI, cancelled flight they put the 6 of us in 5* accommodation which was awesome, flew back next night, filled in online form, 5 days later £2100 (£350 pp) put into bank.

hopefully yours will be as easy.

drofluf

Her rights: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/holiday-cancellations-and-compensation/if-your-flights-delayed-or-cancelled/

The airline should cover her costs, hotel etc. plus I think she should be entitled to some compensation depending on length of delay and distance etc.

The BA page https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/delayed-or-cancelled-flights/compensation

stickyfiddle

drofluf said:

Her rights: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/holiday-cancellations-and-compensation/if-your-flights-delayed-or-cancelled/

The airline should cover her costs, hotel etc. plus I think she should be entitled to some compensation depending on length of delay and distance etc.

The BA page https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/delayed-or-cancelled-flights/compensation

Yeah this! 

I wasn't familiar with UK/US-specific rules, but whenever I've had an overnight delay with Etihad (only twice in 10 years and a shitload of flights, to their credit) they've given us a hotel and food voucher, etc. 

Also check any insurance you have (because I really hope noone's going to the US without comprehensive medical cover at least...) - you can usually claim something for any delay over 6 hours or so.

ToneControl

In this situation, watch out who you booked through.
I went via LastMinute, which I now know is no longer a normal UK firm, it's an offshore call centre.
They cancelled some of my flights, ignored every contact. Eventually got redress via credit card clawback - be aware it's only possible within 2 or 3 months

Haych

ToneControl said:

In this situation, watch out who you booked through.
I went via LastMinute, which I now know is no longer a normal UK firm, it's an offshore call centre.
They cancelled some of my flights, ignored every contact. Eventually got redress via credit card clawback - be aware it's only possible within 2 or 3 months

Good call, not sure if she booked with Love Holidays or direct with BA, but I'll pass on the information, thank you!

rogd

Tell her to get and keep receipts for every cent she has to spend.

Haych

rogd said:

Tell her to get and keep receipts for every cent she has to spend.

I already have, don’t worry. 

Timcito

'British' Airways inexplicably canceled my flight to England last Christmas. This after no end of hassle getting the bleeding ticket in the first place. The representative, in barely comprehensible English, then wanted to put me on another flight. I told him, as politelu as I could under the circumstances  to go forth and multiply.

Bowks

My other half had the same thing happen to her last week when she travelled back from Ibiza. She got all her costs from BA via a compensation claim, back plus some extra. 

Really shit though. She was texted, flight cancelled don't bother coming to the airport there's nothing we can do etc, but in the end they rocked up at the airport and got a standby seat on a flight that day, having already booked to come back to London via Glasgow at a cost of £400+

Haych

The wife is back in the country now, landed about 10:30 this morning.  She's exhausted though and of course all her arrangements for getting home from the airport are no longer valid so she's having to pay through the nose for last minute train tickets home.

I did offer to drive down and collect her but she and her friend are travelling together to a point so she wanted to make sure her friend also got on the right train etc.

Should be collecting her from Temple Meads mid afternoon.

Whitecat

When the ATC IT crash happened last summer I got stranded it Italy for two extra nights. BA cancelled our flight and I guess because of the volume of flights cancelled couldn't get us onto another one for two more days. We had to book a last-minute hotel to cover the time and just wait it out.

The reason for the cancellation was definitely classified as "extraordinary circumstances", so there was no additional compensation due, but BA retroactively paid for our hotel, airport transfer expenses, and food which ranged from cafe snacks to a couple decent but not ridiculous meals (no alcohol is compensated, obviously/unfortunately!) Took about five months from submitting the claim to receiving the payment.

In your case you'll want to know the reason for the cancellation because there could be additional compensation due. But at the very least, all of her (reasonable) expenses should be covered. Put a few hours aside ASAP to go through the receipts and fill out the forms online.

Haych

Whitecat said:

When the ATC IT crash happened last summer I got stranded it Italy for two extra nights. BA cancelled our flight and I guess because of the volume of flights cancelled couldn't get us onto another one for two more days. We had to book a last-minute hotel to cover the time and just wait it out.

The reason for the cancellation was definitely classified as "extraordinary circumstances", so there was no additional compensation due, but BA retroactively paid for our hotel, airport transfer expenses, and food which ranged from cafe snacks to a couple decent but not ridiculous meals (no alcohol is compensated, obviously/unfortunately!) Took about five months from submitting the claim to receiving the payment.

In your case you'll want to know the reason for the cancellation because there could be additional compensation due. But at the very least, all of her (reasonable) expenses should be covered. Put a few hours aside ASAP to go through the receipts and fill out the forms online.

Thanks, that's useful.

I think the flight was cancelled simply due to bad weather.  I don't know if it was equipment or staff, or possibly both that weren't available but an incoming flight was diverted to Tampa due to weather conditions which then had a cascading effect on my wife's flight causing it to be cancelled.

RaymondLin

Bowks said:

My other half had the same thing happen to her last week when she travelled back from Ibiza. She got all her costs from BA via a compensation claim, back plus some extra. 

Really shit though. She was texted, flight cancelled don't bother coming to the airport there's nothing we can do etc, but in the end they rocked up at the airport and got a standby seat on a flight that day, having already booked to come back to London via Glasgow at a cost of £400+

I had a flight travelling from Rabat to Paris to London via Air France.  1 ticket.

Due to the first leg being delayed, I missed my connection and Air France put me in a hotel for the night as it was 9pm and first flight out in the morning, with £15 airport voucher to spend on food.

I put a claim in and was approved, claimed the taxi cost going from hotel to airport too, about 6 weeks.

I think the Legislation is call EU 261 and it covers flight in and outside the EU, operated by an EU/non-EU airline.

I also do have travel insurance should the claim failed. 

boogieman

We had a delayed flight out of Greece on Sunday evening. Over 3 hours delay so we should be entitled to compo, on paper, but there seems to have been a lot of cancelled flights out of Gatwick that day, so I’m expecting them to try and wriggle out of paying. We did all get €8 food vouchers, which just about covered the cost of a sandwich. 

fretmeister

Some compensation news updates from this morning too - from the Supreme Court!

Supreme Court finds pilot illness not 'extraordinary circumstance' for cancelled flight compensation refusal | Law Gazette