Have you been abused by British Airways?

Modern air travel is stressful enough without the abuse that some airlines inflict on passengers. If you are a legitimate victim of airline abuse and reasonable attempts at redress have been ignored or refused by the airline, I encourage you to submit a complaint via the CEDR to send a clear message to the airline that this behaviour will not be tolerated. The process is free if you are successful or £25 if you are unsuccessful. Please let me know about your success stories!

Legal Advice

If you need legal help, I haven't used Bott & Co Solicitors personally but they have some good advice on their website about claiming compensation from airlines and have a no-win no-fee no-risk guarantee.

British Airways Sued Over Travel Vouchers

British Airways Sued Over Travel Vouchers

A British Airways passenger has successfully taken British Airways to court to obtain a cash refund after her flight was cancelled by the airline due to Covid restrictions.

During Covid, many airlines offered vouchers as compensation for cancelled flights but vouchers are often difficult to redeem and are useless to travellers who may have missed a specific event and no longer wish to fly.

Hopefully British Airways will now offer a cash back option without passengers having to take court action especially since they are now profitable again after the pandemic.

For more information see: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-64788448

Time to Rethink Your Travel Plans if you are Planning to Fly British Airways this Summer

Heathrow Terminal 5 Baggage Reclaim

Travellers planning to fly with BA this summer might like to rethink their travel plans after BA staff have voted to strike over unfair pay and conditions.

BA are accused of using fire and rehire practices during the pandemic to reduce wages.

Staff are keen to have this pay cut reversed especially after all the abuse they have endured from irate customers during the pandemic and a spate of IT failures.

For more information see: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/23/heathrow-faces-summer-strikes-as-unions-demand-pay-cut-is-reinstated

Update: It appears at least some stike action has been averted after a pay deal has been struck with workers.

Claiming Back Travel Costs after Coronavirus Cancellations

Coronavirus

Plans have been disrupted for many travellers due to the Coronavirus pandemic with the airline companies being particularly hard hit.

Given the uncertainty with lock-downs to varying degrees across most jurisdictions, it seems reasonable for airlines to refund the cost of flights if they can't provide the flight on the agreed date.

Unfortunately, many airlines seem to be hanging on to customers money and offering vouchers or credits for future airline travel at some unknown date.

Airline customers are left out of pocket wondering if the airline companies will survive the crisis to honour these vouchers or credits.

At least one British Airways customer who contacted me this week is in this situation, holding approximately £1200 of British Airways vouchers that he has repeatedly but unsuccessfully tried to use to purchase new travel. He has been unsuccessful trying to contact British Airways by phone and is asking what options are available.

After you have made reasonable attempts to recover your money from the airline, my suggested options include:

  • contacting your banking provider to reverse the transaction on your credit card (assuming you used a credit card to pay for the travel)
  • pursuing a claim via the CEDR which will cost you £25 if you are unsuccessful
  • pursuing a claim via the small claims court (which may be difficult or impossible if you live outside the UK)
  • finding some professional help with your claim

Professional help is available e.g. there is some excellent advice on the Bott and Co. website including:

  • It is specifically EU Regulation 261 laws relating to cancelled flights that are relevant for cancellations relating to Coronavirus. Under this law, you are legally entitled to a refund within seven days equal to the price you paid for your ticket.
  • This law applies to flights that would have departed from the EU or arrive in the EU on an EU based airline.
  • The United Kingdom is still part of the EU until the end of 2020, so the above criteria apply at a minimum to all EU and UK based airlines.

Bott and Co. can pursue a claim on your behalf and they have a very high success rate. They charge 25% of the refund amount recovered in successful claims and charge nothing if they are unsuccessful.

I am not affiliated with Bott and Co. but they do seem to be the experts at this.

Record Breaking Fine after British Airways Data Breach

Credit Card Data Breach

British Airways are facing a £183 million fine after a data breach in 2018 where the personal data, including names, addresses, credit card numbers and travel details of approximately 500,000 customers was breached.

This will be the largest fine ever imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The recently introduced GDPR rules allow a company to be fined up to a maximum of 4% of of its turnover.

British Airways has 28 days to appeal.

October 2020 Update: The ICO has fined British Airways £20m for failing to protect the personal and financial details of more than 400,000 of its customers. Even though the fine was reduced to take into account the economic impact on the airline from Covid-19, it is still the largest penalty the ICO has ever issued.

Your Stories

So I bought seven round trip tickets for my family from London to Miami as well as round trips for them and other family members from Miami to Liberia, Costa Rica. Tickets all bought and paid for well in advance. Bought in August 2019 for our family ...
Harry W. Budge III
My wife and I honeymooned to Spain from the US and flew BA on the leg home to NYC through Heathrow.  Probably one of the worst mistakes we've ever made.  Both our bags have been lost.  Customer service has given us different ...
Jay
On 25th January 2013 my husband, Trevor and I set off from Heathrow on our trip of a lifetime, a Readers’ Offers cruise around the Galapagos, costing us just under £9000. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and I set out below the problems that ...
Lynne Rackstraw
I had a semi flexible ticket from london to Brussels. I was sick during the night and assumed that I would be able to use the ticket for another flight (ticket was over £338 - I am a gold member) - how wrong was I! BA treats "no shows" as ...
jutta
Flight BA 869 (July 26-27, 2017) was delayed overnight in Budapest. BA did nothing to help with hotel reservations (which were difficult enough for a local person because the World Swimming Championships were taking place, but virtually impossible ...
Stephen W Shaw
1.) from a family of four they did not allow the checkin of my 6 years old by internet, the customer service phone number informed that they have a 60 min waiting time, so not easy to know the problem. 2.) Rude and incompetent airport agents from ...
Sonia Tello
BA sells "airport upgrades" from one class of service to next, I discovered.  They're not cheap, but to avoid the back of the plane ... Go to Biz lounge.  Can't do it. You've done it too many times this year.  (The mind simply ...
Stephen
After multiple very painful calls to booking to deal with bored and annoyed customer service people, we got five tickets from Washington D.C. to Geneva for a family vacation, using miles and two vouchers. The total price of our "free" tickets: ...
Robert Saxton
Regarding a flight from PHL to London, Heathrow. We packed our bags and got to the airport. When we arrived at the gate we realized that the plane was delayed due to what we were told was "wind going against the path of the plane". The plane was ...
Anonymous
This past summer I booked two adults and one child to go from Heathrow to Washington DC. The olympics were being held at that time, but they emailed me an ad that said that there was an olympic special going on. So I went and made our reservations. ...
Marie

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ba__sucks RT @Flight_Refunds: If you've had flight disruption in the last 6 years, you could be entitled to over £500 pp in compensation- https://t.c…
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ba__sucks RT @atanascu: Hello @British_Airways. We are still waiting for the future travel vouchers refunds even after two years. How much longer are…