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.

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.

Your Stories

I booked round trip tickets to me and my minor children from USA to India. I was not aware of that I need a transit visa to travel until the check in time. Airport BA crew told to me about this and gave 10 business days to rebook. My husband called ...
Geetu
British Airways and the sarnies saga: http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/03/19/british-airways-sarnies-saga/ Thanks Brian, this is an interesting read on the current status of BA. I had no idea easyJet and Ryanair both now carry more passengers than ...
Brian Lait
British Airways was overbooked so they cancelled our tickets on day of travel. We have been travelling for so many years with many other airlines but this is the first time it has happened to us. Very difficult to reach their customer service ...
Aparna Rajesh
British Air is terrible. just last week , they lose my Mac Laptop... and when I tried to talk to customer service in terminal 5, the jerk working there try to have security take me away instead of dealing and helping with my situation. NEVER ...
David
Pre-booked a seat at a price for a friend, and on check-in, seat was not available.  Demanded a refund, and one idiot told me the payment will be made to refund the money, and they were sorry for the inconvenience. Later, and much later some ...
I S Bhandal
I have heard horror stories but never knew it will be my turn soon. On my Trip back to London from Accra, Ghana, when I got to my seat, water was dripping on my seat. When I asked to be re-seated, I was told the plane was full and I had no option ...
William Nortey
With a "Stumpenfuhrer" marching up and down every few seconds eagle-eyeing if all our seat belts were fastened and (minus a whip) harshly chastising anyone whose was not or indeed any slight infraction of any little rule, praising the well-dressed ...
Patricio
I purchased a ticket London Heathrow to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday 11 January 2022 at 22:15 to return on 8 March 2022 Ref : 2RYCSY. As an orthodox Jew I can only eat kosher food so I ordered a Kosher meal for the 14-hour flight. I arrived at ...
Sol Brummer
On the way back from NY to London, my original seat had some problem with the in-flight entertainment system. So, I was upgraded to the Premium Economy. I was happy with my original seat and for me, economy and "premium" economy makes no difference. ...
S. Mun
I would like to share an interesting experience. On Feb 1, 2014 we have booked our flight to Miami.   On Feb 16th, 2014 we have paid to select seats on the plane London-Miami-London. We had the pre-selected seats on the way to Miami but BA failed ...
Eric Hubert

Latest Tweets

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…
ba__sucks RT @_AndersonLeigh: Been on 4 flights with @British_Airways this month and 3 have been delayed! 👍 Doing well #BA #BAsuck #verybritishproble
ba__sucks RT @askew_mike: #BAsuck after cancelling my flight BA are offering just to pay 250 Euros EU compensation. But not refund the flight ticket.…
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…