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Legal Advice

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.

Update: According to Bott and Co, "EU Regulation 261/2004 was written into UK law at the end of the Brexit transition period, meaning you have exactly the same rights to claim flight compensation as you did when the UK were members of the EU."

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.

BA Cost Cutting for Short Term Gain

Terminal 5 Check-in

Brian Lait has good insight into British Airways management and has contributed a new article, BA cutting costs for a quick buck in the Cyprus Mail.

"Avaricious" is a new word to me but perfectly personifies the current BA management who seem determined to cut costs and maximise profits for themselves and their shareholders.

While the current management have driven BA down to the 40th most popular airline, and despite the numerous BA disasters of 2017, BA continue to make a profit.

As long as the shareholders are happy, the travelling public are still willing to support the "National Airline" (which frankly is astounding to me) and assuming they aren't cutting corners on safety, then nothing seems likely to change at least in the short term.

Some Advice for British Airways Management

British Airways 747Rowan Jackson has some great advice for British Airways which he shared recently on Linked In.

Rowan flies frequently with British Airways and is a member of the British Airways Future Lab which is supposed to be how British Airways obtains detailed feedback from customers. Unfortunately, it sounds like the feedback is falling on deaf ears.

The article has struck a chord with the travelling public and has been liked over 12,000 times as at the end of July.

Obviously, change is needed and as Rowan says, it might not be too late to save the Airline from disaster assuming someone is still left to listen to the advice.

IAG Stock Price

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