Any chance of additional costs being paid?

[elguiri]

Had a recent trip to Spain from/to Heathrow in CE. The return flight was perfectly timed to be able to enjoy the beach and late lunch before going to airport for ~6pm flight. We would arrive back too late to head home by coach due to littlun, so booked a hotel at Heathrow for the night.

16 days before the return trip we were notified that they had cancelled the return flight and would put us on one to Gatwick instead (this was in advance of the T5 strike notification, and we flew out of T3 anyway).

Before accepting the change (there was no other direct flight going to be able to take us without further stops – which we didn’t want) I phoned up Amex Platinum and was put through to insurance, and asked about the additional costs of getting back from Gatwick and the hotel (which I foolishly booked non-refundable rate). I was told the costs would be fine, but I would have to wait until after I get back to start the claim process.

As the flight back to Gatwick was also delayed by about 90mins, we decided on landing to get the coach to Heathrow and use the hotel night we had already paid for.

We then took the originally-ticketed coach from Heathrow back home the next morning.

Couldn’t figure out how to start the claim as although flight was cancelled, we did fly, and although inconvenience there wasn’t a sufficient delay. So I called up the Plat Insurance line again. After explaining what I was trying to do, I was informed that it would be considered ‘inconvenience’, but there is no cover for inconvenience that happen after the flight has departed. Directly contradicting what I was told before (on which basis I then accepted BA’s flight change).

So my question is, have I no chance of getting the £70 of tickets from LGW-LHR back?

I started looking at the rerouting rights text as I thought maybe I could claim the additional expense from BA to get me to my original destination, but assume this isn’t possible as I accepted the choice in MMB? Anything else I’m missing?

[SamG]

Send them in to BA via their customer relations form with a very simple explanation

Booked to LHR. Flight cancelled. Rebooked to LGW. Receipts attached costs to return to LHR via public transport

Whilst I think it is potentially a grey area (and they’ll often tell you themselves it isn’t covered if you go to another London airport) I’d be very surprised if they didn’t reimburse you

[elguiri]

SamG wrote:

Send them in to BA via their customer relations form with a very simple explanation

Booked to LHR. Flight cancelled. Rebooked to LGW. Receipts attached costs to return to LHR via public transport

Whilst I think it is potentially a grey area (and they’ll often tell you themselves it isn’t covered if you go to another London airport) I’d be very surprised if they didn’t reimburse you

Thanks, will give it a go. Where do I find the ‘customer relations form’. I see the following for claiming compensation:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/delayed-or-cancelled-flights/compensation
Is that the one you are referring to, or is there a more generic one you’d suggest?

[SamG]

That’s the one! Under “expenses” Good luck !

[elguiri]

Anyone have any idea how long I should wait for a response? Submitted as above on 16th April, but not even a confirmation received yet…
Also tried to see if I can find the claim status online, but could only find how to create a new claim, nothing about previously submitted ones.

[JDB]

elguiri wrote:

Anyone have any idea how long I should wait for a response? Submitted as above on 16th April, but not even a confirmation received yet…
Also tried to see if I can find the claim status online, but could only find how to create a new claim, nothing about previously submitted ones.

You should get an acknowledgment immediately with a case reference and a reply button. You also usually get follow up emails every ten days to two weeks, so if you have never heard anything, it’s possible something has gone wrong, although even with a case reference number, that is no guarantee of any response ever. There is no system for checking claim status.

[elguiri]

Thanks for the confirmation @JDB, I just checked and in fact did get a confirmation email the same day as submission (just didn’t find it when searching for British Airways in my inbox). Have tagged it as such now, and raised a message for update seeing as it’s been 3 weeks. Let’s see if I hear anything soon.