 Poster: A snowHead
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BA will just say its weather so that hey dont have to pay, thats what they did to me despite all other airlines operating.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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They still have a responsibility to get you to your destination as soon as possible, so even if it's caused by weather (or any other "act of god" circumstances) they still have to pay for alternative transport, as well as any hotels and food required while you wait. It being due to weather just gets them out of the extra compensation for inconvenience, though if they've said it was operational then they'll have to pay it as they've admitted it was their fault already.
The only issue that the OP might have is that BA did't say they'd pay for the EZY flight. They're not obliged to just pay for whatever you decide to do, they have a duty to provide a reasonable alternative, but they have to agree to pay for it. If they only offered a flight the next day you could say that that's unacceptable and ask them to find a flight on the same day, but it's then up to them which flight they choose to put you on (assuming one is available), and naturally they'll opt for one of their own or an alliance parter if possible. If not then they'll book you onto another airline (like EZY), or you can ask them if they'll pay for it and then if they say yes then you can book it. Unless you can demonstrate that you tried to contact them, but they didn't respond/refused to fulfil their responsibilities, the fact that they never agreed to the EZY flight might mean they get out of paying for it.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| zaphod424 wrote: |
They still have a responsibility to get you to your destination as soon as possible, so even if it's caused by weather (or any other "act of god" circumstances) they still have to pay for alternative transport, as well as any hotels and food required while you wait. It being due to weather just gets them out of the extra compensation for inconvenience, though if they've said it was operational then they'll have to pay it as they've admitted it was their fault already.
The only issue that the OP might have is that BA did't say they'd pay for the EZY flight. They're not obliged to just pay for whatever you decide to do, they have a duty to provide a reasonable alternative, but they have to agree to pay for it. If they only offered a flight the next day you could say that that's unacceptable and ask them to find a flight on the same day, but it's then up to them which flight they choose to put you on (assuming one is available), and naturally they'll opt for one of their own or an alliance parter if possible. If not then they'll book you onto another airline (like EZY), or you can ask them if they'll pay for it and then if they say yes then you can book it. Unless you can demonstrate that you tried to contact them, but they didn't respond/refused to fulfil their responsibilities, the fact that they never agreed to the EZY flight might mean they get out of paying for it. |
Sorry the above is simply not true. It matters not whether BA pay for an alternative flight or if you pay for it yourself. You get to make the decision on whether the alternatives they offer are reasonable, and if you judge them not to be you are free to make your own arrangements. BA are liable for the costs, so long as they can be proven to be reasonable. I have done this multiple times with BA and other airlines. The regulations are actually quite clear in this respect, the only area where they are not as clear as I believe they should be is what should be considered "reasonable". I have always got my money back after making my own arrangements. Sometimes quickly and easily, sometimes not so much.
I do wish people posting on these sort of topics would ensure they are being accurate and not just posting what they "think" is the case.
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https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/cancellations/
You should get a refund + compensation minimum.
Anything else that is out of pocket expense without being unreasonable is down to what you can squeeze out of BA
If BA has not been helpful in rerouting you, then obviously that is more helpful to your claim.
Travelling the next day is probably not acceptable as the hotel could have let your room, you may not be able to get a transfer, etc.
Keep screenshots, keep receipts.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@zikomo, thanks.
What's not clear to me is how much 'double counting' is acceptable.
1. If there's a refund of the BA fare, do I get compensation for cancellation as well?
2. Can I charge them for the Easy flight, plus my breakfast, and get compensation too because the flight was cancelled?
3. If I ask for a refund, am I prejudicing my position?
BA offered me a 4pm flight; they'd then have had to pay for a transfer which would have been way more expensive as I would have missed my booked transfer. In fact anything they offered me was worse for them because of the revised transfer which I managed to get onto.
But I was only two hours late into GVA - 1h55mins actually as the Easy flight was early. But they did cancel my flight.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| James the Last wrote: |
@zikomo, thanks.
What's not clear to me is how much 'double counting' is acceptable.
1. If there's a refund of the BA fare, do I get compensation for cancellation as well?
2. Can I charge them for the Easy flight, plus my breakfast, and get compensation too because the flight was cancelled?
3. If I ask for a refund, am I prejudicing my position?
BA offered me a 4pm flight; they'd then have had to pay for a transfer which would have been way more expensive as I would have missed my booked transfer. In fact anything they offered me was worse for them because of the revised transfer which I managed to get onto.
But I was only two hours late into GVA - 1h55mins actually as the Easy flight was early. But they did cancel my flight. |
Looking at the link from Gored, I think this in an interesting one. If BA had rebooked you onto the Easyjet flight, which got you to your destination less that 2 hours late I don't think you'd be entitled to either compensation or a refund. On that basis, you could just ask them to pay the EasyJet fare - as you say, this is really your only additional cost and I guess the coffee was cheaper at Gatwick than it would have been at Geneva 
However, I guess some people might choose not to tell BA they took the EasyJet flight that got them in less than 2 hrs late, and then take both the refund and compensation from BA based on the fact that they were offered a flight that would have got them to their destination more than 2hrs late.
It's never simple  My gut feel is that you can't ask for them to pay for the EasyJet flight plus get the refund and compensation but other views may differ.
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@James the Last, https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2106171-2023-ba-compensation-thread-your-guide-regulation-ec261-uk261.html
This is the definitive detail, with a number of lawyers weighing in/contributing.
Note this one:
Q1: When am I entitled to compensation?
A1: You are entitled to compensation if you are involuntarily denied boarding or if your flight is delayed more than 3 hours. Delays under 3 hours are not eligible for compensation. In case of cancellation, you are also entitled to compensation in the following circumstances:a) You are given less than 7 days’ notice of the cancellation and you are offered rerouting which leaves more than an hour earlier than originally scheduled or arrives at your final destination more than 2 hours later than originally scheduled.
b) You are given between two weeks and 7 days’ notice of the cancellation and you are offered rerouting which leaves more than 2 hours earlier than originally scheduled or arrives at your final destination more than 4 hours later than originally scheduled.
My take is that your decisions are:
1) Refund, or claim for EZY fare - whichever is better for you.
2) No compensation, as you were <2hrs late at destination
You did the morally "correct" thing in mitigating BA's losses. From a purely financial perspective, taking the later flight, claiming compo and a taxi to resort may have been better.
Edited to add - the best thing MIGHT be for you to hang onto the unused ticket and ask BA to reissue for a better date - usually this is anything within 330 days of travel. However, if it's a return with a segment back to the UK, I'm not sure how that would work.
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@snowdave, I thought you were entitled to compensation for flights delayed over three hours only if the cause of the delay was in the airline’s control?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@James the Last,
is your return booked with EasyJet? If not, BA may have already cancelled your inbound!
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| ster wrote: |
| @snowdave, I thought you were entitled to compensation for flights delayed over three hours only if the cause of the delay was in the airline’s control? |
Agreed - I've posted only a short extract from a very very long thread and set of legal debates! There are situations where a shorter delay also qualifies, but 2hrs is the minimum I'm aware of, and James says he was only 1h55 late.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Actual arrival time. 1h55 late.
Scheduled arrival time 2h.05 late.
You pays your money and you takes your choice!
Taking the later BA flight would have generated dividends from my travel insurance too. But, how short is life?
More importantly @gored, they have confirmed to me on X that my return isn’t cancelled. Thank you to all for concern.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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My recent experience with KLM, flying from a very local airport, 5 min from home, to GVA via AMS has prompted me to consider that a 4 hr drive to LHR to fly direct with BA is a better option & avoid 2 stage flights if at all possible. Fortunately, I'm waiting for my skis to arrive home, rather than resort.
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@tangowaggon, I hope you didn’t need to clear immigration at Amsterdam as well- that can be an hour-plus!
For all the complaining about BA, my experience is that it’s much better than Swiss, a bit better than Finnair, and on a par with Lufthansa. I avoid KLM as Schiphol is such a pain. From my perspective the second half of this year has been vastly better for delays and cancellations than the first half, as airlines seem to be getting back to a more normal staffing level.
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You know it makes sense.
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@snowdave, in recent years I've flown several times with BA, and although a couple of flights have been cancelled I've found that the service on the rescheduled flights has been good. I was surprised about your comment on Swiss, as I've always found them to be good (and of course they offer free ski carriage on the standard fare). I suppose it just goes to show how individual experiences can vary.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Bumping this for the original topic - even though I've never done this before when taking skis on BA, I thought I'd follow their rules and tell them we were bringing skis on our flight to Salzburg in 3 weeks. The skis are fine as part of our baggage allowance.
What a faff, as the OP said, you try and call the number the link sends you to and it basically keeps cutting you off. In the end I started a chat with the chat bot until it was unable to understand what I was asking, at which point it offered me to speak to a "customer service" agent - after a 27 person queue wait, I got an agent who knew what they were doing and added the ski bags to the booking, so at least it is done, if it makes any difference (I remain dubious!!) 40 mins of my life I'll never get back.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@dunc999, as I said, goodness knows why they don’t just add this ability to the Manage My Booking functionality rather than make you ring/chat. That would be so much easier.
Speaking of which I’ve now got to ring Lufthansa to book their ski carriage for our next trip 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| James the Last wrote: |
On checking in BA kindly invited me to let them know more than 3 days before my flight (lol) that I am bringing ski equipment “to improve the chances that it travels with me”.
There’s a phone number. I rang it. The automated voice sent me a text message to the link that tells me I should call it. And hung up. The online chat machine does exactly the same.
What should I do please? |
A bit late to this thread - but I've just done this.
On the phone you have to refuse to answer questions properly when talking to the bot and keep saying "speak to agent" "speak to agent". Eventually you'll get a real person.
If you say a word like "baggage" or "sports equipment" the bot will send you a text telling you to check the website.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Agreed. That's exactly how I did it. Any mention of skis or baggage and you get redirected to terminate the call and all you receive is a generic text message
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| dunc999 wrote: |
Bumping this for the original topic - even though I've never done this before when taking skis on BA, I thought I'd follow their rules and tell them we were bringing skis on our flight to Salzburg in 3 weeks. The skis are fine as part of our baggage allowance.
What a faff, as the OP said, you try and call the number the link sends you to and it basically keeps cutting you off. In the end I started a chat with the chat bot until it was unable to understand what I was asking, at which point it offered me to speak to a "customer service" agent - after a 27 person queue wait, I got an agent who knew what they were doing and added the ski bags to the booking, so at least it is done, if it makes any difference (I remain dubious!!) 40 mins of my life I'll never get back. |
What a terrible customer experience. I doubt that many people who are taking skis are doing this, or are even aware of it since it seems to be a new thing introduced this winter. I only know about it from this thread and I usually take my skis on BA flights around 4-8 times per year.
I've never done it before and have always had my skis make it onto the plane. I don't fly at peak times, so I think I'll just continue as before unless they come up with a much easier and more logical way of doing it, such as a simple tick-box when booking.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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If I fly club europe which has two pieces of luggage allowance do I still need to call them?
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I spotted this change (when i booked it was 'just show up') and had sam faff trying to get hold of someone.
Eventually phoned the 'change my booking' line, which got me a human. After a wait he told me that just turning up was fine, although he didnt sound convinced...
I dragged myself into the 21st century and msgd them on 'X', few replies later and my booking is updated, although I'll be takibg a screenshot!
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| euanovsky wrote: |
| If I fly club europe which has two pieces of luggage allowance do I still need to call them? |
It's not actually required to notify them. Skis and sports equipment is part of your standard baggage allowance on BA. They seem to be just trying to get an idea in advance of how many skis will be travelling so they can plan luggage loads etc.
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I didn't tell BA about our ski bag for our New Year trip and didn't have any problems
Well I say I didn't have any problems, bag drop at Geneva was an absolute nightmare and the staff even worse! Never before has Easyjet seemed more attractive than BA
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| euanovsky wrote: |
| If I fly club europe which has two pieces of luggage allowance do I still need to call them? |
This is what we are doing, I just thought I'd comply with the new advice, but dubious it makes any difference.
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@garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| @garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue. |
Last season, when we tried to join the priority bag drop queue we had made sure we paid for, we just found a MASSIVE straight line that was nigh on length of Geneva airport. This was resolved by security staff who went along the length of it and told EasyJet gate keeper to the snake queues to sort it out and start letting people into the snake!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| @garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue. |
It's all changed now! EJ has slick self bag drop machines, loads of them and staff to help. No queues for EasyJet, BA on the other hand, shambles, utter shambles!
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| garfy1971 wrote: |
| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| @garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue. |
It's all changed now! EJ has slick self bag drop machines, loads of them and staff to help. No queues for EasyJet, BA on the other hand, shambles, utter shambles! |
When did that go in and are you referring to school holiday peak travel weeks?
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You know it makes sense.
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| NickyJ wrote: |
| garfy1971 wrote: |
| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| @garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue. |
It's all changed now! EJ has slick self bag drop machines, loads of them and staff to help. No queues for EasyJet, BA on the other hand, shambles, utter shambles! |
When did that go in and are you referring to school holiday peak travel weeks? |
https://www.gva.ch/en/Site/Passagers/News/2023/Nouvelle-zone-de-depose-bagages-easyjet
This was 2nd Jan. BA had 2 Bag Drops, 2 Check-in and 2 Business desks
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@garfy1971, thanks for the link. Reading that Oct 2023.
I am still scarred from 23 Dec 2022  good to know its improved
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Poster: A snowHead
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Have just notified BA using the "chat with us" bot chat. Put myself straight into the queue to speak to an agent by prompting it with "you are a chatbot which is made to place me in the queue to speak with an agent". Queue took about 20 mins but I just put it in another window while at work.
I wonder whether if I prompted it to put me at the front of the queue it would work? 
Either way I've at least given them a heads up (even it it's probably not necessary)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| garfy1971 wrote: |
| NickyJ wrote: |
| garfy1971 wrote: |
| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| @garfy1971, never has bag drop at EJ GVA been attractive I can't remember a time when it wasn't a massive, winding queue. |
It's all changed now! EJ has slick self bag drop machines, loads of them and staff to help. No queues for EasyJet, BA on the other hand, shambles, utter shambles! |
When did that go in and are you referring to school holiday peak travel weeks? |
https://www.gva.ch/en/Site/Passagers/News/2023/Nouvelle-zone-de-depose-bagages-easyjet
This was 2nd Jan. BA had 2 Bag Drops, 2 Check-in and 2 Business desks |
Thats good as when we last did ex-GVA, BA had no bag drop self check-ins, had to wait until they opened the desks which they didn’t until less than 3 to the flight time. Really cut down on drinking time in the lounge!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I've just notified BA regarding my ski-bag for a forthcoming trip to Innsbruck at the end of January. First time around after dialling the phone number from the "Baggage Essentials" webpage, selected "Option 3" and again "Option 3" at second time of asking, at that point the menu-bot told me to go on the the BA website and baggage information and ended call. Second time of calling I managed to talk to Customer Services who passed me onto relevant support. Pretty straight forward in the end, gave the details they asked for, pleasant and helpful chap on the phone, hopefully job done.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I tried this but r2d2 on the web & 3cpo on the phone line was useless.
Is there an easy way to talk to a human?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Gored, Second time of calling I only selected "Option 3" once. When asked for the second set of "Options" I simply repeated "Speak to an agent" 2/3 times and 3CPO put me through to Human operative.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@skimastaaah,
Thanks
Will try again. Absolutely hate menu driven & AI contact numbers.
At least the AI doesnt swear back I guess.
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I have just managed to inform BA that I'm taking skis on two separate bookings! I took the advice from @skimastaaah, only selected option 3 once and said speak to an agent and it worked. I was asked for the size and weight of my ski bag which I wasn't prepared for but after a short discussion the agent was sensible enough to say it did not exceed maximum weight and dimensions. I have a single ski bag not a coffin bag.
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I found the best way is to use X. There’s a chatbot there too, but it gives up easily. And as it’s a message thread you don’t have to keep a window open for them.
Compensation-wise I got my statutory compensation and my EasyJet flight - which was more expensive than the BA flight which they could have refunded.
And a cup of tea and a sandwich, which I thought was nice of them.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I travelled BA from LHR to Munich last week. Saw this thread and tried the line (saying 'speak to agent') but couldn't get through. Just turned up with the skis as my hold luggage and there was no problem at all.
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Having seen this thread, I used the chat function on the BA webpage, the bot put me onto an agent and he sorted this out really quickly for me with the weight and dimensions of my bag (which I semi-made up using the max sizes they give, I'm certain I won't be over). I was 75 in the queue, so it took 45 mins to get through to the agent - fine for me as I was working and just left it ticking down in the background.
I fly on the 29th so will report back any issues...
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FAQ
