Express Mortgages Express Loans Bingo Lose Weight Franchising Dating Music Downloads DVD Rental Shopping Book Shop Find Spare Parts Cut Your Bills Wine Shop Legal Store FlatShare

BA STUMPS UP FOR A SECURITY ALERT LOSS

Wednesday April 11,2007

By Maisha Frost

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(3)

A CANCELLED flight forced a couple to stump up hundreds of pounds more for new tickets so that they could still make their trip of a lifetime.

Despite having to pay out twice, Grahame and Catherine Brind discovered on their return that they weren't going to get a refund, which understandably left the couple, from King's Lynn in Norfolk, feeling aggrieved.

"It was not our fault, " complained Grahame.

"We just wanted back what we were owed, not even compensation, although it did spoil part of our holiday."

After months of getting nowhere, they asked Crusader to help and have now recouped £616, the bulk of their unexpected costs.

The long battle began when the Brinds booked their dream trip, a £8,000, seven week safari in Africa with The Adventure Holiday company, based at Alton in Hampshire.

But the date they were due to fly out, August 12 last year, was the time a terrorist threat alert threw Britain's airports into chaos. As a result, the Brinds' British Airways flight to Cape Town was cancelled.

After calls to The Adventure Company, Grahame was advised to buy new tickets and the matter would be dealt with on his return.

But although the Brinds got some money back from BA via the tour operator, they still found themselves out of pocket because the emergency tickets they bought cost a lot more than the ones they had paid for originally as part of their holiday.

The couple's holiday included flights and accommodation so qualifies as a package.

These are covered by the Package Tour Regulations (PTR) 1992. Then there are recent EU rules that ensure passengers get compensation if flights are cancelled or delayed. But both include waivers when it comes to "extraordinary circumstances" such as security threats, as does travel insurance.

If customers cannot resolve a problem with a company or any trade organisation it belongs to, such as the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), their next step is to contact Trading Standards, which is responsible for enforcing the regulations.

British Airways has now apologised personally to the Brinds and settled their claim, adding extra for the pre-booked taxi fare in Cape Town that they lost.

"Once BA was persuaded to take notice, they acted quickly and fairly and I appreciate that, " says Grahame.

BA CUSTOMER SERVICE - NON-EXISTENT!

15.08.07, 3:07pm

I too am having difficulty in getting refund from BA.
I'd paid for an employee to fly to Spain, but she was made to pay again when they told her my credit card was not valid!
BA had in fact already taken the money from my credit card account & a couple of weeks later I'd cancelled my card when it had been stolen.
Since early July they keep saying I'll be reimbursed in the next few days...
Meanwhile I have to fly other employees out to Spain and am using Ryanair who have never given me any hassle!

• Posted by: studio17 • Report Comment

BA CUSTOMER SERVICE

23.05.07, 4:20am

BA first reaction shows their typical customer service where the especially at Heathrow are rude & uninterested in doing thir jobs.
They cancel domestic flights at the drop of a hat and are frankly unrelible. I would never use them unless I had to.
People moan about Easy Jet but they out class this nasty 'little' organisation

• Posted by: steve077 • Report Comment