Help needed with BMIbaby claim

[Supercoley1]

Hello

 

I did started another thread but as the title was I am stuck in Lisbon it is now a little misleading.

 

The basic story was that when we got to the airport we went to check in and the airports computer had a different forename than my wife's ticket and obviously it was different to her passport. They refused boarding and we tried to ring bmi for 20 minutes only to hear the "you are in a queue message".

 

Needless to say We didnt leave my wife in Portugal. My 2 and 3 year old sons and I stayed as well.

 

After contacting bmi the next day they basically said buying a new flight and then claiming back the money was the only option.

 

I want to claim the replacement ticket costs, transport that we had to use for the wasted journey and to go to a different city for another flight, loss of wages, phone calls made on our father in laws phone to their premium rate number and hardship compensation.

 

We are also now overdrawn when we were in credit so not only are we missing out on interest from our bank, we are now paying interest on the overdraft which I want to claim too.

 

Can anyone help me r.r what I should claim for, how to do it and how I should word it as all there is on the BMI website is an address and no other info.

 

Thanks in advance

AC

[reallymadwoman]

bump

[bmibabyfc]

did you book the flight online?

 

if so you will have received confirmation of the passengers names that you booked i guess and it is your responsibility to check these are all correct before travelling...

 

i am not criticising as dont know the full facts just in case you take it the wrong way...

 

if you booked the flights and you made the error then the airport staff had every right not to check you in and you will get nothing back that you are trying to claim...

 

hope this helps...

[Supercoley1]

We did book online and the confirmation email and the printout from their website has the correct name. Hence this is why we had no problems going out to Portugal.

 

So all our paperwork is correct but the system at the airport had the incorrect name on it.

 

AC

[bmibabyfc]

you should have no problem claiming that back i would have thought.

[Supercoley1]

A little update.

 

I sent a letter by registered post (cost £4.25)to bmibaby on 2/12/08 detailing what had happened and a summary of costs and asked them to acknowledge receipt within 28 days. The costs detailed were:

 

Taxi back from Lisbon airport to family residence £9.52

2 days extra parking @ Birmingham Airport £20.00

Phone calls to BMIs constant queue hotline £15.87

Exchange rate charges for these debit card phone calls £2.01

Telephone calls to bmi from landline in Portugal £47.62

Telephone calls to British embassy from landline in Portugal £6.35

Telephone calls to travel insurance from landline in Portugal £4.76

Telephone calls to my parents from landline in Portugal £7.94

Replacement flight from Faro £338.46

Taxi to Lisbon bus station £6.35

Coach from Lisbon to Faro £28.57

Taxi from Faro town to Faro airport £7.94

3½ days loss of earnings for me (not inc possible O/T) £173.25

1 days loss of earnings for wife (not in possible O/T) £35.00

This totals £703.64

 

I put in the letter that I would leave it to their discretion how much compensation they would pay for hardship relating to this saga

 

They have not replied within 28 days however they have refunded £281.33 directly to my wife's debit card which is where we initially paid for the flight.

 

What do I do now? This doesn't even cover the replacement flight which my mother paid for. Should I wait a few days more to see if they send a letter explaining this payment? should I write back to them and not accept this payment as compensation? Is that the end of the road and I have to put up with it? I have instructed my wife not to touch this money as firstly we have to pay my mother back and secondly if I refuse to acept it they may want it back before proceeding further.

 

Any advice?

 

Regards SC

[Supercoley1]

Well it's been 10 days now since bmi paid the money into my wife's account and they haven't sent me any letter of explanation as to what this payment is for or trying to tell me that they aren't going to pay the full amount. Should I write to them accepting the payment as an interim payment and push them for an explanation and the rest of the amount claimed?

 

AC

[Supercoley1]

A further advance on this today. Bmi have sent me a letter with a further cheque for £85.50.

 

They say the total payment is for the replacement flight plus buses to Faro airport.

 

They go on to say that they cannot be held liable for loss of earnings or other costs incurred as a consequence of the error made!!!

 

I can produce evidence of the extra parking and phone calls made on my wife's debit card which I will send to them again to claim these.

 

They make no mention of any compensation regarding this and seem very careful not to use the word in their letter.

 

Is there anyone who can help me on this?

 

AC

[Supercoley1]

bump

[zubo]

SC

 

I had replied to your pm but my reply appears to be wiped out...

 

On the face of it you have a claim...

 

however, I'm going to play devil's advocate: can you clarify exactly what the agents in Portugal said to you and more importantly offered you. In, the scenario you describe, you should have been able to make a name change for a fee - usually around £20-£30. Was that offered?

 

What options if any were offered. If none, then it looks pretty clear what you should do, and I have successfully done the following:

 

Fully engage with BMI. You have a dispute with them and require a financial remedy...

 

Send them, recorded, a SAR. Force them to reveal all the information they have about you and this booking. Look carefully at the screenprints it gives you a LOT of information and reason why you were denied boarding.

 

Send them a Letter Before Action - telling them that they need to meet your claim in full AND offer you say £100 for the inconvenience of it all. If they do not respond within 14 days you will commence litigation.

 

They respond with an offer, if it is acceptable then that is fine if not then insist that you need settlement in full and will wait 14 days.

 

They try to wear you out, but dig in. If you still have not settled, raise the N1. I actually sent them a copy of the N1 before I started litigation and they caved in.

 

Z

[Supercoley1]

Their agents were in fact just the usual ANA airport staff. They didn't offer us anything because bmi just use the portuguese people. The ANA check in girl rang her superiors and then said we would need to contact bmi and gave us their number however this being the usual 'you are in a queue' line it took 20 euros before we had to give in as check in was closing and we had to get our bags back!!!

 

bmi's letter says to me (word for word)

I can confirm that due to a system error Mrs ****'s name was not showing on the check in agent's manifest

 

Therefore they seem to be admitting liability however later they say

I note your request for further compensation, however bmibaby cannot be held liable for consequential losses such as loss of earnings, arising from this event

 

As of now they have refunded the replacement return tickets and the coach fares to the different airport but are refusing to pay any form of compensation or other costs we have no receipt for like taxis etc.

 

What is an N1?

 

AC

[Supercoley1]

Haven't updated this so I will do so now.

 

AFter the initial refund of some of the 'costs' incurred (replacement flights, coach from lisbon to Faro etc) we ended up handing this case over to EU claim a no win no fee jobby. they take 27% of the winnings.

 

A few months later bmi partly gave in and issued one lot of compensation insisting my wife was the only one denied boarding and therefore myself and the 2 babies were not eligible for compensations. Therefore suggesting that i should have left my wife behind and taken the 2 children back to the UK where we would be stuck in Birmingham as I don't drive. The wife drives and is her car at Birmingham Car Park.

 

Since then EU Claim have now passed this onto the courts as bmi wouldn't accept the moral stance here. and therefore I have been advised it could be up to 6 months to be sorted. Originally it went throught to the dutch courts where EUClaim are based and it was then passed onto the Portuguese authorities.

 

This 6 month period will end approx Jaunary so should be able to detail more then. It is 2 years since this all started now. lol. But hey ho. patience and all that

 

AC

[zubo]

sorry supercoley I am rarely on this site so missed your question re N1.

 

BMI are a bunch of fools who try very hard to ignore anything which involves them paying money. Its the airline with low costs, low standard of service, low standards period...

 

An N1 is a claim issued in the County Court to recover costs from a business based in the UK. I had a long battle with BMIBaby where I took them and their CEO to court, obtained judgement against them and sent the bailiffs in when they would not pay. They cancelled 7 of my flights (in fact they tried to change all 7 to fly from an airport 70 miles from my nearest airport. I forced them to refund my flight costs and pay the difference for me booking them with FlyBe. One flight was notified to me within two weeks of departure and my case was related to compensation as per EU regs. This they disputed with me. I told them I was going to take them to court I even sent the claim form. In the end with bailiff fees and my costs they had to pay me over £500...

 

Maybe they will not mess with me again...

 

I know nothing about your no win no fee folk but if this has not appeared as a case in front of the UK court - what jurisdiction does the court have over a UK company. The timescale is also much too long for my liking - have they notified you about what they have done??? Personally I would be very suspicious. Also I read elsewhere that there maybe a 2 year time limit on any claim.

Think I read this on the flight forum - http://www.flightmole.co.uk - I hope the moderator allows me to publish that here.

 

Z

[Supercoley1]

From what I gather you have 2 years to file the claim. This was filed well in time but is still in process as bmi are playing hardball.

 

If it were a 2 years and then too late bmi would just have stayed silent and waited for 2 years and then replied sorry too late

 

When I sent many letters they refunded my replacement flight but refused anything else. I then passed it to EUClaim who within a couple of months managed to get the EU comp for my wife being denied boarding.

 

They have been pursuing the case and detailing progress in a 'client case' portal on their site. I can see the correspondence back and forth etc.

 

The case went into the court in the Netherlands as this is a european flight and they referred it to the Portuguese authorities as that is where the problem occurred.

 

Will see what happens in the next couple of months

 

AC