British Airways denied claim

[Manxman in exile]

Thanks.  Presumably you refer to Reg 5.3?

 

5.3  An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove [my emphasis] that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

 

I think some people believe that because we have left the EU that EU directives etc that had been passed into UK legislation no longer apply.  But my understanding (which might be wrong) is that they continue to apply until Parliament passes legislation specifically repealing each one.

[Kyosanto]

My understanding is the same as yours Manxman. The law will continue to apply until is either revoked or replaced by something else (which hopefully offers a similar level of protection).

 

If you look at how the text was edited to refer to the UK and the community as 2 separate entities, seems to make complete sense.

 

The only thing I would suggest @Nirkster do to be safe is get the METAR for the whole day at both airports, since I only got the times where their flight was scheduled (And I persist to think they don't look abnormal, winds are low and visibility is "9999+ feet" all around.)

 

And yes, it is exactly the article I had been referring to upthread.

 

The carrier must pay the compensation to the passenger. If it wishes not to it needs to prove it. And just saying "Weather was bad ok?" does not constitute proof of anything exceptional occurring. 

[FruitSalad1010]

If you wanted to attempt to resolve your dispute using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) before bringing a claim, British Airways subscribe to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).

The reason your aircraft could have been affected and not others is due to that particular aircraft being out of position for its schedule due to whether on a previous flight.

For example an aircraft could be due to depart Munich to land at Heathrow but due to poor weather it was delayed and did not depart Munich until the following day.

I don't know if this is sufficient cause not to pay EU 261 compensation or whether an airline would be expected to have a contingency in place in reference to such compensation. It may be possible to have a contingency in place for a single aircraft being affected but it is unlikely to be possible where a major hub is affected such as London Heathrow in the case of BA.

In my experience ADR usually involves a decision which gives up some of your rights in favour of the organisation which pays a case fee to the ADR service. I cannot comment on CEDR as I have no experience in using them to resolve a dispute, however it should probably be presumed they are fair until it is actually known whether they have a tendency to trample over consumers rights.

It is likely to be slow but no slower than bringing a claim, for example using Aviation ADR to resolve a dispute can take up to approximately 8 months. With ADR there is usually little to no incentive for an organisation to settle the dispute early and instead they appear to benefit from the length of time it takes to reach a decision as it simply delays them having to pay you. Whereas in the event of using the small claims court, if BA appoint a solicitor they will be paying at each stage and so not settling will have cost implications for them which may be in excess of the value of your claim.