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Caught in the British Airlines/LHR IT Meltdown-Compensation

Posted by (Gig Harbor, Washington) on

My flight from Seattle to LHR left an hour late on 3/30/2022. Arrived at LHR about 1:15pm. We were one of the last flights allowed to disembark for several hours. It was reported some passenger’s planes sat in holding areas on the tarmac as the IT meltdown impacted check-in, manifests, gate scheduling. My connecting BA flight to Madrid was delayed six hours. We arrived in Madrid after midnight. There were several people who missed connections as they couldn’t transit through the airport, or disembark from connecting flights. Previously, this IT issue impact British Air in February 2022

I understand I may be entitled to compensation due to the delay. Has anyone filed and received a compensation award from British Air since they left the E.U? I would appreciate any suggestions. In addition to a six hour delay, costs we incurred included an extra meal, loss of one day rental in Madrid, and loss of prepayed transfer from Madrid airport. I am so happy to be able to travel, but this was a rough start to what I hope will be a great trip.

Posted by
4517 posts

Looks like compensation has two pieces:

  1. Direct extra costs

  2. The EU penalty for being more than 2 or 3 hours late.

I would expect them to process these separately.

In these types of situations, always ask for a meal voucher if you can, at least it gets you something on the spot.

Posted by
47 posts

I don't have an answer. I just came to say I feel horrible this happened to you! This is my nightmare as we are leaving on BA to LHR to get to Venice on April 9. Seems like BA doesn't really know how to resolve these constant IT issues. I'm hoping the ground crew treated you well. I've heard reports of the opposite. Did you get your luggage at least?

Posted by
99 posts

I had a similar BA IT meltdown in November 2019, just as I was about to depart for my Rick Steves Sicily tour. My BA flight was delayed 3 hours and when we finally took off from LAX, we were instructed to head straight to Customer Service to deal with connections. However, when I landed at Heathrow, there was a folding table set up right outside of the gate with a bunch of boarding passes printed out. Just on a whim, I asked the gate agent if my new pass happened to be available and was promptly handed my new boarding pass and a £ meal voucher (cannot recall the exact amount).

Posted by
16241 posts

According to FlyerTalk discussion, BA will be paying out a lot of EC261 compensation for this latest snafu. So it appears Brexit has not affected their duty to pay, or the procedure. Just make sure you fill out and submit the forms properly.

Posted by
2186 posts

And don’t give up if it takes awhile. It took me 14 months to actually get my compensation, but that was before Brexit.

Posted by
6373 posts

BA will be paying out a lot of EC261 compensation for this latest
snafu. So it appears Brexit has not affected their duty to pay, or the
procedure. Just make sure you fill out and submit the forms properly.

The UK copied all the EU laws that applied before Brexit, so the EU261 rules still apply, but the ECJ can't enforce them. And the UK is working on new rules.

Posted by
35 posts

Collamore…..We were traveling with only carry on bags. So no issue with luggage. I think the BA system was so overwhelmed. There was no one to talk to from BA. No help for passengers who were missing connections. I am hoping this is a once in a life time experience. Totally worth the experience as we are now in beautiful Madrid.

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