BA refund for expenses

A question about : BA refund for expenses

Hi All,

We were affected by the closure of UK airspace due to the volcanic ash cloud back in April and we were wondering how people are getting on claiming refunds for expenses from British Airways or indeed if anyone has received a refund for expenses from BA yet?

To outline our situation, we were due to fly back from Jamaica on Saturday 17th April but our flight was cancelled and when we eventually got through to BA they couldn't book us on to another flight until Thursday 29th April (an additional 12 nights).

We sent a letter and all receipts to BA on Tuesday 4th May claiming the additional costs that we had to pay out for meals and accommodation (a significant amount of money to us!) but we have not heard anything back from this yet.

I appreciate BA are probably inundated with refund claims at the moment but we were just wondering about the experiences of others.

Thanks.

Rob & Rach

Best answers:

• Hi,
  I also sent BA two letters (one of which was recorded). I sent the first one on 23rd April and the other on 4th May, and I still have not heard anything back from them.
  Hope you hear something back from them soon!!
• I sent the claim on 5 May. I was planning to give them a month before chasing it up.
• I sent a claim on the 4th May and had a reply on Saturday but they only offered a contribution to our costs. I would still have been out of pocket by Ј400.I replied and asked them to explain why they were not paying the full amount and I have heard nothing more.I was hoping they would meet all our food and accomodation costs.
• Morning All!
  Which address did you guys send your letters to? Thanks
• I sent mine recorded only this morning to BA, Customer Relations, PO Box 5619, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2PG.
  I spoke to them on the phone before hand and this was the address given. Obviously I've made copies of everything! I've claimed up to the allowances we were advised and then some extra costs like Ј100 in mobile phone calls to BA alone!
  Falkirgal - we were advised when stranded that we had Ј25 per person per day for food, so this is what I've claimed and have receipts to cover the whole amount - did you claim above this?
• No we claimed around $50 a day for foodfor both of us.We were delayed for 10 days and our hotel and food came to $1600.We were also told we could claim Ј100 per day for the hotel and Ј25 each per day for food.We could not understand why they did not pay all of it as we claimed below their limit.
• That's worrying falkirk girl, I won't be accepting anything less than what they agreed to....... Simply can't afford to.....
• Thanks to all for their input (especially Cityboy who was also an invaluable source of info when we were actually stuck).
  Just to update you on our claim; we got a letter from BA today confirming that they would reimburse our accommodation costs but would not be able to refund the minimal amount of communication expenses (internet access and phone calls to BA) we were claiming for (although I'm sure there is a provision in the regulations for communication costs), however we're not too worried about this as the accommodation costs were the big amount we were concerned about.
  In the letter we received they have asked us to provide our bank details, even though they were included in our original claim letter, so I'm guessing this is just another time wasting tactic. It also made me laugh that on the letter they sent there isn't a return address to send the bank details!
  It's a great worry of our minds that we've got something in writing that we will be refunded the majority of the money that we had to pay out so we just need to be actually paid the money now.
  Hope everyone else is having better luck with their claims now.
  Rob
• Just bumping this to see how people are getting on with their claims? I had an email saying that they would pay us Ј750 (claim was for Ј780, and I'm not too bothered about arguing about this), but like Rob they wanted unnecessary bank details. They already had our sort code, account no and name, but said they now wanted the bank name and address - clearly a delaying tactic. Ten days after providing this, still nothing...
• Still no response from BA for us yet. Any else making progress?
• someone I work with has just had a result or sort of, they got their refund made their own way back this morning, the have had a call from BA to say that they will process their claim for hotels and food and need to resend receipts for the bus and train they took back to the UK. its taken about 4 weeks to get to this stage.
• After replying to the letter we received with our bank details back on the 19th May we haven't received anything else.
  Our initial joy at getting our money back is now fading and we're getting fed up now!
  Will send another letter if I don't hear anything in the next couple of days.
  Rob
• They did not reply to my email querying why they were not refunding the full amount. They requested our bank details but i did not provide them as was waiting for them to confirm what they were refunding.Have written another letter and still received no reply.Have now filled in a complaint form on Ba website.I have also filed a complaint with the AUC which was suggested on another thread. Next stage will be a letter before action.
  We are also awaiting a refund as we did not travel in the class we paid for and were told when we checked in that this would be done automatically.It wasn't so we wrote a letter and still nothing.Tried to contact them by phone but they do not appear to be answering at the moment.
• I got my refund on Friday, a month after submission of the claim. After having to provide more bank details (a delaying tactic - they wanted information like the bank name and address which you only need in order to set up a direct debit, not to transfer money), I heard nothing for a fortnight and sent them another email. To be fair, they responded within a couple of hours, apologising and authorised the refund immediately.
• Rosie75, what email address did you use? Think I might try that next.
  Thanks.
• It wasn't an email address per se. They emailed me to say they were paying our expenses, and the email contained a link which then took me to a form (which had my case number pre-entered) for me to leave them a message.
  If you had a case number in your letter, I would use the complaint form on the BA website to chase things up. They are clearly using delaying tactics and only reimbursing once chased up. I gather that the efficiency with which they contact you once you've submitted the claim depends on your tier status.
• I claimed from BA a month ago for hotel and the 3 day train journey we made across Europe. Last night I heard via e mail that my claim had been refused as BA said I had claimed for the refund of my flight before we made our way back to the UK. I explained to BA that this was not the case and then quoted the reference to the EU Legislation I had spotted on another thread on MSE.
  This morning I had an e mail saying my hotel & food expenses were going to be repaid - my bank details were requested, and BA was further considering compensation under EU legislation, which will be dealt with separately!
  Fingers crossed!!
• Have now received another email saying they can only pay accommodation and food costs and not medicine or other costs.I am at a loss as to what they are playing at.The only thing i can think of is that we used Walgreens for sandwiches for breakfast and because the receipt says Walgreen/Pharmacy they think we bought medicine.The covering letter listed every receipt and what it was for.I have heard nothing at all about my refund re my seat and am really fed up with the whole thing. If it ever happens again I will go to the airport and refuse to move until they have found me accommodation.
• Had a call from BA they are going to pay out the full amount that I claimed for.Just have to wait for them to pay it into my account.Still waiting for a refund relating to our seats.