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Help, my leg is missing

June 29, 2008

Question: We’ve had a problem with a missing flight segment that I’ve tried to resolve for the last six months. We were hoping you could help.

Here’s what happened: We had seats booked on a British Airways flight from Calgary to Rome with a connection in London. When the airline e-mailed my confirmation, I noticed that a leg was missing.

I called British Airways and asked how we were supposed to get to London. The agent informed me that our flight had been canceled but didn’t give me a reason. I asked to be rebooked on the flight for that evening and was told no seats were available. But that was wrong. When I checked online, I found that there were seats – in first class.

Our travel agent got us on a flight the next day. But we lost a day of our vacation and a night’s stay at our hotel in Rome that we had to pay for, but not enjoy. We also had to pay a 120-euro fee for being no-shows at our hotel in Rome.

It turns out our original flight had been canceled because of a lack of cabin crew. I filed an e-mail complaint, but British Airways said it canceled the flight because “circumstances were beyond their control.” Since then, I’ve heard nothing from British Airways. I’ve called, emailed and written to the airline. But there’s been no response. What should we do? – Karen Kernohan, Calgary, Canada

Answer: British Airways should have put you on the next available flight in which it had seats available, which it did.

According to the airline’s general conditions of carriage – the contract between the airline and you – it should have rebooked you on the next flight.

Rule 9, Section B number 3 promises the airline will “carry you as soon as we can to the destination shown on your ticket on another of our scheduled services on which a seat is available in the class of service for which you have paid the fare,” according to the contract.

But that’s not all it should have done for you. EU Rule 261 says you were owed compensation for the cancellation. (I won’t go into too many details, but I’ve blogged about the rule in more detail here). As I read Article 7 of the rule, you should have been offered 600 euros for your cancellation.

There’s a loophole in the rule that British Airways is taking advantage of. It says air carriers are off the hook when a cancellation occurs “in extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.”

British Airways believes a crew shortage is an extraordinary circumstance. I don’t.

Actually, the “extraordinary circumstances” excuse is commonly used by airlines flying to and from Europe. And there’s only one way to close the loophole: You have to threaten to sue them. Politely.

In your correspondence with an airline invoking circumstances, you need to mention in the first or second sentence that if this isn’t resolved to your satisfaction, you may be forced to take the matter to a European court. The airlines are nervous that a court will define “extraordinary circumstances” and that they won’t like the definition.

Like other airlines, British Airways stops corresponding with a passenger when it considers the matter closed. It doesn’t matter that you think your problem is unresolved. Few air carriers bother to put it into those terms, but some actually do. I recently saw a letter from Air Canada in which it told a passenger, “this case is considered closed and you should not anticipate a response to any further communication dealing with the same issues.”

Under most circumstances, threatening a lawsuit would be a last resort. But in a situation like this, where an airline is exploiting a contractual loophole, it would be my first move.

I contacted British Airways on your behalf, and it apologized for the cancellation. It insisted that extraordinary circumstances were to blame for the cancellation, but it agreed to refund your 120-euro no-show fee. It also sent you a $200 voucher for your trouble.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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4 comments

  • Charles

    And I’m sure BA would have done the same thing if the people hadn’t contacted Chris Elliott. Uh huh. What a shame that people have to go to the press and put some bad publicity on the airline to get the compensation that they absolutely deserved in the first place. Then again, if things like this didn’t happen, what would there be to read on this website?

  • Chicky

    Well, Chris might have less to do, but it would be nice if travel customer service was so good, his ombudsman role was rarely needed.

    Yeah, I can just see the solicitor for BA in front of a Q.C. in London. “Well, m’Lord, the flight didn’t have a cabin crew.”

    “Why not? Does a major airline like British Airways have insufficient personnel to properly operate the flights?”

    “Well, er, m’Lord, there was a, er, a problem. A cabin crew could not be supplied in time.”

    “Did British Airways know this flight was scheduled?”

    “Yes, m’Lord.”

    “Was a crew stranded somewhere in Asia due to inclement weather, rendering them unable to crew the flight in question?”

    “Um, no, m’Lord.”

    “I see. So, British Airways couldn’t be troubled to properly staff a scheduled flight, cries ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and proceeds to penalise its passengers for its own inept management. And Ms. Kernohan is entitled to no further compensation you say. I disagree. British Airways will fully compensate this passenger for her hotel room in Rome, plus 500 euros for her inconvenience.”

    Yeah, that’s exactly what they’re afraid will happen. And one day, it will.

  • dan

    delta did the same thing to us on a flight on a “partner” airline (al italia). said al italia cancelled the flight we booked (4 months earlier) and due to us flying on “delta miles” we couldn’t be put on an air france flight due to there being no free air mile seats available. we had to sleep at zagreb airport, (which really wasn’t that bad) in order to get a chek air flight at 6 am and return our rental car before they closed the night before. the chek flight went to prauge before reaching our destination of milan italy. delta insisted it was all italia’s fault and they couldn’t do more for us. air france was advertising that flight in croatia for 50 euro. thanks a lot delta. our first notice from delta was a week before we left.

  • BigBalut

    Last year my wife and I booked KLM flights from Manila to Marseille connecting through Amsterdam. Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we learned our connecting flight to Marseille had been cancelled. The agent informed us that the next flight with available seats would be about 24 hours later and, after some prodding, admitted the cancellation was due to a crew problem. While there were available seats to Marseille and Nice on other airlines (albeit none direct), she explained it was not KLM policy to rebook on other airlines. She then offered a pair of 50€ vouchers good for future travel, a room at a hotel near Schiphol airport, and told us to come back the next day. She also said we could not retrieve our luggage so we would have to live with the clothes we were wearing.

    Returning to the airport the next day to catch our flight, we stopped by the customer service desk to explain that we were unhappy with the meager compensation since the cancellation was clearly KLM’s fault. We lost a day off our trip, the hotel in France charged us for the no-show, my wife missed a meeting which could not be rescheduled, and we had been traveling (and wearing the same clothes) for 36 hours–in short, a major inconvenience due to their crew problem. We added we were not seeking monetary compensation but rather an upgrade to business class for our return flights to Manila. I thought this would be a satisfactory resolution to our problem with minimal cost to the airline.

    To my surprise, the agent said “we don’t do that,” the 50€ vouchers were all we would get, and there was nothing further she could do. She added that if we still had a problem with it, we should contact the KLM office when we returned to Manila. I argued that of course they could “do that”; airlines upgrade passengers all the time on the spot. Moreover, we had already taken the time to address the problem in person twice and it was terrible customer service to pass us off to a KLM office in another country, especially considering we were standing in their home airport. If the customer service desk in Amsterdam couldn’t resolve it, why would Manila be any better? Still, she did not change anything.

    Two weeks later, we wrote a one page letter to KLM’s Manila office to let them know our problem still hadn’t been resolved satisfactorily. Specifically, if they had overbooked our flight, they would have asked for volunteers in exchange for some form of compensation. I would expect the same treatment for denying us boarding for a cancelled flight that was clearly their fault. Second, 50€ vouchers were meaningless compared to the $2,800 we had spent for the tickets, especially since there are so many competing (and frankly much better) Asian airlines with service to Europe. Why fly KLM again knowing they might cancel your flight for 50€ and that they value their customers’ time so poorly? Finally, we were disappointed that they had so many chances along the way to fix the problem but their lack of response and passing the buck escalated the problem to become much bigger than it needed to be.

    I sent my letter to their office on a Wednesday afternoon and much to my surprise, they sent back a letter on Thursday morning. The local customer service manager had verified our claim, apologized for the inconvenience, offered to send vouchers for 600€ credit on any future KLM or Northwest flight, and offered to reimburse us for the cost of the hotel no-show charge in Provence. I replied the same day and was surprised again when I received the vouchers and $300 cash for the hotel no-show the next morning.

    To make my long story a little shorter, while KLM disappointed initially, their final response really exceeded my expectations and we have flown with them several times since then. I think it was helpful to be reasonable with our demands. It also shows how valuable it is for service companies to address customer problems as soon as possible, since they almost always become much bigger and more costly when they pass it off (as it did in this case). It also shows how being generous with compensation for poor service yields much bigger returns in the long-term, if the manager or staff can think in the long-term. (And, by the way, thank you KLM for turning a bad situation into a nice ending.)

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