British Airways has been urged to provide automatic compensation to more than 75,000 passengers embroiled in a catastrophic IT failure amid warnings travellers are being passed from “pillar to post” to get a refund.
The airline was told to hand all passengers affected by last weekend’s system error the basic compensation package of up to £525, which is set out in European Union law, without forcing them to apply for the money.
In a letter to BA, the consumer group Which? said the move would “minimise additional stress and inconvenience” while preventing customers from being “pushed into the arms of claims management companies” who will pocket a large share of any compensation.
The intervention was made as BA faced further criticism yesterday after telling passengers to claim through their own travel insurance before attempting to seek cash from the airline.
A page on the airline’s website — set up to help passengers hit by the travel meltdown — recommended that passengers should “make a claim with your travel insurer in the first instance”.
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The move angered the Association of British Insurers which insisted it was BA’s responsibility, adding: “People affected by the disruption should be able to claim compensation and refunds for any expenses as simply as possible, not being passed from pillar to post.”
BA confirmed yesterday that it had removed the instruction from its website and also added more simple links to allow passengers to make claims.
In further misery for the airline, it was also announced yesterday that cabin crew based at Heathrow would stage a fresh four-day strike from June 16 in protest over pay. Members of the Unite union have already taken 26 days of strike action so far this year, although BA insists the impact has been minimal. At least 700 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick last weekend when a loss of power to BA’s two main data centres led to the loss of all details about flights, baggage and passengers. It is believed human error was to blame, with no indication that the power supply or IT equipment was faulty.
Under EU rules, passengers can claim €250 (£219) for short-haul flights delayed by three hours or cancelled. This rises to €400 (£350) for medium-haul flights and €600 (£525) for long-haul. The airline has also promised to compensate customers for “welfare claims” such as cash spent on hotels, meals and phone calls, on top of the minimum set out by the EU.
However, Which? insisted that BA should go further by automatically providing the EU compensation while continuing to process more complicated welfare claims. This would bring the airline equal to energy and water companies as well as some train operators.
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In response, BA said: “We will fully honour our EU compensation obligations and have set up a link on the home page of our website to enable customers to submit their claims as quickly and conveniently as possible.
“We have no desire to be obstructive in any way and have put additional resources into our call centres to process claims as speedily as possible.”