A Nottingham man has slammed British Airways after he says his cancelled flight to Dubai left him £12,000 out of pocket. David Spencer has blasted the airline's "pitiful" 10 per cent refund of £1,200.
Mr Spencer was due to fly out of Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 on December 30, 2021, with his friend, Lotte Reynard, as they had a party booked in the Middle Eastern city on New Year's Eve. After enjoying some free glasses of wine on their business class tickets - which cost around £5,000 each - they were told to leave the plane and head to the departure lounge after being held up on the plane for three hours.
A further three hours later, the flight was cancelled indefinitely. British Airways offered the pair an alternative flight, which would not have got them to Dubai in time for their scheduled New Year's Eve celebrations a day later, which meant that they were forced to scramble from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 to catch a last-minute Emirates Air flight at their own expense, as reported by MyLondon.
David said: "The whole point of the holiday was to go for the New Year celebrations. At best after the cancelled flight with British Airways, their rescheduled one would have got us there the day after."
After an enjoyable five-day getaway, David and Lotte returned home to Heathrow, in what was a less eventful leg of the journey with only a few hours delay. After months of continuously attempting to contact British Airways, however, David has still not been compensated for the majority of his trip.
The £12,000 sum which he says he was originally owed includes the price of two business class flights from London Heathrow to Dubai, a one night stay at the Wardlow Hotel and a £100 airport transfer. Of that huge sum, he has only received £1,200 compensation, which is the industry standard for cancelled flights of that nature.
David, who recently returned from a trip to Thailand, was hoping to use some of the money that is owed to him from British Airways in order to fund that. However, his holiday has been and gone, and there are still no signs of getting a full refund any time soon. He insists that he would not be content with a voucher, and has vowed never to fly with the airline again.
He added: "After hours on hold and countless phone calls over a period of months, the customer relations department got back to me and paid out £1,200 compensation with is the standard aviation compensation for cancelled flights. But British Airways holidays still have not contacted me to pay back my cancelled flight, hotel and transfer costs. Despite continuously trying I still can't get hold of them.
"I recently flew with Emirates Air to Thailand and I had absolutely no problems. Even when I had a slight issue with my return flight, I was able to phone someone and they actually picked up. I've even had cancelled flights with Ryanair in recent years - but even with them, I was able to get a refund no problem.
"Their telephone systems are rigged so you can never get hold of anyone and eventually it hangs up. I have tried for hours and hours. I have sent numerous e-mails to their complaints department, you eventually get a response and a case number but nothing happens, it’s a scam. As I see it British Airways have purposely set their systems up so they hold onto customers' money - and then you can’t get hold of them to sort it out.
"As time goes on, I try less and less to sort it out because I'm in their hands. No one picks up and I just feel hopeless. I am truly at a loss. The whole system is rigged, there is nothing I can do." British Airways has been contacted for a response.
