Way back in September, I used 50,000 British Airways Avios to fly my wife and I in business class from Boston to Dublin.
This is a 2,993 mile flight, and so it’s a sweet spot on the distance-based British Airways Avios award chart (though business class would now cost 37,500 Avios one-way due to the recent British Airways devaluation)
Flight…. canceled
After spending some time in the Air France lounge and Aer Lingus lounges at the Boston airport, we made our way to the gate and on to the plane. We spent a few hours on the tarmac, which we didn’t really mind that much since we were pretty much geeking out on our first-ever business class flight
But then, around midnight, the captain got back on the intercom and told us that the flight was going to be canceled. Over the next 24 hours in the aftermath of our flight being canceled, there were some things I did wrong and some things I did right, but in the end, we ended up being rebooked on a flight to Dublin the next day, but instead of the business class tickets that we paid for (with miles), we were only booked in economy. At the time this was fine with us as the most important thing for us was actually getting TO Europe, but afterwards, it was time to discuss compensation
Fighting with British Airways
The first stop was discussing with British Airways. To me this seems pretty straightforward – I paid 50,000 for 2 business class seats and only received 2 economy tickets (“worth” 25,000 Avios). So it seems pretty obvious that I am due a refund of 25,000 Avios.
I wrote in October about the saga of trying to get British Airways to refund my Avios, but even then the saga continued. In January, I followed up again with – I’m STILL trying to get my 25,000 Avios back. I actually called them again today and was told that British Airways had called in to the refund department on the 15th and they are waiting to hear back.
I understand that they have to call into Aer Lingus to confirm that we were booked into economy class on our rebooking (even though technically they’re both owned by the same company) and that can take some time, but it’s now been over 4 months, so it’s getting a little ridiculous…
Submitting an EU261 claim with Aer Lingus
I addition to compensation for the downgrade, the second part of the issue was compensation for the 1 day delay. Since this was a flight going to the European Union (not to mention on a Europe-based flag carrier), I filed an EU261 compensation claim. According to my understanding, we should each be entitled to 600 Euros in compensation. We initially filed the claim directly with Aer Lingus, but after months of no response, I found out that there is a body called the Commission for Aviation Regulation, so in November we submitted another claim
(READ ALSO: (Still) Fighting for EU261 / 2004 compensation)
Then this week, I heard back from the Commission
The letter also included some basic information about the EU261 regulation, which I’ve omitted. So… the good news is that at least it appears that wheels are in motion, and the bad news is that it still is likely to take (at least!) another 6 weeks.
I know that there are companies out there that will prosecute EU261/2009 compensation claims for you, usually in exchange for somewhere around a 25% cut of your winnings. I have that as a backup plan, but I am still hopeful that I can get the full compensation myself.
Anyone else have experience with EU261 compensation claims, especially with Aer Lingus? Did your story have a happy ending?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Back in July we flew DUS-NAP on AB and the flight was delayed 4 hours. I signed up with Air Help and barely got my refund approved today. So it does take a while. Id rather go through Air Help than do it myself. too much trouble.
Btw, I have another one with air help also for July for DUS-LAX which was delayed. Its still pending. Im hoping ill get that one in the next couple of weeks.
BA and EI are often a waste of time. It wasn’t until I used Euclaim that they ended up paying.
I have had the same issue with BA and TP. BA has admitted responsibility, claimed they sent a check and every time I ask for the proof, the answer is “We will have the appropriate department look into it”. TP is simply ignoring the issue. This is going back to 2014. Maybe it is time for EUclaim
I’ve been fighting an EI claim for well over a year. They cancelled my father-in-law’s flight from Dub to NYC due to aircraft maintenance. I submitted my claim, they replied that it didn’t qualify. I replied via email and post and never heard anything back. I finally went to AirHelp to see if they can get some compensation, and that’s been dragging on for many months. I just got notified from AirHelp that they are now going to court so if I do receive compensation, it’s going to be drastically reduced due to AirHelp fees. It’s really frustrating that the airlines don’t pay the fees/fines when they clearly are in violation of EU regulations.
Good luck on your claim!
I’m not familiar with EU courts, but over here, when winning at court the plaintiff is entitled for compensation for his legal fees. I wonder if AirHelp would forfeit in addition to the legal fees, otherwise going to court might actually be a good thing.
I made a claim on my own for an Air Canada flight CDG-YUL that was delayed resulting in a miss-connect to LAX and a night at an airport Sheraton. It took a while, but then we got the checks in the mail. The Euro was worth more when this happened and the checks were for more than the cost of our roundtrip tickets.