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british-airways-refund-aer-lingus-business-class-seats

The Aer Lingus seats I didn’t get to fly on

If you follow along with every word that I write (and really, why WOULDN’T you be?!?!? :-D), you may remember that my wife and I went to Europe last September.  We used 50,000 Avios for 2 tickets in Aer Lingus Business Class from Boston to Dublin (after the British Airways devaluation, that route would now cost 37,500 Avios per person in Business Class or 75,000 Avios total).

We were sitting there in our fancy Aer Lingus business class seats (neither of us had ever flown Business Class before) and BAM! after a 3 hour delay on the tarmac, they canceled our flight!!

(SEE ALSO: 5 things I did right when my flight was canceled)

(SEE ALSO: 3 mistakes I made when my flight was canceled)

Trying to exercise my EU261 rights

EU261 is a law written by the European Union that covers delays and cancellations of flights to the European Union OR flown by a carrier based in the EU (in my case, I qualify on both counts).  I submitted a EU261 compensation claim and am still fighting through that

(SEE ALSO: Submitting an EU261 compensation claim for a delayed or cancelled flight)

(SEE ALSO: (Still) Fighting for EU261 / 2004 compensation)

I believe that the cancellation of my Aer Lingus flight should give us €600 for each of our two tickets.

Trying to get my British Airways refund

The day after my Aer Lingus flight was cancelled, I was on the phone with British Airways (and Aer Lingus and British Airways again, etc…).  British Airways wouldn’t rebook me at all, due to lack of partner availability (and they wouldn’t put me on a flight to London either).  The only thing they would offer was a full refund of my 50,000 Avios paid.  I didn’t want to take the British Airways refund, because I was worried (correctly as it turned out) that it would cancel ANY chance I had of being rebooked.

When I got back to the States, I tried to call in and take them up on the offer of a 50,000 Avios British Airways refund, but they would not give me anything.  Then I started asking for just 25,000 Avios (the difference between business class and economy class, but even that doesn’t seem to get anywhere.  The response I’m getting is similar to this one (which was my most recent response when asking for a refund of British Airways Avios.

Thanks for coming back to us.  I apologise for the delay in our response.

I’m sorry we are not liable to provide you with refund this time, as your ticket status is showing flown.

(emphasis mine)

I’ve also had them tell me I need to contact Aer Lingus, which makes no sense, as how is Aer Lingus going to refund me British Airways Avios?

I’ve tried emailing, I’ve tried calling (3 different numbers!).  Yesterday I called again, and got an agent who seemed to understand my issue, and decided she would take ownership of the ticket, make sure Aer Lingus is called to verify the class of service and then get back to me.  I am hopeful at least, but definitely kept a reminder to follow up in a few weeks (if I hadn’t been doing that, I would have given up by now…)

Have you ever had to try and get a British Airways refund?  Has your experience been as bad as mine?

 


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