TRIP REPORT: More Pleasure, More Business – Compensation Fun, Games and Paperwork

Compensation Fun, Games and Paperwork
More Pleasure, More Business

In this divided trip report

Part One: The Pleasure

• Part 1
• Two o’clock in the morning. I love this time of day. Honestly.
• The Cathay Pacific, American Airlines Lounges… and a five-hour delay
• AA87 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare International (Premium Economy)
• Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• A photographer’s paradise? The Central Camera Company
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Airplane Art Extra: From the Balcony of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Back to the Bunny, British Airways Lounge
• BA294 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow (World Traveller Plus)
• Wait. My Bag is Re-Flighted???

Part Two Onto Business

• Part Two – The Business
  
• British Airways Galleries South Lounge
• BA962 London Heathrow to Hamburg – Club Europe
• IBIS Budget St Pauli
• Crystal Cabin Awards Roundup
• Aircraft Interiors Expo – What you might have missed
• Back to Hamburg Airport, Hamburg Airport Lounge
• BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow – Club Europe
• Not going home in a hurry
• Compensation Fun, Games and Paperwork
• Life is in many parts

With a bunch of delays and big two incidents in the bag for this trip (which is a new record), I waited a week or so to start filing for compensation

Now, this sounds stupid – but I don’t like claiming for compensation. Mainly due to the writing and the paperwork, but for the sheer internal guilt, doing this can cause. Some might have fewer qualms. Me?

I have issues. But if you’ve stuck around on this blog long enough, you’ll know that for certain.

The two things I was claiming for:

• American Airlines – EC261/2004 – With a 5 hour plus delay, this would – in theory – put me over the line for the full long distance/long wait at €600
• British Airways – Clothing –  Whilst I was on two separate tickets between Chicago-London-Hamburg, ultimately, I had no luggage on arrival at London Heathrow, and I had a visit to Thomas Pink for clothing – when there were slightly cheaper options if I had known sooner.

So onto the emails.

• With American Airlines, it was a fact-based email, sent to their specific EC261 claim team, ensuring the PNR, fight details and name was in the email
• In the case of BA, it was through the com/baggage, with the receipts and incident documented.  And for those who think I’m being greedy asking for the full £270, I actually asked for a contribution towards the clothing. In theory, I could have jumped out at Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg and wandered shopping, but that would have delayed me even further for the conference – hence why I was willing to accept a contribution from the airline as opposed to demanding the full thing.

And with that. I sat and waited.

Both replied within 7 days to my surprise.

• British Airways accepted fault of baggage delay and that better communications could have worked better for all. More impressively – they agreed to pay for the two items in full via BACS.

The payment was fulfilled within a week too.

• American Airlines sent a form email agreeing that AA87 was delayed for over four hours. They offered a choice of €600 in cash (as per EC261) or $800 in travel credit, valid for a year.

I ran the numbers through on the credit vs cash element

• Travel Credit – $800 = €717.96 = £620
• Cash Value – €600 = $668.55 = £518
• (Numbers based on XE.com data at the time offer accepted)

Whilst the extra travel credit would be useful – and no doubt eventually used, I felt like I could get more value from the cash element (remembering the rule that cash in the pocket today is worth more an airline is worth in the next week). I – therefore – took the cash.

It took me a week to respond (mainly to fill out the paperwork that was needed to go along with it). AA offered to pay the amount within 45 days.

The compensation hit on the day this was published (17th May 2019) – and coming in at £513.14.

Slightly lower than the predicted XE.com value, but it would do.

As I said, I’m not a fan of writing these sorts of letters. I was happy both were dealt with sympathetically, and both companies held their hands up with the mistakes made. And – that’s what I really wanted from the situations… sometimes the hardest thing is to apologise – even if you’re a big company or a one-man band.

Finally – Life is in many parts.

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