BA faces strike threat and claim it dodged its duty on IT meltdown
BRITISH Airways was plunged into fresh chaos last night as its cabin crew announced four days of strikes just a week after a computer system meltdown left 75,000 travellers stranded around the globe.
Flight crew members are due to walk out from June 16 in a dispute over pay and travel concessions after unions and BA management failed to agree a deal.
The new crisis comes amid accusations that last weekend’s IT failure was linked to cost-cutting and redundancies and the embattled airline has also been accused of avoiding its responsibilities by directing compensation claimants to their travel insurers.
The suggestion, made on BA’S website, was criticised by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) who said BA must lead the line in picking up the bill.
BA had promised to compensate all passengers affected in line with European Union regulations. But it seemed to be trying to dodge its duty by asking those claiming for food and accommodation after cancelled flights if they had approached their travel insurers first.
An ABI spokesman said those affected should be able “to claim expenses as simply as possible, not be passed from pillar to post” and should seek compensation, and any refunds of expenses, in the first instance from British Airways.
“Any cover available under travel insurance will usually kick in only if compensation is not available from any other source,” the spokesman said.
Until yesterday afternoon the BA website asked passengers whether they had travel insurance and if they intended to claim on it. Anyone who clicked “yes” was told to wait for that claim’s result and only then contact BA for leftover costs. These expenses were in addition to air fare refunds and the standard EU compensation available.
Today, consumer watchdog Which? published an open letter, included in a large advert in The Daily Telegraph, to BA chief executive Alex Cruz calling on the airline to hand over hundreds of pounds of statutory compensation due to each customer, saving them the stress of wading through a claim process.
“It is clear that it is BA’S fault, they know who all the passengers are on all the affected flights and they clearly have the means to pay them back.”
Alex Neill, from Which?, said: “If a business was ever going to step up and do more than the minimum required, this is one of the cases.”
EU law calls for basic compensation up to €600 (£525), allowing passengers to then focus on additional expenses incurred because of the disruption.
A spokesman for BA said it had updated its website to make it easier for passengers to claim. “We are meeting our obligations under EU compensation regulations,” he said.