Holidaymakers win £ 10k compensation from BA
AGROUP of holidaymakers who had to sleep on the floor of Heathrow after their flights home were cancelled have won a £ 10,000 compensation pay- out from British Airways.
Raymond O’Donoghue, 61, was one of the passengers in a holiday party of 22 family and friends who jetted off on a dream £ 30,000 trip to Florida in the summer, only for it to be ruined by a nightmare journey.
The group was getting nowhere with its complaints until Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan and our sister title The Greenock Telegraph got involved in the case.
Raymond, from Greenock and a porter at Inverclyde Royal, said young children in the group were left to sleep on the floor as staff shut up shop, and there was no phone number or address to make an official complaint.
He said: “This was never about the compensation but the absolute inaccessibility of the complaints system. All I got was an automated computer- generated response then it was radio silence.”
When Raymond contacted Mr Cowan, the MP was also snubbed.
He said: “Ronnie was coming up against a brick wall, if they don’t reply to an MP what hope do the general public have?
“There is no doubt we wouldn’t have got this far without the Telegraph and Ronnie Cowan.
“Even with the Tele’s help, it took four months to sort out.”
His friend Frank O’Neill, a wheelchair user, had booked the trip for his family and friends in June but the journey was beset with problems from the start.
Frank and his wife Ann, 78, who has had a heart valve replacement and mobility issues, were left on a plane for an hour- and- a- half at Gatwick before being escorted off and abandoned in a corridor.
Worse was to come on the return journey when the group missed their connecting flight home from
Heathrow to Glasgow and cancellations caused more delays in getting home.
Raymond and wife Jean, who was also part of the group, said: “We missed our connection back, and were offered a flight at 10pm at night only to be told that was cancelled and the next one wouldn’t be until 10pm the next night. We asked to be put up in a hotel and were told to pay for it and claim it back.
“We had to travel two hours on public transport to a hotel in Bracknell.”
The group suffered more misery the next evening – travelling the two hours back to Heathrow only to be told that they couldn’t get a flight after all. They were forced to sleep on the airport floor before forking out to get a train back to Glasgow the next day.
Raymond said: “It was a catalogue of errors and to spend the whole night stuck in Heathrow too was a nightmare. After a ninehour flight back from Florida that was grim.” Frank and Ann managed to get standby flights back after their family complained. Frank, 80, said: “We weren’t getting anywhere until the Telegraph got involved and then all of a sudden things started moving and we managed to speak to the people who could make a difference. Everyone got their expenses for hotels and train fares really quickly and last week 18 people received 600 euros each which works out at £ 527 compensation.” Frank also received an £ 800 BA voucher and an apology from Gatwick Airport. He said: “It wasn’t a bad end result. We’ve always liked BA and have always been happy to travel with them before, this was not like them.
“We want to thank Ronnie Cowan and the Telegraph for their help.”