Has your flight ever been cancelled with a long wait for the rebooked flight? What did the airline pay for?

[trainedopossum]

DH and I were flying home from the New York area and our flight was cancelled because the plane engine was damaged in the course of preparing to takeoff. Airline rep said we’d be rebooked onto the next flight (which we were, 20hrs later) to make our own plans and claim online.

It was 11pm and I’d been up since 5am, couldn’t face a further 3hrs round trip in an Uber to return to relative’s house, so we got a room in a nearby hotel which was not the least or most expensive, just the nearest.

I’ve read a lot online about what should happen and have no complaints, just wondering what they’re likely to actually reimburse us.

This happened us in Costa Rica with BA. They paid out for a 4 star hotel and quite an expensive dinner. Also you should be eligible for significant compensation- think its £500 per person - on top of expenses as your flight was cancelled with mechanical failure so not an act of god like weather or war.

Duty of care is what you will be claiming under for the hotel (£200 limit), meals (c.£25 per person for evening meals etc, no alcohol) and associated transport costs to and from hotel.

Then when you are back from your holiday, claim under UK 261 for delayed arrival. This is a separate claim, so make sure you do two separate claims, one for expenses and one for the delay.

You are also entitled to re- routing, but it sounds like the airline is on the ball on that one.

We got caught up in the air traffic control meltdown a few years ago and we claimed for hotel, breakfast, lunch and a taxi to the hotel. All paid in full. We were with BA and submitted the claim on a Monday, paid by the Thursday. Keep all receipts! Take pictures.

@functionoverformBA paid well over £200 for our hotel room - think it was £280 - and our evening meal - £90.00 in total for the two of us. So if you get your claim in with all associated receipts quickly then it may well be paid out in full even if over the suggested limits. We didn’t book The Ritz or anything, that’s just how much a decent 4 star hotel close to the airport cost at the last minute.

Great, thanks all. I claimed on Wednesday when we got home but no word yet.

We weren’t sure how best to claim as the hotel room and meals were on one receipt, which had been paid on DH’s credit card but our flights were on separate bookings. There was a place for notes and I gave his details too. We’ll see what happens.

I thought the hotel room was actually very good value but our (modest, very normal) meals were expensive.

Just to update, BA are covering the full amount of our hotel and meals plus compensation for our cancelled flight.
We had one extra step because we were on separate bookings (we hadn’t flown out together) but I was able to submit both claims at once which was convenient and straightforward.