DR. DAVID Fotheringhame has successfully taken British Airways to court over its voucher refund policy.The 50-year-old, who lives in South London, was awarded £333, which covers the cost of his cancelled flights and his court costs.
1David Fotheringhame successfully challenged BA in court over its voucher policy
The IT worker challenged BA in Croydon County Court, saying he should have been offered a cash refund, instead of being forced to accept vouchers online.
When he won his case, he was given £283 – the cost of his return flights to Barcelona for a cycling trip, and £50 for court fees.
As a result of his experiences, he’s set up a free website RefundsNotVouchers.org, to help other people forced to accept vouchers in lieu of cancelled flights get their cash back instead.
He told the Sun: “The law is clear, you’re entitled to get a cash refund. Just because the airlines made that very difficult doesn’t mean you can’t get your money now.”
Even though British Airways was offering customers money back at the time, David says that option wasn’t available to him online and he couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone.
That meant he was effectively forced into getting a voucher, which he did not want. As soon as it came through, he submitted a complaint to BA saying he wanted a cash refund instead.
Unfortunately, his complaint went nowhere, meaning David had to go to court instead.
He says: “My flight was cancelled due to COVID back in 2020, I naturally wanted a cash refund but BA had deliberately made it extremely hard.
“After failing to get anywhere with their complaints department I used the very simple and cheap Small Claims process.
“[I] represented myself in a video court hearing and won the full value of my ticket and the small costs I had incurred in making the claim.
“I’m not a lawyer and have no legal training, anyone can do what I did at very limited expense and with a good chance of success
The consumer champions at Money Saving Expert say that the court case isn’t binding for other disgruntled airline customers, but that “it could be …
Read more…….
