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David Spencer, from Nottingham, had his flight to Dubai cancelled, and has blasted the airline after he received a “pitiful” 10 percent refund. He was due to fly out of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 on December 30 with his friend, Lotte Reynard, as they had a party booked in the Middle Eastern city on New Year’s Eve.

After enjoying free glasses of wine on their business class tickets, which cost around £5,000 each, they waited patiently on the runway for three hours.

The pair were then told to disembark and head back to the departure lounge.
A further three hours later, the flight was cancelled indefinitely.

British Airways offered the pair an alternative flight, which would not have got them to Dubai in time for their scheduled New Years Eve celebrations a day later, and meant they were forced to scramble from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 to catch a last-minute Emirates Air flight at their own expense.

Speaking to MyLondon, Mr Spencer said: “The whole point of the holiday was to go for the New Year celebrations.

“At best after the cancelled flight with British Airways, their rescheduled one would have got us there the day after.”

After a five-day getaway, Mr Spencer and Ms Reynard returned home to Heathrow with only a few hours delay.

After months of continuously attempting to contact British Airways, however, Mr Spencer has still not been compensated for the majority of his trip.

According to Mr Spencer, the £12,000 sum he claims was originally owed includes the price of two business class flights from London Heathrow to Dubai, a one night stay at the Wardlow Hotel and a £100 airport transfer.

Of that huge sum, he has only received £1,200 compensation, which is the industry standard for cancelled flights of that nature.

Mr Spencer, who recently returned from a trip to Thailand, wanted to use money he says is owed to him from British Airways in order to fund the trip.

He insists that he would not be content with a voucher, and has vowed never to fly with the airline again.

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Mr Spencer told the outlet: “After hours on hold and countless phone calls over a period of months, the customer relations department got back to me and paid out £1,200 compensation with is the standard aviation compensation for cancelled flights.

“But British Airways holidays still have not contacted me to pay back my cancelled flight, hotel and transfer costs. Despite continuously trying I still can’t get hold of them.

“I recently flew with Emirates Air to Thailand and I had absolutely no problems.

“Even when I had a slight issue with my return flight, I was able to phone someone and they actually picked up.

“I’ve even had cancelled flights with Ryanair in recent years – but even with them, I was able to get a refund no problem.

“Their telephone systems are rigged so you can never get hold of anyone and eventually it hangs up.

“I have tried for hours and hours. I have sent numerous emails to their complaints department, you eventually get a response and a case number but nothing happens, it’s a scam.

“As I see it British Airways have purposely set their systems up so they hold onto customers’ money – and then you can’t get hold of them to sort it out.

“As time goes on, I try less and less to sort it out because I’m in their hands.

“No one picks up and I just feel hopeless. I am truly at a loss. The whole system is rigged, there is nothing I can do.”

Express.co.uk has contacted British Airways for comment.

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