The regulator’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection served a legal document on Thursday (1 June) claiming it had received more than 1,200 customer complaints about BA’s conduct from March to November 2020.
The report said customers had been unable to get through to BA’s customer service agents when calling the carrier for several months as the airline had “failed to maintain adequate functionality of its customer service phone lines”.
“There was also no way to submit a refund request through the carrier’s website during this period,” the document added. “Also, from March to November 2020, British Airways had misleading information on its website which led consumers to inadvertently request travel vouchers instead of refunds.”
According to the report, BA’s call centres did not return to full capacity until August 2020 and the DoP also slammed the carrier’s use of social media in responding to refund requests which it believes “many consumers likely were not aware of the availability of obtaining refunds in this manner”.
“British Airways’ failure to maintain adequate functionality of its customer service phone lines led to extreme delays in consumers obtaining refunds that they were entitled to receive for flights the carrier cancelled and significantly changed. We view British Airways’ practice to be unfair because consumers were subjected to extreme delays in obtaining refunds and some may have been effectively denied refunds."
The DoP said BA was being credited $550,000 (£438,793) toward the fine because it paid more than $40m in refunds to customers with non-refundable tickets in 2020 and 2021.
It said the fine is "a strong deterrent to future similar unlawful practices" by BA and other airlines.
In response, a BA spokesperson told TTG: “We’re very sorry that at the height of the unprecedented pandemic – when we were unfortunately forced to cancel thousands of flights and close some call centres due to government restrictions – our customers experienced slightly longer wait times to reach customer service teams.
“During this period, we acted lawfully at all times and offered customers the flexibility of rebooking travel on different dates, or claiming a refund if their flights were cancelled. To date, we have issued more than five million refunds since the start of the pandemic.”
