In all my years of flying, I had never needed to make a compensation claim for delayed flights or missing baggage. This all changed in July when I finally had a substantial disruption to a trip to Australia I booked with British Airways.

Once the trip was over, I put in a claim with the airline for my out of pocket expenses. Around the same time, another claim went in to my travel insurance for my delayed baggage.

Waiting For Compensation

When my delayed baggage finally arrived home after a 19 day holiday without me, I sent all the relevant details to my travel insurance provider. They had been contacted six days after it went AWOL, so I had a case number and all I had to do was send everything else in.

It is now almost seven weeks since that was sent in. All I have received was acknowledgement that the e-mail was received and that due to a high volume of queries, someone will respond as soon as possible. Tick tock, I’m still waiting!


British Airways are also on the hook for a pretty hefty sum of money (to me, anyway!). Two nights in hotels, transfers between airports and food and drink, not to mention EU compensation are all wrapped up in one claim.

That particular one went in on 12 July, so it is now two months of waiting. E-mails regularly came out in the first four weeks, apologising for the delay, but nothing since 16 August. Lucky I am patient!

Overall Thoughts

I am quite understanding in this instance. The widely publicised issues at the start of July that I was caught up in means that there are likely a stack of claims outstanding. That is all well and good.

Even so, great customer service would be giving a date as to when someone would expect an answer. If they said, “We will get back to you before 1 October 2022”, then I would not have to keep it in mind until that date. With no date, I have to keep it front of mind to make sure I remember to follow up if it goes on much longer, which is slightly irritating.

Some people would also be greatly put out by the financial outlay and require their money back. Quite frankly, the younger me would have been clamoring for the money back, as I was not as disciplined with finances as I am now. Even so, it’s still a large chunk of change, so the sooner it’s resolved, the better.

How long do you think is reasonable to wait for compensation before following up? What are your experiences when it comes to timelines? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by ActionVance on Unsplash.
Terminal 5 at Heathrow by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash.