British Airways has agreed to pay up for its obscene fuel surcharges levied on transatlantic travel. I’m taking cash over Avios.
In a nutshell, this lawsuit contends that British Airways’ fuel surcharges were disproportionate to the price of fuel and therefore BA was overcharging consumers. Rather than litigate on the merits of the case, BA settled.
Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in which they alleged that BA charged fuel surcharges to SettlementClass Members on frequent flyer reward flights that breached the [Executive Club] (EC) Contract. BA deniesthat it did anything wrong, believes that the EC Contract permitted it to impose a fuelsurcharge, and that the fuel surcharges that it imposed on Settlement Class Members wereappropriate under the EC Contract. Accordingly, BA has vigorously defended Plaintiffs’allegations. The Parties, however, have agreed to settle the Litigation to avoid the cost,delay, and uncertainty of continuing the Litigation.
British Airways will pay out either cash or Avios (miles) to members of the class, U.S. consumers who paid British Airways fuel surcharges between November 9, 2006 and April 17, 2013.
Payouts look like this:
- 12,500 Avios if you made one redemption
- 20,000 Avios if you made between two and five redemptions
- 35,000 Avios if you made six or more redemptions
Cash payouts will constitute 16.9% of total fuel surcharges paid.
If you are a member of the class action, you should have received an e-mail entitled Dover v. British Airways Fuel Surcharge Class Action Notice. My e-mail went to spam, so please check there if you are expecting one. It will contain a unique class member identifier which you can use to submit your cash claim.
Avios payments are automatic. If you do nothing, you will receive an Avios deposit from British Airways according to the terms above. However, if you want cash, you must choose cash via the online claims form.
If you have changed email addresses or feel you should be included in this and received no email, you can e-mail info@fuelsurchargeclassaction.com or call 1 (833) 261-2496.
The deadline to submit your claim for a fuel sucharge refund is July 29, 2018.
Why I Took Cash Over Avios
I thought I was smart enough to avoid British Airways fuel surcharges, but it turns out I did book one ticket over the nearly seven year period.
Thus, when I entered my class ID, I was offered 12,500 Avios or $221.88:
I value BA Avios at 1.5 cents each. That means I value the 12,500 Avios at $187.50. Consequently, taking the $221.88 (1.78 cents each) made more sense.
p.s. The Lawyers…
The Class Counsel stands to profit very handsomely from this case. From the settlement website:
In connection with the Final Approval Hearing on the Settlement, Class Counsel will apply to the Court for an award of expenses and attorneys’ fees, with the total amount not to exceed $3,750,000 in expenses and $11,095,000 in fees, which is approximately equal to twenty-nine (29) percent of the $42,000,000 total settlement consideration after deduction of expenses. For more than five years, Class Counsel have worked without compensation on this case. During that time, they spent thousands of hours and more than $3.5 million of their own money advancing the litigation.
That’s not a bad ROI…
CONCLUSION
Will you be choosing cash or Avios for your British Airways settlement?
I’m no lawyer but I find it hard to believe that class counsel actually spent 3.5 million in cash to advance this case.
Now if they spent time which at their claimed hourly rate equaled 3.5 million in “outlay” I’d find that more believable.
I think you are exactly correct.
I can believe they spent 3.5 million if they spent 5 years on the case…and that’s 5 years of a GAMBLE, where there might not be a payoff at all. There’s court fees, expert fees, paying experts, taking depositions and associated court reporters, spending a bunch of money (likely outsourced) to a company to see how big the class is-i.e., how many people redeemed awards, for what, and how much they were overcharged, sending out notices to possible class members telling them about the lawsuit and their chance to opt out and refuse to be part of this lawsuit so they can bring their own lawsuit and/or stand, on principal, against the horrible class action lawyers who might actually end up profiting by holding a huge multinational corporation accountable.
Did these have to be BA flights? I have a few flights on American with arrivals and/or departures from London for which we had to pay the fuel surcharges plus a couple of flights on BA.
I did not receive the email, but if these qualify, I will certainly apply for the form.
Thanks
In looking at my records, my only redemption were on LAN and Cathay Pacific. So I’m guessing it must be the Cathay Pacific flight, although the math does not quite add up.
I was offered 12,500 as well but my cash option was only $66… I take Avios at that price.
Absolutely take the Avios!
Why only until April 17, 2013? The fuel surcharges scam is continuing until today!!
What about a devaluation of Avios? How likely is that one?
I would say not likely at this time.
20000 avios or $196. Close one, but based on your valuations will go with miles.
My option are Avios 12,500 or $33.50 cash. Why is there a difference in the cash settlement while the Avios remains the same. Has anyone seen the deposit, and when are they likely to appear?
Why are the Avios to Cash ratios so all over the map? I’ve got $91.xx or 12,500 Avios.
The $ amount correlates to actual purchases while the Avios amount is on a pee-trip basis.
My wife and I recently received Avios for the Fuel Surcharge Overcharge but we did not receive the proper amount of points. We have over ten years of long haul flights with two major roundtrips flights per year. BA gave me 20,000 Avios and my wife 12,500 Avios. This is way under the amounts we should be receiving. How do we receive the proper amount of Avios?
I called BA Executive Club and they said they knew nothing about the Dover vs BA case and that they could not do anything about it. They referred me to Customer Relations (good luck getting through to them; they are only open for four hours M to F). I finally got through to them and they said the same thing as the Executive Club – “it’s not my job.”
Customer Relations asked who the email was from and I told them the email address was from the Executive Club. They said I needed to call them to resolve this.
So I called the Executive Club again and was given the same answers of ignorance about the case and they couldn’t do anything about it. They then referred me back to …. wait for it ……..Customer Relations.
I explained that this was my third call and that both departments were referring me to the other department. The agent put me on hold and talked to their supervisor. When they came back on I was told that “they could not discuss this due to customer privacy”. Huh?
I was then given the phone number (833-261-2496) which is a recording only and no live person is available. I emailed the address given and am waiting for some kind of response.
When calling BA, it is difficult to get a live person to help you, especially the Customer Relations Department. I called them for over half an hour (auto redial) and every time I would receive a recording stating their hours and talking about high call volume and then the ending statement, “Do not chase a response unless it is urgent.” The line would then ring once, and go dead. Hmm, I wonder what constitutes urgent when they will not answer their phone.
It seems as if they do not want to talk to their customers and are hoping that they will get frustrated and just go away. If they wanted to provide real customer service, they would extend their hours, hire some agents, and give them autonomy so they could resolve such issues.
Does anyone have a REAL phone number where I can talk to a REAL person and get some answers about this issue? Thank you in advance.