British Airways adds more rebooking help for strike-affected flights

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• Martin Haworth says:

  1 Sep1 September 06:23

  Just checked the prices of the original LHR/DXB/LHR 07/11 September flights and they are over 60% more expensive than when I originally booked them, so the prices are still super-inflated.

• Joan says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:08

  After BA cancelled our return flight from Spain and we just booked our own return with easyJet , we have been trying to get through to BA all week with no success. Yesterday we checked our accounts and saw they’d booked us on a BA return flight two days later than our original booking which was of no use at all . We didn’t get an email telling us they had done that!
  Finally got through to them and cancelled that return flight and we have now submitted a claim for the cost of the easyJet flights. We have argued that this is cheaper than 2 extra nights in a hotel … so we will see what happens

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:38

    You might have to fight – when you cancelled your flight, you also ended your contract with BA. It will be interesting to see if they accept your argument, ie are playing it nicely this time, something historically they simply don’t do.

    Don’t forget you might have Section 75 cover if you paid for the BA flights on a credit card. Ie the credit card co is liable for ensuring your original contract with BA gets fulfilled.

  • Chelseafi says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:01

    I’ve done similar thing, return flight from Milan on Mon 8th, ended booking EasyJet as only available to Gatwick, I’m returning on Tuesday 9th due to flight costs and extra night in same hotel. Spoke to BA but wasn’t really given much info as they said I’d need to be put through to CR and that was over hour wait. She kept insisting on giving me a refund on my BA return but I’d seen Harry’s comments thanks about ending contract, so I said no. She just advised to keep all receipts for extra day and flight and submit claim on return. I did pay with BAAP and I also have Amex Platinum so not sure if I’m covered at all? The 3 day trip cost doubled with BA strike and adding extra flight, 1n hotel and parking. I can’t believe now what EasyJet are charging for these flights, they must be rubbing their hands.

    • Shoestring says:

      1 Sep1 September 12:24

      BAPP is a credit card so provided you paid total more than £100/ or tickets were collectively valued more than £100, you are covered by Section 75, ie the credit card co will pay for your consequential losses incl hotel, parking, difference in cost of flights

      • Optimus Prime says:

        1 Sep1 September 13:45

        Are you covered by S75 when the total amounts to £100 or each item has to cost £100?

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Sep1 September 17:44

          2 x £51 = £102 is covered by S75

• Lewis says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:38

  Has BA not always had ana arrangement with BA? I was booked Edinburgh to Singapore a few years ago. My Edinburgh to Heathrow flight was delayed. I missed my connection and was rebooked on Singapore airlines no questions asked.

  • Peter K says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:41

    This made me smile. I read it as:
    “Has British Airways not always had All Nippon Airways arrangement with British Airways?”
    It then went on to mention Singapore so I had to recalibrate my brain!

  • Lady London says:

    1 Sep1 September 13:08

    On the day is different. Your flight has passed to the control of the airport and different arrangements apply.

• Joan says:

  1 Sep1 September 08:38

  Thanks Shoestring – unfortunately we paid with a debit card . Anyway it was a business class avios redemption so the money paid out was minimal. But I’m ready for a fight as I think they’re getting off lightly with the €300 I’ve claimed for our EasyJet flights . If I’d left it until yesterday to book they’d have cost nearly €500 for the same flights .. 🥊😁

  • Matt says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:26

    Paying for flights with a debit card is a novel idea on this site 😝

    • Bagoly says:

      1 Sep1 September 09:51

      My first thought too.
      But not if it’s Curve or the M&M mastercard!

      • Nick_C says:

        1 Sep1 September 10:23

        Would be odd to use Curve when you can just use the underlying card. I wouldn’t use Curve or any other debit card where S75 might become an issue.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          1 Sep1 September 10:58

          If you only learn one thing from this .. even if you don’t earn a single point, holiday/flight bookings should ALWAYS go on credit cards. You never know when even the most stable company will uncover an accounting black hole and boom … that CC protection is VALUABLE! My biggest ever saving/return was when Maxjet (remember them!) went under.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          1 Sep1 September 11:29

          Absolutely curve is for consumables only or stuff where you are well covered by law anyway.

          Any company likely to have financial issues (furniture comes to mind) or hotels/flights where the industry really isn’t as customer focused as you’d think they should be.

        • Genghis says:

          1 Sep1 September 12:18

          I learned the hard way paying for a Malev flight by debit card to save a few quid in the good old bad old days.

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Sep1 September 12:28

          I must say I sympathise with Joan as I never normally pay with a credit card, normally I use my Amex Gold charge card where they don’t give S75 cover. This BA strike brought home the point.

          As mentioned by TGL: lesson learned: not worth making a couple of points etc if you lose the S75 cover on flights.

        • Nick_C says:

          1 Sep1 September 13:01

          I was due to go to Budapest for a weekend. Malev went bust 3 weeks before I was due to fly. I had paid for the flights with Halifax and the hotel with Hilton visa (Barclays). Lloyd’s BG (Halifax) refunded the hotel as well as the flights. I was unaware of consequential loss protection until then. I had tried an insurance claim, and had a “premium” policy which covered scheduled airline failure, but the insurance refused to cover the hotel. I didn’t get to claim for the flight as I knew I would get that from Lloyd’s/Halifax.

          So many airlines have folded over the years. No one is too big to fail.

        • question says:

          1 Sep1 September 19:05

          >normally I use my Amex Gold charge card where they don’t give S75 cover

          What’s the deal with Amex Platinum personal charge, where you have to buy the flights with that card to be eligible for most of the insurance (assuming you don’t have an Amex-issued credit card like the BA)? Is there a way to be covered by the insurance but also not screwed for strike/bust airline?

    • Joan says:

      1 Sep1 September 11:14

      Yes I know … in my defence it wasn’t me it was my partner . I always use my Amex 🤷‍♀️

      • Shoestring says:

        1 Sep1 September 12:40

        has to be an Amex *credit* card (not charge card)

        So the BA Amex cards are good for S75 cover & new Gold credit Amex, but not Green, old Gold (charge), Plat

        • Nick_C says:

          1 Sep1 September 13:03

          Amex offer equivalent protection for charge cards apparently, but I prefer to use a credit card and have statutory rights rather than contractual ones.

    • Andrew says:

      1 Sep1 September 16:28

      Not when there are offers on…

      10% on my BoS & Halifax offers with Ethihad at the moment. Airline offers aren’t uncommon.

• Zed says:

  1 Sep1 September 10:44

  Both my flights from lhr-jfk return on 7 sept – 9 sept were swapped out from BA to AA and are within an hour of the original flights, so I’m happy with that.

  • Nick_C says:

    1 Sep1 September 13:04

    If you are flying business class, AA is far better.

    • Zed says:

      1 Sep1 September 14:50

      Haven’t tried before so looking forward to it. Also, as I’m now in T3, I’ll be sure to check-out the OneWorld lounges. BA said that whilst my 7 Sept AA flight is pretty empty in Biz, they’ve moved most people over from their BA flights for the 9 Sept and are expecting a full flight. Just hoping to escape any further knock-on effects from the strike…

      • Nick_C says:

        1 Sep1 September 19:34

        If you dont have status, you can of course select seats at time of booking with AA. And the exclusive J class check in area at T3 is rather nice. If you are in the 77W, no point getting the middle pair. You can’t easily see each other anyway, so grab a couple of window seats if you are traveling as a couple.

• Matthew says:

  1 Sep1 September 11:10

  OT: I have a Plat card and a free supp Plat card both with priority passes. If I add another Plat supp card to my account and pay the £285 fee, will it come with a priority pass too? And can I get a pro rata refund of that supp card when I cancel it? Many thanks 👍

  • Rob says:

    1 Sep1 September 11:20

    Yes

    • Matthew says:

      1 Sep1 September 23:13

      Thanks Rob

• Shoestring says:

  1 Sep1 September 12:50

  My wife, jammy as ever, just got allocated Exit seat from her HBO booking

  I reckon I’ll have that

  Probably always worth it for even mere Blueys to stick in frequent flyer number, other 4 of us/ them on Avios redemptions got allocated the 5s, which I have changed to the 6s as they don’t like the curtain and you always stand a risk of getting re-allocated to the toilet rows if you check in T-24 to the immediate row behind Business & somebody upgrades in the next 24 hrs

  • Lady London says:

    1 Sep1 September 13:15

    Been there done that got a faceful of curtain (accompanied by waft of hot Business Class meal breathed though the dusty fabric flapping all over my face) and also got sent to Row 26.

    Are you sure you’ve moved far back enough to be safe Shoestring?

    • Shoestring says:

      1 Sep1 September 18:12

      yep my clever son (the one who is a ton cleverer than I am, as we now know) said the curtain was a real negative

      I never really thought about it before this point

      • Lady London says:

        1 Sep1 September 19:03

        Sounds like you’re bringing him up well Shoestring.

        You were never going to get the emergency exit row if youngest child is under minimum age.

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Sep1 September 19:08

          enough with your joshing

          12YOs can sit in the Exit Row

          the only time I had a problem was when I had my 13 or 14YO autistic son son sit in the Exit row with me and he couldn’t really answer the questions

          somebody wanted him to switch seats but in the end the stewardess was cool about it

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Sep1 September 19:59

          plane going down

          not sure you need more than a couple of people to do the shutes, certainly not 12 able bodied people

• jamie says:

  1 Sep1 September 14:36

  OT, “combine my avios” on BA is unavailable at the moment and has been since I first started looking a few days ago – any other ways I can transfer some avios from Iberia to BA? Avios.com just redirects me now to sign in with BA or Iberia… Thanks for any help 🙂

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