Big news: BA is being more flexible on rebooking your cancelled flights

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Mark says:

  19 Jul19 July 10:05

  Gutted, Had flights in F to vegas booked on the 50% off deal, was then downgraded to CW which would have meant a nice avios refund upon return and flight was then subsequently cancelled and I was refunded. Although at no point was I given the option to rebook.

  Shame as I think it worked out it would have been about 20k avios return.

  • Sean says:

    19 Jul19 July 13:27

    Mark – “reimbursement” after flight would have been a lot more than 20k avios – 75% of the cost (including YQ) for an invol downgrade.

    I managed to eventually move mine (keeping F via LAX (had to HUACA to get the right agent)), although expect that to be cancelled again shortly.

    • Jonathan says:

      19 Jul19 July 16:07

      I think Mark is saying the final cost of the flights would have been circa 20k Avios after the downgrade reimbursement.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Jul19 July 23:11

        Worse yet, if it goes to MCOL, MCOL is pretty much used for awarding money rather than in specie. So a correct claim would value each avios owed for downgrade compensation from F to J (75% of the avios paid plus 75% of most of the cash) at a value per avios owed, of 1.6p. The legal basis being that is the price BA sells them officially at.

        Clear now why First Class has simply disappeared off all except the major routes especially during Covid?

• Paul says:

  19 Jul19 July 10:26

  This might help me. I have flights form CDG to Bali via LHR and HKG booked for August. 3 of the 6 sectors have been cancelled. They were J class with upgrades to F LHR-HKG return using Avios. I was fully prepared to take this to CEDR as I am content to shift 1 year down the line and EU/UK 261 is very clear on what the choices are for passengers when the airlines cancels.
  Like others I lost out on the 50% deal as had F return to SCL in April and could have pushed this down the road also.
  Its such a pity that BA always need to be dragged down the road of doing the right thing.

  • Aliks says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:56

    I do feel a bit sorry for the front line help desk staff, who know very well that BA is not prepared to do the right thing by the law and by customer. BA have set them a policy they have to follow, and set up their IT systems so that the help desk can’t help even if they want to.

    The BA people I have no sympathy with are Customer Services, who seem to just say NO and No and NO, whatevert the question might be.

    • Mikeact says:

      19 Jul19 July 17:39

      Exaggeration as usual, they certainly do NOT say No, No, No, whatever the question.

• Jody says:

  19 Jul19 July 11:08

  Glad that you’ve done an article on this Rob, should help a lot of people.

  I was on the cusp of taking BA to CEDR when this happened. I’d sent my letter before action, and the date for them to reply to me by was 15th July. They didn’t bother sending me a reply. I’m really disappointed in them, given that the memo was sent out to BA staff on 8th July about this, that they couldn’t even be bothered to reply to tell me that there was a change in policy and that I would actually be able to change my flights to the dates I wanted as a result. Luckily I picked it up on here the other day, and read the thread on flyertalk and was able to get it sorted.

  Out of interest, do BA usually bother to reply to letters before action? Or is it because they knew the policy had changed, so just couldn’t be bothered?

  • Sam G says:

    19 Jul19 July 11:14

    I’ve read a couple of reports that they’ve ended up in front of the judge (with external representation) and lost on these which I suspect is why they’ve now changed the policy – that would have been getting expensive and raising flags in the correct parts of management I expect!

    Why they’ve been letting it get to court not sure, could be due to furlough / lack of staff / management to deal with it in time

    • Memesweeper says:

      19 Jul19 July 12:17

      Their lawyers may have recommended a change of policy.

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 14:09

    They would typically ignore, I would guess.

    LBA is a formality that secures your reasonableness in taking action. But a lot of companies for various reasons wil wait until you sue them before taking any action and historically a lot of companies would only do this “on the court steps” ie last minute, as a tactic.

    If they have been nonresponsive and clearly not worked with you to avoid a court hearing when you’ve clearly tried, courts don’t like having their time wasted and so especially in cases where the law is clear, it’s more likely the judge will impose whatever penalty they can without mitigation

• Lady London says:

  19 Jul19 July 12:22

  Sorry Rob British Airways was not being ‘ultra generous’ in not requiring avios seats to be available, if an avios booking, and in not requiring any higher fare price to be paid, for the seat on new dates passenger chose to move their bookong to after BA cancelled a flight on their original booking.

  There was no generosity on these things at all, from British.Airways. EU261 specifically states that the airline is not allowed to insist on their being a points seat available for the new date the passenger chooses and the airline is not allowed to ask for any further payment so no more avios, no more cash, no admin fees. Any seat being sold in same cabin on passenger’s chosen date, they have a right to be rebooked into as above.

  This, only if it was BA / airline that cancelled a flight (any) on your booking then these rights pertain,no matter how each seat was paid eg 241, sale, discount (not airline staff discount).

  • Doug M says:

    19 Jul19 July 12:50

    All of which was perfectly reasonable prior to a pandemic. In the circumstances of the last 18 months this was rediculous.

    • Lady London says:

      19 Jul19 July 14:01

      @Doug M these rights should definitely have continued throughout the pandemic.

      The airlines, due to the ‘exceptional circumstances’ provision in EU261, have been exempted from paying up to.£600 compensation during Covid to passengers whose flights they cancelled. Which is completely fair. Even if it’s currently being abused a bit by airlines doing late cancellations when the Covid situation hasn’t actually worsened in the 14 days before the flight, I think that’s fair enough.

      But duty of care should always still apply. Otherwise you’ll get things like BA abandoning passengers in the Seychelles and refusing to lift a finger to bring those passengers home. Which is what BA did.

      • Doug M says:

        19 Jul19 July 15:49

        Either I misunderstood or the goalposts just moved. I was responding in regards to rebooking cheap tickets at expensive times. Duty of care would not reasonably apply when shifting tickets by months, duty of care is for we’ll get you on the next flight but that’s two days. There are plenty abusing the rebooking choices in much the same way BA have possibly abused the suspension of compensation. I’d argue that late cancellations for commercial reasons are a direct and absolute result of COVID, so not really abuse by airlines.

        • Paul says:

          19 Jul19 July 16:26

          The reason for the cancellation is not relevant. When an airline cancels there are only 3 options it must offer
          1. a Full refund (if at midpoint/transit point the customer can be flown home at airlines expense and still obtain a refund)
          2. re route under comparable conditions ie same class to final destination
          3. travel at a future date of the passengers choosing.
          The important thing is that it is the customer who chooses and not the carrier.
          Neither of the options is time limited by any airline imposed terms and conditions.

          BA were clearly losing cases at CEDR and have been dragged down this road. I suspect if it went to court there is a strong case for all 50% avios seats to be reinstated as passengers were, in my view, deliberately and willfully misled on their rights and options.

        • Doug M says:

          19 Jul19 July 17:03

          I’m not disputing the facts here, I’m saying rules put in place in normal times have some very odd consequences in a pandemic. I doubt very much that it was intended with EU261 that passengers could book flights were they knew there was a near certainty of cancellation, to then rebook at a peak time. The passenger convenience was almost certainly about finding an equivalent flight for purpose, not manipulating peak pricing at off peak prices.

        • Lady London says:

          19 Jul19 July 22:56

          I kind of agree with you @Doug M. However the number of people with the knowledge to abuse rebooking rights (and especially to predict upcoming cancellations and guess reliably at their re-use possibilities) is vanishingly small. But I do take your point.

          What makes me feel better about it is the number of passengers, even expert, on here that BA has denied basic rights to and stonewalled. So how many tens of thousands (literally) of passengers has BA been denying rights to, daily?

          So I think the sins of BA far outweigh any potential abuse of some excellently drafted legislation in the form of EU261.

          Harry was also correct when he stated he’s not worried if others don’t know enough to use their EU261 rights because if everyone did, airlines literally couldn’t afford it.

• Lady London says:

  19 Jul19 July 13:39

  Why do people think airlines are authority figures?

  They are transport providers, like trains, and are obliged to follow the law.

  I am sure trains were glamorous once.

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 15:06

    above for @bagoly page 1.

    Wordpress repositioning replies to old cache points is back again full strength it seems.

• Lady London says:

  19 Jul19 July 13:42

  They cannot unilaterally refund. This would definitely be illegal. Ask them to reinstate the booking and insist on First Class. That’s a dirty trick to avoid downgrade compensation I would say, and I’d complain to CAA and go to law on this if CAA failed to sort it.

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 13:52

    above for @Mark

    • Doug M says:

      19 Jul19 July 15:56

      On BA a F to CW downgrade is about the best result you can get. If you get CS you’re getting a marginally inferior product for 75% return of Avios and YQ, it’s about the cheapest business fare you could ever get.

• Shamrock says:

  19 Jul19 July 15:10

  I booked the BA 50% First class deal last year, was due to fly May but flight cancelled and rebooked (within 12 month window advised by BA agent) to end if August to Dubai. So what I understand from this post is if my flight is cancelled in August i have until Aug 22 to be rebooked on?

  • Rob says:

    19 Jul19 July 15:54

    Yes, seems to apply to tickets which have already been rebooked once.

    • BrightonReader says:

      19 Jul19 July 18:08

      OK so this is my situation

      1, Booked BA Hols flights + Hotel last September for this July

      2. Couple of months ago the July flights were cancelled so booked for begining of September

      3. Couple of weeks ago those flights were cancelled and I pushed back the flights by a week (because I was working on the old one year ticketting rule)

      Are you now saying that if I called BA Hols now they would rebook me for any flights for a year after my original flight dates so July 2022?

      • Rob says:

        19 Jul19 July 18:18

        No, because you’ve moved it already and so accepted the latest cancellation.

        You need to wait for it to be cancelled again, at which point you could move it up to September 2022.

        • BrightonReader says:

          19 Jul19 July 18:25

          Fingers crossed then that BA and / or AA do their stuff for me.

          Wishing I’d waited another week before rebooking now …

  • BS says:

    19 Jul19 July 16:15

    Im in same position with JNB, booked with 50% off sale. Obviously don’t want to travel with it on red list, so I will be pushing it far in to the future hoping red lists have shifted by then…

• Alex says:

  19 Jul19 July 16:50

  Avios LHR-BER flights cancelled and moved to the next available. I am asked to confirm or pick another set of flights. Is there a benefit or risk delaying this till the week before the flight? In case my plans change.

  • Sam G says:

    19 Jul19 July 17:31

    No you can wait until the last minute, only risk is that flights get full

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.