British Airways cuts 15% of its Gatwick short-haul flights for July, and 7% at Heathrow

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• Jan M says:

  28 Jun28 June 05:08

  It’s the same everywhere. I mostly fly KLM and received a slew of emails from them over the past few weeks cancelling flights. Off to Bristol, instead of Cardiff today.

• Martin says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:06

  My return flight Prague to LHR on 29 Jul at 1345 was cancelled, but they were good and rebooked me free onto an earlier flight at 635, so could have been worse I guess.

• ChrisC says:

  28 Jun28 June 06:08

  Some likely forced on them such as the AMS cuts but also the Government has issued a slot waiver to the (current) 70/30 use/lose rule for flights cancelled with more than 14 days notice for July and August to help stabilise the schedule that’s a good incentive as well.

  Only had one flight affected so far for the end of July and I was notified about that at the weekend. DUB-LHR in CE cancelled and not rebooked just wiped from the booking entirely. DUB not on your lost though)

  There are Y seats being sold on flights I thought I would have been moved onto so it looks like CE is maxed out.

  I’m not complaining as it was the start of an exDub-USA BA Hols trip and I’m happy to start at LHR the next day but this isn’t good for people who really need to make that trip.

  Annoyingly the positioning flight out earlier in the day hasn’t been cancelled but I can voucher that.

• Eoc says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:01

  Not all surprised. Got I back from Tenerife last night on EZY. Had 45 minute wait for luggage yet only two flights in baggage hall. Our flight was similarly delayed because the plane coming to get us suffered- and this I have never heard before- extensive delay getting the passengers onboard due to “ a severe shortage of bus staff” . Both our in and out flights had zero food loaded. No staff at supplier apparently.
  Had been BA club but that got cancelled along side all BA to Tenerife to be offered 11 hours on IB via MAD.
  Based on all that I don’t 15pct is anywhere near enough.. My advice for what it’s worth, is to avoid LGW if at all poss and reroute up to LHR if you can. Just saying…

  • Thywillbedone says:

    28 Jun28 June 09:06

    Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong it seems!!

• Charles Martel says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:07

  A return from BER to LGW I have booked has been pulled from sale (or is sold out), if its cancelled can I request rebooking on easyJet to LGW or do you have take a BA/IB flight to LHR? It creates a headache getting back to the car.

  • Thegasman says:

    28 Jun28 June 07:54

    Bit of a grey area. BA will tell you that you have to accept LHR & will probably refuse to reimburse transport back to LGW initially though they usually cave on that point pretty quickly.

    If there is an LHR option at a similar time (+/- 2hours) & they offer to cover taxi to LGW then you may struggle to win at MCOL. CEDR would be a complete waste of time.

  • Harry T says:

    28 Jun28 June 08:05

    You cannot be rebooked on to EasyJet due to the systems they use.

    • Nick says:

      28 Jun28 June 08:25

      They won’t pay for a taxi, but if you really push it they will cover the public transport cost. In the case of LHR-LGW the time difference is only 5-10 mins anyway, as the coach transfer operates non-stop.

    • Mike says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:21

      “Due to the systems they use” – I use a freely available system called the internet which seems to work for booking all airlines !

      • dougzz99 says:

        28 Jun28 June 09:52

        Good for you, Harry’s right.

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jun28 June 14:59

        Yes I am stunned at the number of airlines that have EU261 rerouting obligations and yet the regulators in various countries stand idly by and fail to enforce those airlines simply refusing to do what every company in the world can do and going onto another airline’s website to rebook you onto a replacement flight on another airline that can be departing as little as 5 minutes later than the flight they cancelled you off.

        It’s in-credible that regulators are actually letting airlines deny that ticketing systems work to issue tickets on other airlines to reroute. When very often the shared industry ticketing systems can indeed do it. But for a regulator to let an airline pretend they also can’t use the internet to provide the replacement ticket on say, Easyjet, the same as they let the airline that cancelled force the passenger to?!

    • ChrisC says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:45

      It’s more that Easy aren’t full members if IATA and don’t use one one the Global Distribution Systems that manage bookings and rebookings behind the scenes. A rebooking includes reendorsing the tickets and isn’t the same as making a new booking anyone can do on the internet.

      Many airlines won’t rebook onto LCCs because of that. Also airlines don’t pay each other full price when they rebook. They have a set of rates behind the scenes and IATA helps manage the process and the reimbursements.

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jun28 June 15:04

        This is true @ChrisC but none of this is the passenger’s problem. When interlining a cancelled passenger onto another airline, the cost can be as little as 10% of what the passenger would have to pay retail. And yet, there must be some game here because most of the time airlines who can benefit from low interlinin costs still refuse their responsibilties and force the passenger to go retail.

        • Nick says:

          28 Jun28 June 19:01

          @LL BA put a huge amount of time and effort into working with easyJet on a rebooking solution but the latter pulled out… because they couldn’t find a way to make it work. I have quite a lot of sympathy with the legacy airlines here, it’s the LCCs who have chosen to opt out of industry norms, not them, yet you still think they should be considered ‘comparable’. I’d love a legacy airline to fight this to the end, I actually think they’d win. There’s nothing stopping easy (etc) doing things properly except themselves, yet no one seems to be crying out for them to rebook onto BA, only the other way round.

  • ChrisC says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:39

    BA also fly to BER ex LCY

• Stephan Whelan says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:12

  Hmmm annoyingly looks like our return LGW-PMI flights with the kids summer holidays are effected. Booked through BA Holidays. No cancellation email as of yet – should I just wait or is it worth proactively calling BA (so long as I can get through of course!)

  • ChrisC says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:47

    Unless the flight has been formally cancelled any change you make before then will be classed as a voluntary one and would result in a repricing.

• Andrew J says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:16

  The advantage of the cancelled flights is that you can rebook onto any flight on any date (for sale) onto the same route – I had booked a weekend in Nice for early July, flight cancelled and rebooked for the August BH weekend which was considerably more expensive.

  • Charles Martel says:

    28 Jun28 June 07:29

    I’m desperately hoping a flight to YYZ I have booked in September is disrupted due to strike or staff shortage to give me some flexibility 🙂

  • Phillip says:

    28 Jun28 June 08:58

    Unfortunately it’s not any date – for my last rebooking, the quoted policy was rebook up to 3 days before and up to 2 weeks after original booking.

    • NorthernLass says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:02

      Policy is not the same as re-routing rights, which are the law, and don’t require you to travel within BA’s timeframe!

      • dougzz99 says:

        28 Jun28 June 09:54

        Unless you lose at CEDR

        • Lady London says:

          28 Jun28 June 15:06

          Unless you waste your time with CEDR when the law is fully on your side 🙂

      • Brian78 says:

        28 Jun28 June 10:46

        What are re-routing rights in this instance?

    • Andrew J says:

      28 Jun28 June 10:47

      That wasn’t my experience using MMB to change a flight they cancelled – moved it over 6 weeks later and was able to select any flight.

    • ChrisC says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:49

      Sounds like a BA holiday booking. Can you confirm?

      Holiday bookings come under a separate set of regulations when it comes to rebooking after flight cancellations.

      • Andrew J says:

        28 Jun28 June 13:33

        Mine was a cash booking made on ba.com, not a Holidays booking.

• Nick G says:

  28 Jun28 June 07:30

  My return flight no longer showing as on sale. Assume I get an email how do I rebook? Is it a call to BA?

  • AJA says:

    28 Jun28 June 07:42

    You should try MMB first, there is usually, but not always, an option to choose from. If that doesn’t work then I’m afraid it is the dreaded phone call.

    • Nick G says:

      28 Jun28 June 08:25

      Sorry forgot to add. It was a redemption booking with Avios in CE. No other BA flights on that day now. Does that make any difference when I ring BA? I see Turkish are the only direct J flight on that day. Can I ring and ask to swap to one of those even though we booked with Avios?

      The flight is on a Saturday so I’ve pre booked and paid for the Sofitel at Heathrow on the Saturday night. I assume I have no recourse if BA say to me I can fly on a Sunday?

      Thanks

      • Ollie says:

        28 Jun28 June 08:39

        I’m in the same boat flying back from Tenerife-LHR on Sunday 17th July.

        No BA flights now showing for that day though we haven’t yet been told it’s been cancelled. Family of 4 of us in CE so would be interested to hear what the likely options will be.

        • Hilda M says:

          28 Jun28 June 09:10

          Is it the 2731 TFS LHR or was it a different number ? 2731 showing 0 on all classes on expertflyer but 9 unassigned seats in CE

        • Ollie says:

          28 Jun28 June 10:50

          Correct, 2731. Does this mean it’s just full rather than cancelled (crossing everything!!!)?

        • Hilda M says:

          28 Jun28 June 14:00

          I would think it is still running Ollie – very full – for looking at Sat 16th, expertflyer shows 2 flights, one fully zeros the other with just J1 and Y1 and the one way J fare from TFS is 982€ !!

        • Ollie says:

          28 Jun28 June 14:17

          Thanks so much!

        • Eoc says:

          28 Jun28 June 22:02

          I had that for a June date. Told first line to check it was cancelled and on her confirming I barely wasted a second before opening EZY site to nab the last two seats on their similar flights. Downgrading for expensive LCC seats with only small net positive refund of Club fare. If I faffed about arguing for a rebooking it would have been the 11 hour MAD layover route or nothing. I often think action and peace of mind trumps disputing and pondering car hire , hotel and plans change. It’s the new norm.

      • Mark says:

        28 Jun28 June 08:46

        You have rerouting rights under UK261, though BA will probably resist. You have to start by asking though. It being an Avios redemption makes no difference if they have cancelled the flight so don’t let them fob you off on that basis. When is the flight, and how did you pay for it?

        • Nick G says:

          28 Jun28 June 08:48

          Mine is from Istanbul. Paid by Avios.

        • Mark says:

          28 Jun28 June 08:49

          By “pay for it” I mean the RFS fees of course…

        • Nick G says:

          28 Jun28 June 08:52

          Amex for the RFS fees

        • Mark says:

          28 Jun28 June 08:57

          If within the next 14 days you’d be due compensation if your arrival is delayed over 3 hours. That may cover the Sofitel cost. Otherwise/if you don’t want to accept a next day departure, pushing for a same day reroute would be reasonable. The reason for asking about the method of payment is that going down the credit card Section 75 route could be an option, on the basis that the overall flight sector price is more than £100 even though most of that is in the value of the Avios. I”m surprised though that BA have removed all service from Istanbul completely on your travel date. Are you sure there are none operating at all?

        • Mark says:

          28 Jun28 June 09:01

          And don’t forget you have to wait for them to actually cancel the flight before they’ll discuss it with you.

        • Nick G says:

          28 Jun28 June 09:46

          Thanks mark and everyone. No email as yet but clearly is cancelled. I thought that aswell about no flights that day with BA. Trouble for us is we have booked Izmir to Istanbul with Turkish. I left a good 7hrs connection to get on the BA flight back to Heathrow. So if they did an earlier flight that’s no good time anyway. Hence the only option is Turkish direct now. I’ll await the email then ring BA and hopefully push a flight on TK in biz. Connection times will mean I miss the daily 777 but I’m happy to get whatever is offered!

      • Hilda M says:

        28 Jun28 June 09:25

        On prepaid Sofitel night, try seeing if they will move the date – just left there and they are fully booked on weekends- might be glad to have room back to sell at higher price ?

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jun28 June 15:10

        yes BA will be legally responsible to either book or pay your ticket on another airline if they haven’t got a flight of their own on the date you need to travel and you can say you still need to travel same day and not before and not after.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:25

      Or live chat if available

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