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Hello,
Grateful for any insight here.
We have a 2-4-1 CW USA Avios booking in October (been booked for 6 months) out to Dallas (Texas) and in to New Orleans (Louisiana).
Last week, BA cancelled the original outbound (Houston), and so we moved this to Dallas to keep the dates the same, and re-organised hotel/car hire.
BA have now also cancelled the in-bound flight from New Orleans, and there are no alternatives for less than 48 hours either way which messes up the entire itin.
We have asked if we can swap the flight dates to a week earlier in October and swap the in-bound and out-bound flights of the open-jaw to retain as much as possible of our pre-booked itin, so OUT to New Orleans, and IN from Dallas or Austin on direct BA metal flights.
BA agent on the phone this morning refused, even after checking with the back-office. Apparently for redemption bookings there is only a 350 mile ‘lee-way’ for changing airport, and Dallas/Austin are 450 miles ish from NOLA MSY.
If we were to keep the dates the same (after initially denying that we could) the agent relented and said they could re-route us on original date back from NOLA on alternative airline, but only on AA – which would be a 4 hour longer, connecting journey through the night, so not ideal.
My understanding is that BA are legally required to re-route us on any alternative flight that is most convenient, but I can see that being an awful battle, which is why I suggested swapping the open-jaw around for direct BA flights would be easier for all.. but I’m unsure as to our legal rights on this one as per BA’s ‘350 mile lee way’ rule…
Any insight greatly appreciated.
There are literally dozens of existing threads on both the BA and Flight Disruotiins board that cover your rights in these circumstances.
On your last point you have no rights to demand a change in airport. You can ask but not insist.
Reroute means get you from original departure to original arrival point and that’s it – and that can and does adding connections.
The 300 mile rule is BA policy to help assist passengers not the law and they do cleave to it strictly.
Your change from Austin to Dallas is clearly within their policy so they let you do it.
There is a strict 300 mile limit change of airport so BA will not agree to your change. You are entitled to be rerouted on any flight coming back to the UK departing from New Orleans. Search google flights for one way flights from MSY to LHR on the same day as your original cancelled return flight.
Consider flying AA bearing in mind you may have to compromise on the length of the journey home. When you have identified a flight that suits you phone BA back and request rerouting on that flight. You could fly via another BA hub eg JFK so AA from MSY to JFK and then BA to LHR.
You may wish to wait to make your change as you get one free change so there is no immediate need to get your flight sorted.
Thanks both, very much appreciated.
We had a similar issue back in April with our return from BNA – BA cancelled the route. I waited until about a month before we were due to fly – wanted to keep some flexibility for a while, didn’t want to leave it until flights were filling up. Went for BNA-Ord-LHR, as a combination of best flight times/duration and best chance of getting club suite. Sadly BA changed the plane and we were on old style Club World, but you can’t win them all.
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