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I have a BA F booking (using Avios) from LHR to DOH next March. I received an email a couple of days ago stating that the flight was cancelled. I phoned You First this afternoon and they said that the flight is not cancelled but there is an aircraft change and the new flight has no F on it. There is a Qatar flight 10 mins after my scheduled BA flight which is selling seats in F. I asked to be put on this flight but BA said this is not possible – due to the fact I booked with Avios and there are no Avios F seats on the Qatar flight. They said my only option is to be downgraded into J. I said I didn’t think that was correct and I would call back.
Are they correct here? Have I got a leg to stand on if I argue to be put in F on the Qatar flight?
There’s already a thread on this with quite a few responses.
@King of Sutton – as the flight has not been cancelled, you don’t have any rerouting rights to insist on being put in F on the QR flight; there needs to be Avios availability. The DOH flights are a victim of putting F back on routes like China. BA has decided to go down this rather unusual route of cancelling F bookings rather than downgrading them, possibly with a view to getting out of paying the 75% downgrade reimbursement. You will need to rebook what you can and then sort out any reimbursement later. If BA allows you to book business on QR they are probably even less likely to pay the Article 10 reimbursement using their new argument that it doesn’t apply to any flight subsequent flights.
@King of Sutton – as the flight has not been cancelled, you don’t have any rerouting rights to insist on being put in F on the QR flight; there needs to be Avios availability. The DOH flights are a victim of putting F back on routes like China. BA has decided to go down this rather unusual route of cancelling F bookings rather than downgrading them, possibly with a view to getting out of paying the 75% downgrade reimbursement. You will need to rebook what you can and then sort out any reimbursement later. If BA allows you to book business on QR they are probably even less likely to pay the Article 10 reimbursement using their new argument that it doesn’t apply to any flight subsequent flights.
Even less likely to willingly pay – they will pay up in the end if you take them to CEDR/MCOL
@King of Sutton – as the flight has not been cancelled, you don’t have any rerouting rights to insist on being put in F on the QR flight; there needs to be Avios availability. The DOH flights are a victim of putting F back on routes like China. BA has decided to go down this rather unusual route of cancelling F bookings rather than downgrading them, possibly with a view to getting out of paying the 75% downgrade reimbursement. You will need to rebook what you can and then sort out any reimbursement later. If BA allows you to book business on QR they are probably even less likely to pay the Article 10 reimbursement using their new argument that it doesn’t apply to any flight subsequent flights.
Even less likely to willingly pay – they will pay up in the end if you take them to CEDR/MCOL
With BA’s new legal argument, that’s not a given if you choose to travel on a flight different to the originally booked one and even if a pax rebooks on to the original in a lower class they have seriously muddied the waters with this new ploy. Their argument shouldn’t, but might just work.
Thanks JDB…. very much appreciated. I’m going to call one more time and see if I can persuade them to put me in F on the QR flight. If not, I’ll see if they’ll put me in J on the QR flight. I agree re. compensation may be tricky if I do go for the latter option.
BA standard customer guidelines for LHR-DOH cancellation (a joint business route) allow them to rebook you onto QR in F in the lowest available fare class.
So if they want to play the game of pretending the flight has been cancelled then I’m not sure why they’re applying conditions on requiring Avios availability that should not apply
If they had downgraded you in CW on their flight then that is different – they’d owe you 75% but you don’t have the right to force rebooking to another carrier I believe just to retain F
Thanks JDB…. very much appreciated. I’m going to call one more time and see if I can persuade them to put me in F on the QR flight. If not, I’ll see if they’ll put me in J on the QR flight. I agree re. compensation may be tricky if I do go for the latter option.
If they put you in QR business, that’s such a monumental upgrade on BA Club, even if it’s Club Suite that it should totally ease the pain of the ‘downgrade’, whatever type of aircraft. If you were then to fight for the downgrade compensation and win 75% reimbursement, you have won the lottery. While BA F vs J is like night and day, QR operates with significantly smaller J cabins and somehow makes the overall experience much closer to BA F. The recentish QR business wine upgrades make it even closer.
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