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Hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
Have a BA booking NCL-LHR-MCO return booked on avios with companion voucher for 3 pax. BA advised earlier this week it would cancel the return LHR-NCL (more than 14 days away) leg with no alternative offer.
Looking at other options nothing was viable timing wise (>12 hour wait at LHR). Agreed to cancel the last leg and requested refund.
When BA provided the refund it was 0 avios and £30 taxes. When querying, BA said that because the connecting flights are “free” they have no obligation to refund any avios.
Facing having to find a way back from LHR to the north east (the cheapest is a hire car and fuel at >£300, the train is over £500) I’m a little grumpy at BAs position. Had they not cancelled the flight Id have had our club Europe flight back home.
Now I have the extra expense of travel and BA so “it’s ok- it was free so you haven’t lost out”. Is their position correct?
You shouldn’t have cancelled and requested a refund. BA now has no further obligation to you.
Unless you can obtain a recording of the call from BA in which they don’t inform you of your full rights and sue them under Article 15 of UK261.
IIRC domestic connections to long hauls are free in terms of no additional avios are required. You can test this out by doing dummy ex NCL and ex LHR booking.
As a reminder to others you don’t have to accept the first thing an airline offers.
You can query things and then say ‘thanks I’ll have a think’ and then call them again after you’ve checked other options (or indeed ask on here) or if doing it in MMB by not confirming any thing.
You were refunded the difference between what you paid and what it would have cost you to book from LHR only.
For future reference, BA could have rebooked you on LNER if you got the right agent, but unfortunately it’s too late now unless you go down the route suggested by meta which will be a lot of hassle and not guaranteed to succeed
Agree it’s going to be very difficult to get anything out of BA now. Unfortunately with domestic connections (especially at the moment), long layovers are an occupational hazard of flying with them from the regions. Would your travel insurance cover any of the cost of getting you back from LHR?
1.Call BA and ask for a copy of the call recording. You have a legal right to this but they shouldb’t object. If you get any feeling this won’t be done then either call again a few days later and/or put a Contact message on their website. Don’t say why or get into discussion I think I’d be a bit doddery and forgetful and not sure how things cane about as in “Did I really ask for a refund? I’ve forgotten.” if pushed.
Keep all emails and correspondence. @meta will know thus, but I think if it comes to it they have to prove they informed you. Trouble is, some airlines currently seem to be trying to do this by pointing to series of linking links eventually leading (if links still work on the day and not broken or leadng somewhere else etc… leventually leading to some dark corner of their website …and if they work on ypur equipment…or in the circumstances you are in when you have to make your decision…all these mean IMV the airline should be informing you of your full rights in writing/email without requiring you to do anything to access that informstion and ensuring in any conversation thar you are aware of these rights.
Don’t argue the point just request the recording asap and try to keep the conversation to that.o
2. Send a letter to BA Legal at theur Waterside address saying they dud not advise you of your rights to a reroute and other duty of care to your final destinatiom of Newcastle as they are required to by Section 15 of UK implementation of EU261 provisions, attach a pro forma claim (or actual transport osts if prepaid) for your travel, any extra hotels and meals (estimate £18 breakgast Heathrow and £25 wherever for other meals on your now extended journey) request to pay these rerouting costs to Newcastle. Rewuest their payment within, say, 21 or 28 days. I’d do pro forma now to establish the claim rather than wait till actual expenses at the end of the trip.
3. Personally I would MCOL it after 30-35 days. If you like roulette you could try CEDR. Someone has to action BA on this point and yours is a perfect case. Because BA? slyly tried to tell you there was no loss to you. There was, because yoi purchased travel to Newcastle and they decided they wouldn’t provide it.
Even if a passrnger could be fooled into thinking they had no loss as the avios cost for continuing your journey via London to Newcastle was the same as a different journey London, firstly there’s normally a slight increase in ‘taxes’ for the domestic leg and secondly BA might try to make you believe you lost nothing but by denying you a reoute to Newcastle BA gains enormously on not providing any of the duty of care expenses above which might be required.
With all the flights they are cancelling, BA is going to fight tooth and nail this summer to avoid paying duty of care and rerouting expenses for domestic legs they are cancelling off people’s international connecfions.
The good news for anyone this happens to at lesd thsn 14 days notice is that the compensation BA is likely to have to pay if they cancel your domestic leg off an international connection is that your compensation for cancelled flight is based on your total journey including the longhaul leg and so you’d mostly be entitled to £520 compensation per seat (even on a 241) as well as any duty of care and reouting costs.
Thanks for the amazing responses. I’ll certainly be picking up the return leg piece. They didn’t give me any other option, it’s was a straight forward “we’ve cancelled your flight and will refund”.
In an even greater turn of joy, they cancelled our outbound domestic leg just (literally) as we were getting in the car to the airport. They have booked us on the 0600 flight in the morning and downgraded us to WT from CE (to add insult to injury, we’re the first row back from those who have retained their CW seats). Fingers crossed we will still get our connection tomorrow and all I’ve lost is my (separate booked) hotel room for the night (which I’ll claim from BA!)
As I understand it, we’re liable for compensation for the cancelled flight and the downgrade.
I wasn’t aware the cancellation compensation was based on the total journey distance.
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