BA Holidays flight back to UK been cancelled

[binotsen]

I’ve been following the forum for a while, started to collect Avios and hoping to use my points to go to the far east in 2025.

I have a question if someone could help me please.
Currently in the Carribean on a flight + hotel package booked through BA holidays. Our Aer lingus direct flight back to Manchester was cancelled today with about 6-7 hours notice via text message. Alternative flight offered is with Virgin on Monday 19th Feb, arriving Tuesday 20th February. Unfortunately this really doesn’t work for us – the kids have to get back to school and my wife and I (both NHS workers) have full clinics Monday all day.
After much back and forth with BA holidays via email we decided to book a direct flight ourselves on 17th February to Gatwick that will get us in on 18th morning then we will take the train back up to the Manchester region so we can all get to school and work on Monday 19th. We did ask if BA holidays could book this flight for us but theyrefused.

I know we can claim a refund for the unused portion of our flights (the return leg) but can we also claim the €600 cancelled flight compensation as well?

The new flights have cost us around £650 per person (x4)- is there any chance BA holidays would cover the cost of the new flights too?

Thanks in advance

[JDB]

@binotsen – I replied to your original post.

[binotsen]

Thank you JDB and apologies for not picking up your original response. Head been a bit all over the place for the last 24 hours! I will certainly pursue all avenues to get compensation and reimbursement.

[Richie]

How does reg. UK261 and the package travel regulations work in these instances, is the tour operator obliged to liaise fully with the operating air carrier to the holiday makers benefit?

[JDB]

Richie wrote:

How does reg. UK261 and the package travel regulations work in these instances, is the tour operator obliged to liaise fully with the operating air carrier to the holiday makers benefit?

As agent, BAH is responsible for the performance of the contract per Part 4 of the regs and that applies even if the service is to be performed by another party, ie Aer Lingus in this case. So, yes they should be organising the rerouting in conjunction with EI but that doesn’t affect the passenger’s UK261 rights.

[binotsen]

Thanks again JDB – appreciate the info.

[binotsen]

BA holidays have just emailed me and said they are refunding the unused Aer Lingus return flight and will send approximately £600 back to my credit card. I am drafting a response back to them. Please can I ask if there are any specific rules about length of time within which an airline must fly you back to your destination if your original flight is cancelled ?

The flight they offered us was over 72 hours after our original flight which we feel was unreasonable when there were alternative options available to get back to the UK.

[yonasl]

Getting a refund for the unused flights is the worst option as it takes away any obligation from the carrier to pay for anything else.

What you should be doing:
– make it clear you DO NOT want a refund
– demand you are put on a flight that is convenient to you
– if they don’t. Make it clear you will pay for that flight and expect to be refunded for any expense (that is your right)
– you are entitled to be refunded for any expense such as flights, hotels and meals needed to go back to your destination as you had planned (within reason, you cannot book a first class flight if flying economy originally)

ALL THIS IS VOID IF YOU ARE REFUNDED THE ORIGINAL FLIGHT!

Separately to all this, if your flight was cancelled 14 before (which seems is the case here) you can also ask for compensation (a fixed amount set by law). Ask for this separately.

[binotsen]

Thanks yonasl. I did make clear at the time that we would be putting in a claim for a refund of the rebooked flight but they seem to have ignored that have simply refunded the unused return flight. The total holiday cost was £6900 and I have no breakdown for how much the hotel element was and how much the flight element was.
A few days before they issued the refund I did put in a claim on the BA website for expenses incurred including flight cost and food etc but as I say this seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Any advice on how I can proceed now that they have refunded the £600 back to my credit card would be appreciated.

[JDB]

yonasl wrote:

Getting a refund for the unused flights is the worst option as it takes away any obligation from the carrier to pay for anything else.

What you should be doing:
– make it clear you DO NOT want a refund
– demand you are put on a flight that is convenient to you
– if they don’t. Make it clear you will pay for that flight and expect to be refunded for any expense (that is your right)
– you are entitled to be refunded for any expense such as flights, hotels and meals needed to go back to your destination as you had planned (within reason, you cannot book a first class flight if flying economy originally)

ALL THIS IS VOID IF YOU ARE REFUNDED THE ORIGINAL FLIGHT!

Separately to all this, if your flight was cancelled 14 before (which seems is the case here) you can also ask for compensation (a fixed amount set by law). Ask for this separately.

This advice is incorrect. It’s also a very middle class perspective expecting that everybody has the funds lying around to buy four replacement tickets and not get a refund for the original ones while the airline takes months to sort out the mess. As above, an airline can’t simply cancel your rights by paying your refund and as the pax I would rather have the cash and just fight for the difference and compensation if applicable.

[binotsen]

Thanks for the clarification JDB

[binotsen]

Please can I ask for some further advice.
The person at BA who processed the refund of £600 has got back to me to say that any claim for EU261 and other things such as food and transport needs to be made direct to the airline (Aer Lingus) based on clause 12.1 of their T&Cs. The flight + hotel booking was made through BA holidays so this doesn’t feel right to me. Would you suggest I go ahead and resubmit the claim to Aer Lingus?
They have cited the clause below:

12.1. If your complaint is solely about a flight, this should be directed to the relevant airline’s Customer Relations Department. Please refer to ba.com for relevant contact details. In the case of Packages, Clause 12.1 also applies.

[redhand]

I think this is correct.
I just had a flight cancelled that was booked through BA App and paid to BA but compensation was paid by Aer Lingus who operated the flight under a codeshare.
Hope this is helpful.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Compensation and duty of care claims should be made to the airline that operated the flight that caused the claim.

[JDB]

@binotsen – BAH is strictly correct but as your agent, I would have expected them to help you, particularly as they are the only ones in possession of all the facts, but if they won’t, they won’t. You may need to join them later.

You need to put in a clear claim to EI setting out separately, a) the simple claim for compensation at £520 per pax and b) indemnification/reimbursement for the additional costs you incurred in having to buy replacement tickets following EI’s failure, inter alia, to apply your Article 8 rights per the CJEU decision in Rusu v Blue and CAA guidance in CAP2155. You do of course need to deduct any refund you received from BAH, but don’t let EI attempt to suggest the compensation should go towards those replacement tickets.

[binotsen]

Thanks JDB – really helpful and much appreciated

[binotsen]

Thank you red hand and BA flyer as well – likewise very helpful and much appreciated

[Lady London]

I am finding it strange that BA Holidays is not obliged to do more, by UK Package Holiday Regulations / ATOL. Other than the specifics of flights within Holidays still having EU/UK 261 rights, traditionally a Holiday is covered by different regulations which normally are very protective and would imply that BA Holidays was supposed to get you home and take care of accommodating you etc. I don’t think there is the 520 pounds compensation, of course, but I am surprised that BA Holidays seem to have thought they could just walk away from this.

[binotsen]

A quick update with a request for some further advice if possible please – we had a package holiday booked with BA Holidays from Manchester to Barbados but the return flight on Aer Lingus was cancelled and replacement flight was initially offered to us 5 days later and then eventually 3 days later. We asked BA Holidays to book us onto a flight 1 day later to LGW but they declined so we paid for it ourselves. On return, BA Holidays have washed their hands of it and said that we needed to make all claims via Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus have reimbursed us for our expenses (food, taxis etc) and given us £520 each under EU261. BA Holidays have refunded the cancelled flight. Overall we are currently about £60 short of our total expenses as well 1041 Avios points + 20 tier points per passenger and loss of triple Avios on the refunded flight which was paid back to BA platinum premium Amex card.

Is there any legislation that would allow us to challenge Aer Lingus’s decision to not refund the cost of flights to LGW and train back Manchester? We did ask them to book us onto the flight 1 day later via LGW but they said this was not possible. A 3 day delay was unacceptable to us as we had to get back to work.

Any advice on the loss of Avios and tier points? BA Holidays seem to have washed their hands of that as well!

Many thanks in advance for any responses

[JDB]

@binotsen you shouldn’t normally be required to put the UK261 compensation towards the replacement tickets, but in this instance as you have self-rerouted, I’m not even sure the compensation was due. Aer Lingus isn’t on the hook for the train to Manchester as you chose to fly to London instead and they also aren’t responsible for the loss of Avios from the refund – didn’t you buy the replacement BA tickets on that card? For the missing Avios/TP, BA should give you the ORC (or at least the difference between that originally booked and the replacement Avios/TP awarded).

[binotsen]

Thanks JDB – that’s really helpful.
I suspect I have come to end of the road then apart from trying to push BA for some Avios compensation. I appreciate all your advice.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Without knowing exactly what you claimed for it’s hard to say why EI didn’t pay you £60 of it.

As @JDB says you need to claim the Original Routing Credit from BA for the flights you weren’t able to take. BA won’t automatically give you them.

The loss of the triple avios due to the refund is what it is and is just like happens with any refund. Only exception would be is if the avios rate changed since you paid for the trip I.e. the original transaction earned only 1 point but the refund was posted during some offer period. You’d need to contact AMEX about that “loss” if that indeed was the case.

Not sure what your case for more compensation from BA would be for. From what you’ve written it would only be for some “inconvenience” but the £520 UK/EU 261 compensation from EI covers that.