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Sat on BA99 to YYZ tonight. Issues with blocked oil filter in left engine. After opening it up they have decided the plane is not fit to fly. They will put us in accommodation overnight for a flight tomorrow (no spare planes or alternate flight).
We were travelling for the Taylor Swift concert so flying tomorrow is not an option.
What options do we have? Do I have to fly, if I don’t accept the alternative can I get my money back plus UK261 compensation? I don’t have to accept tomorrow’s flight do I as the journey is no longer fit for purpose.
Any help appreciated as I don’t want to accept something and lose my rights
What a nightmare!
I think I would be on the phone to my insurance provider at this point to see if they would cover replacement flights. I would imagine there are still flights leaving which would get you to Toronto, even if you had to change at a US East Coast airport (though that would require an ESTA).
I suspect that BA might get away with claiming that re-routing you tomorrow is reasonable, as you chose to travel so close to the date of the concert, but of course I’m speculating.
You should be eligible for cancellation compo as it’s due to a technical fault.
No you don’t have to fly and you can take a full refund if you want that. Makes no difference that you’ve been offered a reroute – as long as you haven’t accepted it.
Not sure about the compo though if you take the refund
Tomorrow’s BA93 arrives in Toronto at 1455 and has seats in all cabins. Obviously not ideal, but might get you to the evening concert.
Is the concert tonight or tomorrow? Your flight is delayed until 12pm tomorrow scheduled to get into YYZ at 14:36 tomorrow afternoon.
Hi,
It’s tomorrow but my girls had big plans on getting there early, doing friendship bracelets etc and that won’t be possible regardless of the arrival time. The return is on Sunday so it would now be 2 transtlatlatic flights in 2 days. My girls do not want to fly tomorrow either as this engine issue worried them. The pilot said it was a good job they spotted it before we took off as it wouldn’t have been pleasant if the issue wasn’t resolved and it occurred in flight!
I can easily now just cancel for a refund and get my avios and cash back, but don’t want to do that and forgo any potential UK261 compensation claim.Your compensation rights are on top of the right for a refund.
Based on the information on another thread, this flight hasn’t actually been cancelled but will operate tomorrow so it’s delay compensation that would be due, but that wouldn’t apply if you choose not to fly and seek a refund. In theory a delay exceeding three hours is tantamount to a cancellation but that’s not an argument that BA usually entertains.
Thanks everyone for your help. Really appreciate the community helping out. It will end up being a 19 hour ‘delay’ for what is a weekend trip for us. That can’t be fit for purpose as was originally sold. Surely that’s a cancellation. Also they can’t have 2 flights numbered BA99 on the same day can they? I’m on the phone with BA now and they say they can’t find us on the flight anyway as the flight has disappeared! It’s getting more bizarre by the minute
@bettsd007 – the flight carried over to tomorrow will have a suffix such as BA99X to distinguish it from the daily flight. In terms of compensation, the overnight delay is considered tantamount to a cancellation so triggers compensation (assuming the technical fault was within BA’s control) but you need to suffer the delay to be eligible for compensation.
I was scheduled to be on that return flight back to London this evening but it looms like it will now be at some point tomorrow
Thanks JDB. Great help and clear advice as ever.
@JDB
Update to the situation… and it gets worseI decided to offload us and cancel the entire outbound and inbound flights. As we weren’t allowed to retrieve our bags at Heathrow airport i was told to raise a lost baggage ticket, which i did. I’ve now received an update stating that my bag is on it’s way to Toronto! How is that possible when we are not flying and have been offloaded? Surely that contravenes safety regulations to send luggage when a passenger isn’t even taking any part of the trip?
Asking for advice on what to do now? The baggage team says they will try and get it returned today and then back to me asap. It’s quite scary to think bags can be sent without the passenger travelling at all, but maybe I’m overreacting. I always thought if someone didn’t make the flight the luggage had to be offloaded before you could depart.
The restrictions about baggage travelling with the passenger are different when such baggage has been reconciled to a boarded passenger. The same principle applies to tarmac delays when a passenger either decides to get off or fails to return to the aircraft after being allowed off.
The theory/principle/risk assessment that lies behind this is that if anyone intended to commit a malign act on the basis of a flight returning to the gate and/or being delayed overnight it would be tough to plan. If a flight returned based on some threat of course different actions are taken.
I’m afraid that in your case, with the bags having been kept securely, and probably most pax electing to fly on the long delayed flight, searching out a few bags isn’t efficient or cost effective. Hopefully, the bags should be on the return flight.
When a flight is actually cancelled, BA has (albeit only in 2024) learned to use the T5 systems that will reroute bags correctly irrespective of what the tag says. From the tag the system can ‘see’ your rerouting or decision not to travel but your bags will not have been put back into the systems but kept securely apart.
You should be owed refund plus cancellation compensation.
Due to BA’s mechanical failure this is now a “trip in vain” ie the purose of your trip cannot be fulfilled. So you’re fully entitled to choose refund or other option
You should IMV also claim £520 compensation per seat, even 241 seat, even child seat, as an announcenent of mechanical failure and an announced departure delay of 19 hours taking it into the following day, in particular…. well I’d really like to see BA try to claim that’s not a cancellation.
Perfectly reasonable, more than reasonable, to travel the day before a concert and perfectly reasonable to bw able to rely on gettimg there at least the day before as promised fot the whole fan experience.
Good luck and I hope your girls were not too disappointed bu4 I’d have felt exactly the same way as them and you.
Can I suggest you submit short refund and short cancellation claim separately
Thank you to the British Airways pilot and team for keeping everyone safe and for being clear what the problem was.
PS your return will be flushed as not taking the outbound so I’d expect all luggage to be delivered to your home – you could do a PIR at the airport or online to get some sort of tracking?
PPS please let us know what happens on luggage and compo and hope your insurance will cover as much as possible of the rest.
@LadyLondon – while I have to admire your ability to extemporise, I’m not sure how it really helps the OP??
In respect of your statement “well I’d really like to see BA try to claim that’s not a cancellation” – Article 2(l) defines a cancellation and the interpretative guidelines clearly distinguish between a long delay (including an overnight delay) and a cancellation. This flight was not cancelled; it’s currently en route to Toronto. BA knows this. The OP’s trip was ruined and the purpose of that trip was rendered useless but that’s an entirely different issue.
There is maybe some sort of claim to be made, but telling the OP to ask for the wrong thing isn’t the right way to go about it.
While it doesn’t help the OP, there are a couple of ironies here and a new twist.
Today’s BA93 ran on time, an hour ahead of yesterday’s BA99, and the latter used a 773 in place of the booked 772. First cabin was full, so eight passengers got a Flub out of it.
Meanwhile yesterday’s return BA98 is obviously also delayed overnight, returning today. Strangely today’s BA98 is also shown as delayed overnight and returning tomorrow morning as a day flight, despite the outbound being on time.
The ‘twist’ maybe that the crew on the outbound has been allocated to fly the return so needs to have their mandatory rest periods.
Ah yes that would be why. It’s the crew that didn’t arrive yesterday
Thanks to everyone for your help and advice. It’s certainly been a crazy day or so with lots of chasing and calls to BA and managing some seriously disappointed daughters. Will be a major financial loss as well as an emotionally draining challenge, but certainly a lot worse things can happen. As always in these situations it’s the lack of clarity and communication that don’t help. Multiple contradictory pieces of advice from BA and you wonder what benefit BA Gold really gives you when you need real help. Hopefully the luggage arrives back soon. The pilots certainly did a great job communicating and most importantly doing the right thing to keep us all safe.
It will be a couple of days to get the luggage back if it has been sent to Toronto.
All you can do is make sure the world tracer baggage claim for you has all your correct contact details in it.
And remember it isn’t updated in real time and call centre staff have no additional info over and above what you can see so the first you’ll likely hear from them is a text from the courier with an estimated delivery time.
Is there any way for you to have the tickets refunded/resold?
I know how expensive these tickets are!
I’m so sorry. What happened to you Taylor tickets? Had I seen this sooner I would have recommended that the Eras Tour is totally worth two trans Atlantic flights in two days.
I’m so sorry you all had to miss out.Luckily I lived in Canada for 10 years so i had friends that could use the tickets with their kids.
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