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The following commercial policy for British Airways (BA), Etihad (EY), Qatar Airways (QR) is available for customers impacted by cancellations on the LHR-AUH-LHR.
17-DEC-2024 14:00 (UK)
For customers with a BA-125 ticket issued for any booking that contains at least one BA mainline operating flight which is CANCELLED.
Routes affectedLHR-AUH-LHR
Airports Affected
AUH
Tickets issued by
17th December 2024
Ticket travel dates
Between 30th March until 25th October 2025
New travel Dates
If rebooking onto British Airways (BA) to/from DXB: Rebook to any date within ticket validity
If rebooking onto Etihad (EY) or Qatar Airways (QR): Rebook +/- 14 days
Rebooking Allowance
Rebook onto British Airways (BA) to/from DXB. Rebook into lowest available in same cabin, or lower cabin.
OR
Rebook onto Etihad (EY) or Qatar Airways (QR) using following guidance.
Rebook into lowest available in same cabin, or lower cabin.
Origin/Destination
Yes – change from LHR to LGW allowed. Change from AUH to DXB allowed. No other changes allowed.
Stopover Changes
Yes – allowed to re-route via DOH or DXB
Refunds Allowed
Yes – as per standard conditions of carriage ONLY if flight has been cancelled
Redemptions included
Yes – can be rebooked onto EY/QR into redemption classes only, or onto BA via DXB in lowest available in cabin
Available for Trade
Yes – Self manage rebooking, reissue and refunds via GDS by following these guidelines.
Important Information
For rebookings to Etihad:
Add OS Invol sched change reroute per EY/BA agreementFor rebookings to Qatar Airways:
Add OS Invol sched change reroute per QR/BA agreementFor all bookings:
Add OSI for customer phone number/email address
Add OS BA AUH SUSPENSION
One ticket change allowed from the above options.
If rebooking into lower cabin, advise customer they can contact our Customer Relations team post-travel for downgrade compensation.
Entry or transit restrictions and scheduled services may change at any time.
Adherence to commercial policies/conditions of carriage guidelines remains entirely the responsibility of the user. BA reserves the right to withdraw guidelines at any timeThanks for posting this, it is helpful.
As a follow up, I spoke to BA as I had a flight from LHR to AUH scheduled for April, which has now been cancelled due to the route suspension. I found BA’s response very unhelpful.
Firstly, they refused to re-book me onto an Etihad flight on the same date / with the closest time of flight to the original BA flight. They cited that they only have an agreement with Etihad for rebooking on certain flights. That is not clear from their rebooking rules above, which is frustrating. Despite Etihad having a huge amount of available flights from LHR-AUH, the next Etihad flight they offered me was the day of my return flight, so totally useless.
As an alternative, they offered me a flight from LHR to DXB via BA. I asked if I would be compensated for the transfer from DXB to Abu Dhabi, and was told I would need to raise a compensation claim at the time (no guarantee). This response was again unhelpful.
Given my frustration at this point, I asked if I could have a refund for the whole booking (so outbound and return flight) so I could book a round-trip flight with another airline more freely. They would not do this.
I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on the above / know what my rights would be in this situation?
Thanks
As a practical matter, BA will reimburse you the reasonable cost of a transfer to/from Dubai without fuss on presentation of the invoice(s). They won’t confirm this in advance as agents aren’t empowered to guarantee this in case you present a ludicrous bill.
You are automatically entitled to a full refund on cancellation but you need to decide if that’s the best solution for you rather than a rerouting at no additional cost.
If you call again, you may get a more helpful agent. You only get one chance to choose in this situation, so decide exactly what you want and is deliverable.
BA seem to be aspiring to RyanAir levels of customer service.
BA seem to be aspiring to RyanAir levels of customer service.
I don’t know – the above rebooking rules sound more than reasonable to me?
BA seem to be aspiring to RyanAir levels of customer service.
Ryanair isn’t particularly bad at handling claims and nor is BA compared the likes of Lufthansa, Iberia or Swiss. The number of intractable BA complaints reported here is actually fairly low and a rough count suggests they are actually outweighed by prompt settlements and the number of cases that reach CEDR is also low.
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