BA refusing to rebook on non oneworld airline

[Olly]

Esteemed HfP folk, your advice please.

My wife’s flight out next Friday afternoon to Lisbon in club Europe has been cancelled. After no response from the BA twitter team and being cutoff from the UK number we finally got through to the US number this evening after a long wait (manned by a UK person). My wife asked to be rebooked on a flight on the same day or the day before, and the only options offered were an economy BA flight on the same day which would mean she would arrive after midnight (pointless given that we’re flying back on Sunday afternoon) or an indirect iberia flight the previous day.

There is a business flight available on TAP earlier the same day but the agent said she was unable to book this, only other oneWorld flights. We asked for her to confirm this in writing and she refused, saying we needed to email the customer relations team who could listen to the recording of the call.

So is our best option to book the TAP flight and try to make a claim via the small claims court if BA refuse to pay for it?

I felt sure that I read somewhere on this site recently that airlines like TAP whom they have reciprocal agreements with could be booked by BA but not low cost carriers, but cannot now find where this was written.

[AJA]

A case of HUACA. You are entitled to be rerouted at your earliest convenience in the same class as booked. If BA refuse to rebook on TAP then you are really going to have to buy ticket yourself and claim back potentially via MCOL.

Do not cancel for refund.

Do you know why flight has been cancelled and when did you receive notification?

Also if you choose BA flight same day in economy you can claim downgrade reimbursement as well as compensation for arrival more than 4 hours later than scheduled.

[Olly]

Thanks for the advice. We’ll try and call again in the morning.

Cancellation became evident in the app (first noticed yesterday) – no email notification was received. I presume it’s just part of the Heathrow flight cull but don’t know for certain.

Flight booked via Avios so downgrade option not that appealing – we’d consider to do it for a flight at a reasonable time but the later flight offered doesn’t meet that criteria.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Olly]

NB. The agent was really pushing for us to take the refund but we refused because the rights are clear and there’s no way we could get a reasonably priced alternative at this late stage

[Froggee]

“Hang up and call again.”

BA are shameless – I’d be surprised if they book you on TAP despite being legally obliged to.

I’d have one more attempt and then it’s up to you whether you can face MCOL.

[JDB]

Olly wrote:

Thanks for the advice. What does HUACA mean?

Cancellation became evident in the app (first noticed yesterday) – no email notification was received. I presume it’s just part of the Heathrow flight cull but don’t know for certain.

Flight booked via Avios so downgrade compensation not that appealing – we’d be ok to do it for a flight at a reasonable time but the later flight doesn’t meet that criteria.

HUACA means hang up and call again – in the hope another agent might be more helpful. The bottom line is that while BA should rebook you on TAP if they can’t offer a suitable alternative, you can’t force them to do so. At that point, you have to decide whether you are prepared to wear the cost/take the risk of booking alternative flight directly with TAP and claiming the money back from BA, likely to involve a court claim. You need some co-operation from BA in order to protect your return flight if your wife doesn’t take the outbound. BA will likely claim ‘extraordinary circumstances’ so you may not get any compensation.

[AJA]

Coincidentally I am in currently in Lisbon and have just receives a cancellation email for my flight LIS to LHR BA0503 on Tuesay 19 July.

Only option in MMB is for me to cancel which I don’t want.

No reason given yet but I suspect its to do with the HAL request to limit passenger numbers so I am guessing BA will try to wriggle out of compensation blaming Heathrow Airport.

According to FlyerTalk there is an option to be rebooked on TAP for my flight but that requires calling BA and probably applies to your flight too. So I suggest you definitely try again tomorrow

[slidey]

Olly wrote:

needed to email the customer relations team

Does anyone know what that email address is?

[SamG]

Tell them to check their additional guidelines – there is a reprotection agreement in place with TAP until 31st August

[Olly]

Found this doc linked to from flyer talk which confirms which other airlines can be booked – TAP is on the list. Sharing in case useful to anyone else in the same boat:

https://www.britishairways.com/assets/pdfs/updates/rooc.pdf

[Gary]

It would be of great benefit if BA could outsource its CSA training to HfP members. The depth of knowledge is impressive.

[AJA]

A follow up re my cancellation. Last night after I posted at 11pm I checked on Google flights for 19 July and BA was still selling tickets on 2 flights from LIS to LHR so I tried calling silver line and amazingly after 20 minutes they answered. I explained the situation and said I can see flight no 519 for sale. Agent was extremely helpful very sorry and apologised profusely for my inconvenience I experienced and immediately rebooked me and OH on the flight in Club. Ticket issued and email confirming change received while still on the phone and MMB updated to reflect change. Also told me that was my one free change and any further voluntary changes are per original fare conditions but also told me to use complaint form on BA to claim EC261 compensation once back in London. Jury is still out on whether I will be denied and BA will blame HAL (Heathrow Airport Limited) but immediate problem is solved. Original tickets are an Avios booking BTW.

Hope @Olly has success this morning, try phoning at 7:55am as call centre opens at 8am.

I just checked Google flights and unfortunately no BA flights in Club on sale for your date but at least 3 TAP direct flights on sale departing 6am-TP1363, 8am-TP1351 from LHR or 10:35am-TP1339 from LGW I would choose the flight no you want and say please book me on TPxxx per guideline Good luck. Please report back how you get on.

[Olly]

AJA – Just off the phone. Agent again claiming to be ignorant of ability to book on TAP and only offering to route via Madrid on Iberia. Will have to try the route of email to see if we can get in writing that they are refusing to book the alternative flight then seems we’ll need to go down the courts route.

Faintly ludicrous but short of repeating the same conversation again with a different agent I’m not sure what other option we have now

[Froggee]

@Olly I’m guessing part of your issue might be that the guidelines that have a link to them posted above only allow the agents to rebook you on TAP if no same day BA alternative exists. So basically computer says no.

I think you have the option of taking the later BA flight, cancelling, or booking yourself and having a whole load of stress trying to get the money back from BA. Only you can decide what is right for you.

If you decide the latter option, make sure you are very familiar with the EC 261 regulations and have the energy to put up a fight and the ability to take a loss.

I’m sorry – it’s totally rubbish.

[Olly]

@froggee I thought the same but whilst that one seat on BA was available on the BA flight was available last night it no longer is so there really is no excuse on BA’s side. And agree it is a truly rubbish bit of work by BA but will try whatever we can to get it sorted!

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[AJA]

@Olly the agent is talking BS. I wonder if they are priortising customers away from home.

Try calling an overseas number eg for the US or Irael. There’s usually a UK number to call from overseas.

Tell them you are recording the call, use a mobile on speakerphone and use a second mobile to record the call.

Then when they refuse tell them to protect the return flight and then buy TAP flight and claim back after the event.

[AJA]

Try phoning 020 3250 0145. That’s the no for the USA but is obviously a UK number.

[Olly]

Totally agree AJA!

The US line was the one we got through on last night and although we weren’t recording the call, the agent thought we were because of the echo on Skype and was getting very wound up about it. But I think doing this might be our best hope of getting the evidence we’re going to need when we have to start the court case.

Before that though, we’re trying one last role of the dice on Twitter having got a bounce back from the email the agent gave us a stock response from the online form saying flights couldn’t be rebooked via email

[meta]

I have experience with BA on routes to Portugal. They won’t book TAP flights period!

It’s a case of booking yourself and submitting a claim. I always always record the calls where they refuse and then transcribe. You can’t use the recording at MCOL, but you can use word for word transcription. BA is known to say there is no call recordings. They are also not required to record every call.

[SamG]

@meta they won’t usually but they have gone to the effort of putting a specific arrangement in place this time. So it’s very annoying that their agents aren’t honouring it!

[Olly]

Miracle of miracles – a seat opened up on the Wednesday night flight that me and the two kids are already on. So we’ve switched it via MMB.

So all that remains is to see whether we will receive the compensation due for the initial cancellation which might go some way to make up for all the wasted hours we’ve spent

[meta]

SamG wrote:

@meta they won’t usually but they have gone to the effort of putting a specific arrangement in place this time. So it’s very annoying that their agents aren’t honouring it!

The management can put all the the arrangements in place they want, but if they also don’t tell the CS (and that is every last one of them), it’s the same as not having any arrangements. You know because you work in the industry if I am not mistaken, and what you see is not the same as all BA agents have access to.

It’s a deliberate management tactic as about 90% people won’t pursue it further and just ask for a refund.

[AJA]

@Olly That’s a fab result. I am so pleased that you managed to sort it. I just hope your flights operate as scheduled. I keep expecting to see a further cancellation for my rearranged flight. It’s hot as hades here (45 degrees today) but the air-conditioned hotel room is really welcome.

Definitely worth hanging on and refusing to take a refund or the first option you’re given.

I wish you well with the compensation claim – I too will claim and I am pretty sure they’ll push back but let’s hope we both get some money out of BA

[Olly]

Post-script – was en route to the airport when I got a text to say the flight had been cancelled, with the replacement offered on Saturday night. Farcical.

There doesn’t appear to be sufficient seats on any alternative airlines in the next 2 days, so looks like this trip isn’t happening sadly.

So, onto the compensation questions:

1. How can I find out the reason for cancellation?
2. Our flight out was with BA, but our flight back was due to be with another carrier – can we claim for that return journey and our other related losses (hotels, parking, transfers at the other end) we will have incurred?

[SamG]

What was the flight? I can have a look in expertflyer though it only has the status there for a few days

You’ll get a refund and EU compo (unless they try to claim extraordinary circumstances) but the rest is for your travel insurance to handle