Cancelled BA flight with no rebooking options offered – what now?

[JenT]

Hoping someone can help with this who has previous experience – my COVID travel was going so well until now!

Booked LHR-MIA and BNA-LHR with BA, Club World both ways, using Avios and Companion voucher, for travel in January and February.

BNA-LHR cancelled by BA with the route suspended until around mid-May. Eventually got a hold of CSA using US BA phone number (14 hours on hold with UK BA…) who agreed that legal obligation was full refund or rebooking, but no rebooking options available on the system, so all I could do was get a full refund (this is not what I want as those flights are now ££££ for cash). There are AA flights BNA-PHL-LHR available at similar times but I was told that it wasn’t possible to rebook onto those as system is not showing anything, etc, etc.

I got the CSA to move my flight to ATL-LHR in the meantime so at least I have something back to the UK at a reasonable time, but still want to pursue BNA-LHR routes as getting to Atlanta is at my cost.

Am I correct in trying to get something to get me from Nashville to London and that BA have to offer me something? CSA suggested other options might appear closer to the time and I should keep checking(!) or alternatively just turn up at Nashville airport at the time of my flight and let them deal with the problem (I’m not very comfortable with that). All advice appreciated.

[SamG]

Call again. They can rebook onto AA . Ideally you wouldn’t have accepted anything during the call but push for a supervisor to get you onto the flights that you want if there is any pushback

[NorthernLass]

I think you will struggle to get BA to change this; they will say you have accepted the alternative flight. I think there’s a link to your cancellation rights at the bottom of MMB, unless I’ve imagined this, so they will probably say they have covered themselves legally. You would have been absolutely entitled to re-routing on your preferred flight in this instance under UK261. But the CSA was dishonest about your options so you could try putting that to a supervisor (though my experience is that they are equally unhelpful!)

[JenT]

Thanks both. I specifically asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that wasn’t possible, and then later was told that even if I did speak to one, the answer would be the same.

I know I might have compromised my position by moving to the Atlanta flight, but it’s essential I get back to the UK that day and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get something appropriate if I left it much longer.

Complaint email already sent and steeling myself for more spanish guitar hold music…

[Lady London]

JenT wrote:

Thanks both. I specifically asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that wasn’t possible, and then later was told that even if I did speak to one, the answer would be the same.

I know I might have compromised my position by moving to the Atlanta flight, but it’s essential I get back to the UK that day and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get something appropriate if I left it much longer.

Complaint email already sent and steeling myself for more spanish guitar hold music…

Anna is right. I know it’s easy to say but when BA stonewalls you, and refuses your legal right to insist on travelling on the date you booked on the route you booked on another airline if necessary if they cancelled your flight, you must absolutely not blow your one opportunity to get exactly what you want by “temporarily” taking something else. That blows your one chance that you get to rebook your whole booking to what you want when BA cancelled a flight on you.

Technically you could say you were lied to and denied your rights and that you only did it due to BA’s misrepresentation. This would involve using your DatabSubject Access Rights and using your right to get a copy of the recording of your phone call. Then asking a couple more times for what you’re entitled to after you’ve received the recording, then Letter Before Action, then MCOLing.

Frankly I would doubt whether you would be tenacious enough.

[Lady London]

PS especially if you can get the recording off them it sounds like you”d be entitled to recover the costs of getting to Atlanta from Nashville from BA as they were before the call, responsible for your ticketing or costs all the way home from Nashville even by an indirect route if they claimed they couldn’t ticket anything else. It just depends on you not having agreed a departure from Atlanta for your return as a settlement in the call. I believe BA are on thin ice here if they try not to pay up for this if the call made it clear you only regarded this as a partial settlement.

[NorthernLass]

I’m constantly amazed that it’s not a national scandal that our (supposedly) national airline is so mendacious and obstructive.

[meta]

The reason this is not a national scandal is because people don’t have the tenacity to go all the way. It is as if people love being treated unfairly.

[JenT]

@LadyLondon Thank you for all the advice. I am very happy to take this on all the way to MCOL – I have had to do something similar involving recorded phone calls in the past so it’s relatively familiar to me and I have the time to spend dealing with this process. It is ridiculous that so many people have to argue their rights (if they know them at all) and so many staff seem to mislead passengers, so I’m keen to tackle this. I have certainly made clear in the recording that this is not a resolution, my costs to Atlanta, etc.

The personal side of all of this: Getting myself onto a confirmed flight home was critical for me due to a work commitment in the following days (I accept that the Atlanta flight could still be cancelled due technical problem, etc, but consequences of that type of situation are different to a ‘pre-existing’ known problem). I also can sleep better for the next few weeks(!), have a solution I am tolerant of and if nothing is improved at BA’s end, it’s only cost me $100 more to go home from Atlanta.

[JenT]

Hoping Lady London and others may pick this up if it appears on the Recent Topics section…

Finally got response for first part of complaint (filed online) – 10000 Avios each with a standard reply. How do I tell BA that I am not happy with this resolution?

Second part is still ongoing which involves the phone calls being listened to, but still waiting on this part…

[Lady London]

Sorry Jen T read the thread again and not sure what you’re describing as the first part.

Is it 8 weeks since the problem first arose and you’re trying to resolve it that long?

What, exactly, have you asked them for in each of the 2 “parts” you mention.

Personally I am not interested in avios from an airline that is messing me round like this. You have to be seen to consider any offer even if you reject it as not what you’re asking for, or incomplete or inadequate.

I thought you just wanted them to ticket you home on the date you’d booked, all the way from Nashville which, if they can provide an acceptable whole solution, could include a routing via Atlanta.

Don’t just ask them to listen to the call : insist they provide you a copy.

I’d call them and be nice but reiterate what you said you wanted in the original call that they didn’t provide fully yet. ie the full routing all the way home from Nashville. If you don’t get that on the call or if you get told to wait any more than a week till they provide you copy of the call and listen to it, personally I’d fill my time by sending them a LBA giving them 21 days to provide the timely reroute on same day you’ve requested accdg to your EU261 / UK statutory equivalent rights. That way you are poised to go CEDR or MCOL if they disappoint you.

If you really have spare time you could enclose a cash price screenshot of quote or two or three from any other airline(s) with scheduling that could get you home at a similar time to your original booking. Would be nice if one of them is Virgin. Refer to them as being for illustrative purposes but naturally you’d appreciate if BA will kindly reroute you as per [law] instead.

If they refer to their offer of 10k avios I’d tell them you want the whole solution that you need so you need to see the rest of the solution before you accept anything.

[JenT]

Hi Lady London. Thanks for the reply. The flight in question is now only four days away so I am pushed to get anything done, also especially considering the time difference and BA’s poor speed at doing anything.

When they refused any re-routing (when calling US BA number) and I took the change to fly from Atlanta in order to get something ticketed, I submitted a complaint online on 8 Jan – this is what I have had a response to on 7 Feb, crediting my account and my husband’s account with 10000 Avios each. On 11 Jan, I managed to get through to BA (UK) on the phone and asked them to look into it as I still wanted to be reticketed onto a flight from Nashville. They said that only the office that took the call would be able to look into it, so it would be passed to the US duty desk. UK staff member explained how busy they were, etc etc, and normally they would get back to me within 72 hours, but it could be more. I asked if it was likely they might get back to me before I actually flew on the flight concerned (13 Feb) and the lady practically laughed and said of course. It is now the 9 Feb and no response…

I have accepted that I am not going to fly from Nashville in four days so have changed car hire to return at Atlanta (around £150 more). I took screenshots on 8 Jan of every flight showing on BA.com that routed from Nashville to London, but the prices were one way rather than part of a return.

Not sure what I can do with a short time remaining – although I am happy to pursue costs when home. The email with the 10k Avios credit notification doesn’t allow you to reply, so I don’t even know how to tell them I’m not happy!

[Lady London]

There’s not much I can help you with given the decisions you’ve made.

Easy for me to say I know, but now you’ve said the flight is so close and as you’ve been panicked into doing what BA wanted you to, I would certainly have called them no later than 1 week before the flight and literally insisted on speaking straight to a supervisor and sitting on the phone till they ticketed you all the way back starting from Nashville.

If this had not worked I would have told them that due to their denial of my right to be fully rerouted I would now book my return on Virgin [or anyone else but Virgin best if they are running the route] and would be taking legal action to recover all my costs for that plus all duty of care.

Obvs best to have obtained the recording of the conversation where they denied you.. And as @NorthernLass has also said, ideal would be not to have let them just put the Atlanta leg on the ticket in the first place : unless as part of a full solution provided all together getting you the complete journey back from Nashville.

I would be surprised if you will get anything for your car hire extra costs but you could try plus bill them for US cost of extra fuel. But that’s hardly anything,for fuel at US rates.

Obvs you had to do what you needed to do and not everyone has handy cash to buy an alternative flight they’re 100% entitled to when BA stonewalls them and claim it back. But basically BA has won by denying you your rights, stonewalling you, being practically speaking currently impossible to contact and being inefficient. BA 40 Jen 15. Sorry.

Even the 10k avios was a presumptuous insult and indicated they’d bet that was all they had to do.

[JenT]

All noted, thanks. I was without any phone connections for most of this trip (sailing and cruising) which made the plan of hanging on and phoning almost impossible. I spent more than 30 hours on hold to BA before leaving the UK on 23 Jan and that wasn’t sustainable in the USA. I asked to speak to a supervisor on three separate occasions and every time denied – it’s easier said that done at the moment.

I have plenty of cash to buy extra tickets, but at £8000 for the two of us, that’s a big financial risk to take without any guarantee of return.

Finally do I now lodge another complaint? How do I tell them I’m not happy with the ‘solution’ given.

[Lady London]

Who knows.
Pick one of :
– call them again
– send them a recorded delivery or tracked or signed for letter by post
– raise a new complaint online
– try on Twitter
Any of the above, mentioning all complaint references and booking refs.

Not sure any of this would be productive though.
Productive is, so many times with BA, MCOL only.
Or CEDR if you are willing to take the risk of a perverse decision or keen to put a case based on what’s reasonable and fair and not just based on law.

[JenT]

Thanks again – since I’ll be home in 4 days, I don’t have much risk of a perverse decision going badly for me, so will consider both MCOL and CEDR. Will file a new complaint online in the meantime…

[Lady London]

JenT wrote:

Thanks again – since I’ll be home in 4 days, I don’t have much risk of a perverse decision going badly for me, so will consider both MCOL and CEDR. Will file a new complaint online in the meantime…

You could CEDR it. The increase in your car hire cost because you were forced to drop the car at a different place to accommodate BA’s refusal to reroute you isn’t stated as due to you in the legislation although cost of getting you to another airport would be then fuel cost yes but amendment cost of car hire not so directly.

Also there is the inconvenience and loss of your personal time on holiday etc. having to travel earlier and longee giving up other things because BA refused to provide the absolute legal right (EU261/UK261) you had to choose to be transported from Nashville and as reasonably close your booked time as possible.

I think this is one of the few cases where I’d say claim everything but as you’re looking for what’s reasonable and fair and not just strictly relying on the law and the CEDR arbitrator has discretion to award on that basis, make the claim via CEDR not MCOL.