Cancelled Cash Flight options

[badmansam]

Last July we booked some great value Economy cash flights to Singapore from London for this current Easter Break (we were due to fly out this coming Thursday). In December those flights were cancelled. Our understanding was that we could rebook these flights for free onto any Singapore service within 12 months of the flight date. We were quite happy with that flexibility and with Asia not as open as we expected it would be by now we booked a different trip for this Easter and planned to rebook the Singapore trip for either Easter next year (before we realised that was more than 355 days from our original flight) or this Christmas.

Anyway… the rebooking could not be done through MMB – only a refund was offered. My partner called BA and was variously told in one phone call (going backwards and forwards with her manager):

1st – told that we could rebook to Easter next year by rebooking the outbound now and separately rebooking the return once flights are bookable (even though that would have to be done after our original scheduled outbound and flown)
2nd – couldn’t do next Easter or Christmas as could only rebook to fly within 14 days of the original flights
3rd – couldn’t rebook at all because it was a ‘different kind of ticket’ and we could only get a refund
4th – ticket only valid 12 months from booking so would have rebook to fly before July this year

Can anyone offer some clarity on this and point to the correct policy?

[yonasl]

You may want to read this as it is a similar case where BA cancelled flights to Africa and did not want to provide an alternative flight for a period longer than 12 months.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/victory-over-ba-at-cedr-on-ticket-validity-issue/

The fact you got so many contradictory answers clearly shows they are all bollocks (pardon but BA could do better and stop driving people nuts with the same subject, specially if they keep losing in court).

1. BA has to provide you alternative flights “at your convenience” or a refund
2. The 12 months validity is their T&Cs not the actual law. There is a clear example where this makes no sense and it is when a booking you made 11 months and 29 days ago gets cancelled … what would be your option in that case?
3. If the cancelation occurs 14 days before your flight you have right for compensation if you arrive late to your destination and also pay for any additional costs (for instance one more hotel night)

So your options are:
1. Call BA and explain to them that they recently lost the 12 months argument. It is in their best interest to simply rebook you on a BA flight or any other airline (check the possible options yourself but Asia will be limited to Qatar). Since you are booking a year from now it may be harder to ask for a non One World airline
2. If BA refuses and you feel energetic enough then you can book your own flights and then claim in court like @StillintheSun
3. Careful before accepting any change/refund as this may forfeit your rights to make any changes later