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Hi
We were due to fly club from Manchester to Boston yesterday on an Avios redemption with a 2for1 voucher. BA emailed at around 3am whilst we were at our hotel at the airport and we saw that our flight to LHR at 8:50 had been cancelled for operational reasons and we had been rebooked for the 16:50 flight and rebooked into WT (from CW) for the 20:10 flight to Boston. This wasn’t acceptable and after trying to speak to BA for 45 minutes or so – and no flights showing as available for the following day cancelled the booking. The 16:50 flight was subsequently cancelled too.I understand we will be refunded our Avios and charges – presumably seat booking charges too. Any chance that BA will extend the 2 for 1 voucher that expires next week? Had this booked for months. Is it worth asking for anything for the hotel cost incurred for the first night of the hotel in Boston that is chargeable – fortunately booked at the Marriott senior rate so looks like just the first night rather than the whole stay is charged.
Appreciate that we could have taken the flight and sought compensation for the delay and reimbursement for the downgrade but didn’t want the replacement flight on the basis it was offered.
Sorry for the lengthy post
BA is notorious for tinkering with the MAN flights and we normally do the LHR-MAN leg of long-haul departures the night before precisely because of this.
I think you should be able to claim cancellation compensation as long as the reason for it was within BA’s control – try and get as much information as possible about this in case BA tries to wriggle out of paying.
You will get your avios and cash back, and hopefully won’t get charged the £35pp fee as BA cancelled your original flight. Same goes for seat charges, though you will have to claim separately for these.
I’m not hopeful that you’ll get the 241 extended – BA will probably cite the Ts & Cs and refuse to play ball on this.
The lost hotel night will have to be claimed on your insurance.
Surely if they couldn’t provide a suitable flight via BA they should have provided via AA or Finnair etc
If you voluntarily cancelled the booking you probably won’t get your seat booking fees back automatically and very unlikely to extend your 2-4-1 did you ask the agent as you cancelled as that was probably your one shot to get variable confirmation (even if it was incorrect) and use that to get the refunds / voucher extended.
Personally I would’ve taken the WT flight and probably £700-800 per person of compensation it’s only a 6/7 hour flight
We couldn’t get through to an agent to have a discussion so cancelled through MMB.
Sorry NL – are you saying that we should be able to claim compensation for the cancellation even though we didn’t take the flight offered on the day?
You were at the airport you didn’t need to speak to agent on the phone your flight was under the control of the airport you were already at and they have far more leeway in offering alternative flights.
Surely the BA check in desk / help desk was the best place to speak to someone!
BA doesn’t have ticketing agents at the airport, they have to call the same as us! But it is a shame you didn’t persevere with the phone as for a cancellation within 24hrs they’ll offer almost any other airline – Virgin, Delta etc. So likely something suitable could have been found
Unfortunately I don’t think you’re going to have much luck getting the voucher extended and any losses will be for your insurance
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36337455-post1588.html cancelled due to lack of flight crew so shouldn’t be a fight getting compensated
https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/seating/seating-changes-and-refunds
Apply for a seat refund here. You are eligible as the flight was cancelled (even if you took a refund)
@SamG even if they do need to call. Let them sort it out. I’m sure they could’ve got through to someone within 45 mins vs the standard number.
True, worth a go. But just highlighting that it isn’t like most other airlines who’ll have ticket agents at the airport who can fix things themselves
Thanks all – appreciate we could have gone over to the check in desk at T3 but made the assumption that as the flight was cancelled there wouldn’t be BA staff around. Never found any before when we have had an issue with lost baggage. Looked at flights from LHR and there were no other flights that the MAN flight offered to us would connect with on the day from other carriers. Will look for the seat booking fees to be refunded as you suggest.
They can re-ticket you at MAN, but obviously it’s too late for that now! There would have been ground staff dealing with the other a.m. departures that day (which were presumably full).
It wasn’t a voluntary cancellation, BA cancelled it so full rights should apply.
Also – if this ever happens again, go straight to check in and insist that BA gets you to LHR if it’s still possible to make your connection. This can be train or taxi if necessary.
They can re-ticket you at MAN, but obviously it’s too late for that now! There would have been ground staff dealing with the other a.m. departures that day (which were presumably full).
It wasn’t a voluntary cancellation, BA cancelled it so full rights should apply.
Is that correct, BA cancelled the flight, the OP cancelled the ticket.
Also – if this ever happens again, go straight to check in and insist that BA gets you to LHR if it’s still possible to make your connection. This can be train or taxi if necessary.
BA had downgraded the LHR-BOS, getting to LHR was the sideshow.
OP my general advice is never cancel, it allows the airline to walk away. If you’re at the airport ask at a desk for BA to book you something more akin to what you had booked, it’s entirely a BA problem. Even if they can’t ticket they can call the correct BA department. If you’re not at the airport you have to try and get through, no matter low long it takes. They may not want to but there’s no way there wasn’t a business ticket to Boston via London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam with the obvious airline in each case. If they absolutely refuse you can ask for a recording of the call refusing you your 261 rights, and then decide whether you fancy the risk/can afford booking yourself on another airline/route and claiming back from BA via MCOL.
If OP could have got to LHR in time for the original departure, he should have been able to fly in CW as originally booked.
It’s not clear which BOS departure they were booked on, but a taxi may well have got them there. This happened to us a few years ago, BA told us to come back in 2 days when the next flight went but we insisted they get us to LHR that morning for our original one. We initially asked for re-routing but they refused that and agreed to pay for a taxi instead.
It was the 14:35 flight – will just be happy for a full refund – had assumed no compensation as we refused the re-routing. Lots of useful information here for if it happens again – going from Manchester it’s always a possibility – thanks all for the comment and advice – HfP is an amazing resource
Unfortunately Manchester isn’t what it was, 20 years ago it was an hourly service and always full. I don’t understand, the natural demand hasn’t gone away , to trains no way. BA seemed to have killed Manchester almost on purpose. Once the frequency decreases demand drops as it becomes less convenient, and unsafe in terms of reliable connections.
Good luck with your refund and compensation
Then plenty of time to get to LHR via car it’s about 2.5-3 hours. Not perfect start but doable and claim it back from BA, getting a refund is actually an out for BA as they lost nothing and will continue to let down their customers.
I know you perhaps got a suitable resolution for you but I’m still so surprised you were willing to give up your holiday to Boston after 45 mins of trouble.
If anyone else is ever in this situation there’s so many options available to you rather than just cancelling.
Once it’s so close to take off and especially if you’re already there always go to the airline staff at the airport someone will have to help and they can use their communication lines rather than the public ones.
Second don’t worry about what the options are online that’s the bare minimum that they can automatically offer it’s not the only option.
I *think* (@JDB will be able to clarify this), you might not have totally lost your re-routing rights, but there’s a lot being thrown at you as a relative newbie! I’m just thinking about the loss of the 241 and how you might claw something back for that.
Yes MAN routes have been gutted and seem to be the first to be cancelled when there are any crew/equipment issues. You have to approach any BA booking with the expectation that they may well screw it up for you and have a Plan B to call on!
Definitely put in the compo claim, though, you should be entitled to that regardless of you requesting a refund.
There’s a difference between taking a refund pursuant to an airline’s refusal to reroute post a cancellation and then making your own arrangements which may entitle you both to compensation vs simply taking a refund and deciding not to travel. The former may cause minor complications but it’s allowed as nobody should be expected to have to finance their rerouting. The latter may extinguish your rights.
It’s not entirely clear cut, but the argument usually runs that Article 8 grants you a refund automatically, but it’s the failure to be rerouted in accordance with Article 5.1(c) which makes you potentially eligible for compensation, so if you cancel and don’t travel at all, you don’t reach that step.
It shouldn’t be this way, and the passenger shouldn’t be finding all this out after the fact, but one needs to know what the rules are, ask the airline to apply them, failing which one has to take matters into ones own hands and sue the airline for the extra costs incurred.
Unfortunately, BA is extremely unlikely to extend the voucher.
Just to update – points, charges & taxes and seat booking fees were refunded over a four week or so period. Voucher not extended but presumably would be now under the revised rules if we had a similar experience. Notified today that the £520 compensation each will be paid so happy with that – thanks for all the help
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