Cancelled flight within hours

[thegreatdane]

Apologies this might have been answered before.

On route to CPH this morning, my flight (booked on Avios) got cancelled around 0400hrs and due to fly 07:10. Automatically rebooked to ..the next day. Tried calling the gold line but closed and the regular call centre just drops you off.

As I am going for the Tour De France I need to get there as early as possible. Managed to find one seat on Norwegian for a bargain of 300 quid.

Question: Will BA cover the new flight booked? And how do I go about it?

Thanks in advance!

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

[Bill]

You should contact the operator of the flight and give them the opportunity to reroute you today on another carrier.
They may book it for you.
If and when they refuse to do so you should buy the ticket yourself and claim it back using the website.

[SamG]

IMO by calling in you gave them the opporunity to reroute you. DO NOT CANCEL OR REFUND THE TICKET , just don’t touch it. Then make your claim here

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/customerportal/public/en_gb#/customer-service-portal (I believe not logging in is better weirdly)

for both your reroute costs and your compensation. Include screenshots of your call records to prove you gave them the opportunity to reroute you at the earliest opportunity

[thegreatdane]

Just following up on this.

BA has just responded and agreeing that I am entitled to compensation due to EU261 but are refusing to cover my replacement flight. The response is almost comical and offers no reasoning to why they wont cover the replacement flight: “Although I appreciate your reasons for asking, I’m afraid we can’t refund the cost of your alternative flight ticket. Please contact your travel insurance company to see whether you would be covered by any policy you may have with them.”

I replied that I will start MCOL immediately. Is there anything else I should do?

As a reminder I have called in on the day of cancellation and demanded to be rebooked on the same day which they couldn’t

[thegreatdane]

Just following up on this.

Got a response back from BA saying that I am indeed entitled to compensation however refusing to cover the replacement ticket. The response is comical and offers no reasoning: “Although I appreciate your reasons for asking, I’m afraid we can’t refund the cost of your alternative flight ticket. Please contact your travel insurance company to see whether you would be covered by any policy you may have with them”

I responded that I will immediately start MCOL. Anything else I should do? I am planning to see this to the end.

As a reminder I called them prior and asked them to re-route to the same day which they couldn’t.

[JDB]

@thegreatdane in your original post you didn’t say you called them prior and asked for a rerouting, but that you couldn’t get through. Important to get the story straight if going to MCOL.

BA will rely on the Interpretative Guidelines that, in summary, say that if you go off and do your own thing without giving the airline an opportunity to reroute you, they can decide not to reimburse you.

[thegreatdane]

JDB wrote:

@thegreatdane in your original post you didn’t say you called them prior and asked for a rerouting, but that you couldn’t get through. Important to get the story straight if going to MCOL.

BA will rely on the Interpretative Guidelines that, in summary, say that if you go off and do your own thing without giving the airline an opportunity to reroute you, they can decide not to reimburse you.

At the time of the post that was correct. I managed to get through later and explained the situation where they offered no same day re-booking. As the ticket on the alterative airline was fully flex I would have been able to cancel it.

[JDB]

That’s better then. Make sure you keep a record, with evidence from your call log, of the attempts and actual contact with BA and precisely what they said to you and you said to them. Did they have seats on another flight the same day they wouldn’t give you etc. Have a look at 4.2 of the Interpretative Guidelines, on the assumption that this is what BA will rely upon.

thegreatdane wrote:

JDB wrote:

@thegreatdane in your original post you didn’t say you called them prior and asked for a rerouting, but that you couldn’t get through. Important to get the story straight if going to MCOL.

BA will rely on the Interpretative Guidelines that, in summary, say that if you go off and do your own thing without giving the airline an opportunity to reroute you, they can decide not to reimburse you.

At the time of the post that was correct. I managed to get through later and explained the situation where they offered no same day re-booking. As the ticket on the alterative airline was fully flex I would have been able to cancel it.

[JDB]

@thegreatdane not saying whether BA is right or wrong but I think they will rely upon the EC261 Interpretative Guidelines that state:-

“However, where an air carrier can demonstrate that when the passenger has accepted to give his or her personal contact details, it has contacted a passenger and sought to provide the assistance required by Article 8, but the passenger has nonetheless made his or her own assistance or re-routing arrangements, then the air carrier may conclude that it is not responsible for any additional costs the passenger has incurred and may decide not to reimburse them.”

Basically, if you go off piste and make your own arrangements they might get off the hook.

[JDB]

@thegreatdane that’s better then. Make sure you keep a record, with evidence from your call log, of the attempts and actual contact with BA and precisely what they said to you and you said to them. Did they have seats on another flight the same day they wouldn’t give you etc. Have a look at 4.2 of the Interpretative Guidelines, on the assumption that this is what BA will rely upon.

[SteveR]

This is the bible http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Re-routing%20Guidance%20(CAP2155).pdf

Para 28 on page 12 makes for interesting reading

Para 3.3 page 15

Don’t forget you can get any phone recordings under Data Protection dpo@ba.com

[Abdul]

Very interesting article

[Lady London]

Just a thought. I don’t think this is the case here as 7.00am isn’t the favourite time of day for a flight for everyone. However if you receive a cancellation for a flight on a date there is a sports event where you’re going, always check to see if the flight is still runnimg. Because if they overbooked, or expect to be overbooked, or have sold your seat to someone else for more money, the airline may offload you. What ypu receive then looks just like a cancellation – though your flight is still running they’ve just chosen you to offload. So always check what flights are still running.

A particular danger with award tickets and very cheap tickets. BMI tried it on me when I had months ago booked to Scotland and meanwhile a football team had got through to a late stage and the match was going to be held where I was flying. So I got a flight cancellation email, but they were still selling multiple seats in the whole plane. (I phoned them and mentioned tbis and they put me back on the flight).

It was really mean of BA to send a message cancelling you at 4am for a 7am flight – by then I would already have been 1 hour into my journey to the airport. What happemed to BA telling the newspapers they were giving decent notice to pax of their cancellations?

Please report back when ypu get your money @thegreatdane. It should only take an LBA if you put the sequence of your attempts to reach them etc., correctly in the LBA. Don’t forget to claim breakfast as well if you were already en route and wouldn’t have been able to get back home for breakfast, plus any return to home and back travel expenses for anyone that doesn’t end up travelling same day.