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Hi Folks,
We have a booking on QR from London to Phuket in November in J. The flights have been rescheduled by only a few minutes; however, two flights on the ticket have new flight numbers.
What are our rights in this scenario? Do we have any? In the ideal world, we would reschedule the flights one day earlier. Of course, there is no redemption availability. We don’t want to cancel the holiday. Do we have to take the rebooked flights?
Many thanks,
James
It’s my understanding from other posters that a new flight number means that your original one has been cancelled, however from what others have also posted about QR, you might have a very hard time getting them to co-operate with any re-routing requests, especially if you’re trying to travel a day earlier than your original outbound. Of course you can cancel an award booking, but as you point out, a lack of availability to rebook is going to be an issue.
A rescheduling does not give rise to any particular rights, whereas a cancellation does, but enforcing such rights with QR is often tricky. While some here will tell you that a change of flight number automatically means it’s a cancellation, that is incorrect. The EC261 Interpretative Guidelines provide a definition:-
3.2.1. Definition of cancellation
Article 2(l) of the Regulation defines ‘cancellation’ as the non-operation of a flight which was previously planned and on which at least one place was reserved.
Cancellation occurs in principle where the planning of the original flight is abandoned and passengers of that flight join passengers on a flight which was also planned, but independently of the original flight. Article 2(l) does not require an express decision of cancellation by the carrier (26).So, if the flights have just been renumbered, and you stay booked on what is essentially the same flight, that’s definitely not a cancellation.
Thus, you need to check exactly what has happened to establish what your rights are, but QR may not be too helpful in moving you by a day.
Another piece of perhaps relevant detail — the flights were booked on a BA ticket through ba.com.
Another piece of perhaps relevant detail — the flights were booked on a BA ticket through ba.com.
That adds a layer of complication in that BA can’t override the QR system to book you onto a flight without reward availability as they can on their own flights, so they have to make a request to QR over whom they have very little influence. You can ask BA and it may depend on how BA sees the changes you describe in its system – ie whether they see a cancellation or flight number and small schedule change.
Have you looked to see if there’s anything you can do via MMB?
Have you looked to see if there’s anything you can do via MMB?
Did look, but no options provided.
Good luck with that. Our flight was cancelled and we were put on the flight 6 hours later. Even that QR refused to book us to any other flight earlier without redemption availability. BA couldn’t do anything even with help from OW alliance desk.
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