Companion voucher flight to Tokyo cancelled

[FFoxSake]

Nadeshka wrote:

They said nothing within the 2 weeks of our September dates was available. When I mentioned the direct JAL flights she said it wasn’t appearing on her options to rebook us as not a codeshare.
I pushed for it to be escalated as I mentioned I had seen the policy of booking on JL and indirect flights wouldn’t work for us. Got put on hold and then cut off when I think they were coming back to say yes/no. No call back naturally.

All I can suggest is try, try again. I would recommend doing it via online chat because you get to keep a record of the transcript and can paste in those rebooking policy links from above if they don’t play ball.
I had to do that for my booking, but 2 other friends of mine with bookings on the identical BA-cancelled flights were moved without any issue.

If you check on Google Flights or JAL site and find the available dates you need for 4 people in Business you can be armed with the flight numbers you want to be booked on to. They DO NOT need to be BA code shares.
I quickly checked just now and only 2 outward Sept dates (21st/22nd) are unavailable on JAL direct. If they tell you otherwise they are blatantly lying…

Good luck!

ps I got a chat link via bottom right corner here: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/latest-information#cancelled.
Keep entering “speak to agent” until you get put into the queue proper.

[Biki]

I called a couple of weeks ago and asked to swap cancelled reward flights on to JAL flights and had no problem. Intiially they said there was no JAL flights on the days i wanted, but i told her the exact flight numbers and dates i wanted and that as they were cancelled by BA that it doesn’t need avios availability, they then they said it was fine.

my brother in-law tried the same and initially they said no avios availability, but i told him to mentioned the rebooking on JAL and not needing avios availability and suddenly they changed their minds!

[RK228]

We had return reward flights for 29 June – 15 July using an Amex 241 voucher (1 AUG 2022 expiry) that we booked in January.

My understanding is that we are no longer restricted to the voucher expiry/Avios availability and we can arrange flights on JAL at a later date at our convenience (subject to availability).

Based on this, can we realistically expect BA will rebook us in late August without too much fuss? They aren’t going to give us too much grief about the voucher validity, are they?

[Nadeshka]

Thanks for the advice FFoxSake and yonasl, success! 🙂

Went on the chat this morning just before 8, though in 10mins and straight off asked for the flights I wanted using the codeshare numbers BA4600/JL44 on the way out and BA4603/JL43 on the return.
Little bit of checking and they did suggest I wait to see if BA reinstates the flights as it’s a while away. It was slightly tempting as the flights are so much better times but given they’ve gone to the effort of cancelling (not just pulling from sale) I feel it’s highly unlikely it will be brought back before October? And JAL selling out Business class on those dates is a real risk.

Said I’d like to go ahead and have the certainty and they were happy to rebook and already showing in my account.
Shows you need to know exactly what to say and if at first you don’t succeed try again.

[yonasl]

Nadeshka wrote:

Thanks for the advice FFoxSake and yonasl, success! 🙂

Went on the chat this morning just before 8, though in 10mins and straight off asked for the flights I wanted using the codeshare numbers BA4600/JL44 on the way out and BA4603/JL43 on the return.
Little bit of checking and they did suggest I wait to see if BA reinstates the flights as it’s a while away. It was slightly tempting as the flights are so much better times but given they’ve gone to the effort of cancelling (not just pulling from sale) I feel it’s highly unlikely it will be brought back before October? And JAL selling out Business class on those dates is a real risk.

Said I’d like to go ahead and have the certainty and they were happy to rebook and already showing in my account.
Shows you need to know exactly what to say and if at first you don’t succeed try again.

Amazing that you managed to get it rebooked. Also flying to JP in October/November so hope the country re-opens soon.

Criminal how the previous people states THERE IS NO BA CODESHARE.

Imagine all the people getting cancellations and just walking away with their money and having to pay more to rebook with JAL again! Viva the HfP community

[Nadeshka]

The JAL flights are selling for £30k for the 5 of us (1 infant) so we definitely wouldn’t have been paying for them.
Would have begrudgingly accepted a connecting flight or probably cancelled the whole trip I think if I couldn’t get it agreed.
From the mixed success on other threads CEDR/MCOL feels too risky even though this should be an open and shut case.

[BJ]

Interesting that BA already issued cancellations to Tokyo in October so quickly. Anybody with winter reservations to BKK had their flights formally cancelled yet? Ours for November and December are still showing as confirmed despite route being dropoed do zi cannit get any agent to reroute us at the monent.

[yonasl]

BJ wrote:

Interesting that BA already issued cancellations to Tokyo in October so quickly. Anybody with winter reservations to BKK had their flights formally cancelled yet? Ours for November and December are still showing as confirmed despite route being dropoed do zi cannit get any agent to reroute us at the monent.

They cancelled all JP BA flights up to the 31st October (Monday) a month or so ago. Maybe November flights will be cancelled soon too? (wouldn’t mind being put on a JAL plane for my return hehe)

[FFoxSake]

Nadeshka wrote:

Thanks for the advice FFoxSake and yonasl, success! 🙂

Yay! Glad it finally worked for you. I can’t work out if some BA staff are just too lazy, badly trained, or acting under management pressure not to re-book. Luckily there are some really good staff there too so you just need to persist until you find one 🙂

Let’s hope Japan opens up in time for all of us now!

[Lady London]

Nadeshka wrote:

The JAL flights are selling for £30k for the 5 of us (1 infant) so we definitely wouldn’t have been paying for them.
Would have begrudgingly accepted a connecting flight or probably cancelled the whole trip I think if I couldn’t get it agreed.
From the mixed success on other threads CEDR/MCOL feels too risky even though this should be an open and shut case.

However if anyone does ever find themselves in the situation of needing to MCOL BA or another airline to get a reroute, providing screenshots of this kind of cost to buy replacenent tickets if the airline is trying to force you to take a refund instead of them providing you the reroute you have a right to choose when they cancel a flight, and referring to it in your MCOL submission, will help ensure the judge understands why BA is trying so hard to deny your right to a reroute. As @JDB has pointed out some judges may not be too aware of the sums you may have to lay out to replace your trip if BA or other airline forces you to take a refund.