Distance rules on re-routing for a cancelled flight

[Jack London]

I have got a cash-booking for a flight booked with British Airways in May with an outbound routing from London Heathrow to Auckland via Hong Kong on British Airways and Cathay Pacific. One of the flights on the outbound leg has been cancelled. They have put me on a later flight to Auckland, giving me a 7 hour transit in Hong Kong.

When I look at the ‘Find a different flight’ option on Manage My Booking it offers 3 different flights with shorter transits, all via Doha, on a combination of British Airways and Qatar Airways. To be honest, I would quite like to switch away from Hong Kong given the current problems with transit and potential for further disruption. The Doha options sounded ideal. However, when I try to select one of the options they offer online it tells me there has been a problem and doesn’t result in a change to the booking.

I rang up British Airways this morning and got the South African call centre. They told me that the alternative flights via Doha were impossible as it far exceeds the distance allowed for a re-routing.

Is the call centre right? Does the online Manage My Booking really show impossible flights as alternatives?

[Lady London]

It’s rubbish – you have the right if BA cancelled a flight anywhere on your booking.

The Sth Africa agent was quoting rules that apply if it’s you doing a voluntary rerouting ie your choice. Your rerouting is involuntary due the airline cancellation so the rule that agent quoted does not apply.

You are entitled to any reasonable rerouting and it will be much easier if you pick one showing in MMB. Don’t worry it’s a common fault for the system not to let you save the change.

Sorry but you’ll have to call again, try to do 8am or so or 1900 ideally on a weekday as these times often report success in getting through.

If they don’t give you something acceptable when you call, or if they start some other rubbish about not having an agreement that far ahead to ticket on Qatar (not your problem, and not a valid objection as it concerns their costs rather than their obligations to you) do *not* make any change to the booking whatsoever at that time and come back to HfP for advice.

Let us know how it goes.

[Matt]

Is the agent getting confused with the rules around changing the destination in the event of a cancellation? There is a limit of 300 miles there, so if BA cancel your flight to SOF you could change to OTP for example, but not to CDG.

There’s no distance limit for re-routing between the same origin and destination, as long as you’re following a reasonably sensible route, which LHR-DOH-AKL clearly is.

[Lady London]

Matt wrote:

Is the agent getting confused with the rules around changing the destination in the event of a cancellation? There is a limit of 300 miles there, so if BA cancel your flight to SOF you could change to OTP for example, but not to CDG.

There’s no distance limit for re-routing between the same origin and destination, as long as you’re following a reasonably sensible route, which LHR-DOH-AKL clearly is.

if it’s a voluntary change and, usually, on a full fare-type ’round trip’ underlying fare construction such as partner fare multistops are (guessing) likely to be, then there is a miles-flown % deviation allowed from the direct mileage overall, or it may apply to a ‘segment’ within the ticket containing 0 or more stops. It’s complicated but typical allowances would be 5%, 10%, 15% extra miles allowed for rerouting/adding extra stops, on these types of underlying fare constructions.

However these mileage(-flown) deviation restrictions only apply to voluntary ticketing (choice of route/stops) or voluntary rerouting. These restrictions in extra mileage do *not* apply to involuntary reroutings nor irrops.

I suspect @Sam G knows more about this stuff and @lumma might, as well.

You are entitled to any reasonable rerouting regardless of mileage in this involuntary rerouting situation regardless of mileage. Factually the system should have allowed the agent to “endorse” the ticket “INVOL” to avoid this and a few other restrictions that normally apply for ticket changes, but don’t apply for involuntary reroutings. This is IATA rules which BA is supposed to conform to.

[Jacob]

For involuntary changes, I keep this always for a reference and my options: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/standard-customer-guidelines

[Lady London]

Thanks Jacob. It’s very interesting to see BA’s policies as handed to travel agents.

Where does BA also advise travel agents of passengers’ EU261 / UK261 rights?

[Jacob]

Lady London wrote:

Where does BA also advise travel agents of passengers’ EU261 / UK261 rights?

I suppose that’s the airline’s requirement/liability so probably doesn’t involve travel agents?

[Jack London]

Thanks for all the help with this today. I really appreciate that as I wasn’t sure of my ground in the original call.

I rang just before 7pm and managed to get an agent after a short wait. This time the agent had no problem with the re-routing via Doha and put it through without any question of it being a problem. They were very clear about this being my one free change due to the cancelled leg. I’m still astonished at the difference from calling again and getting a different agent!

[Lady London]

Well done Jack.

[SamG]

I think a lot of the problem is these types of things rely on the agents understanding and interpretation of the rules. Glad you got it sorted- “HUACA” is indeed king!

Transit via HK was doable for a while but definitely agree best avoided currently ! Very sad for Cathay Pacific