Flight cancelled from GCM to UK – options?

[Mandy]

My flight home from GCM has been cancelled and the alternative offered is a day earlier, which means only going for 4 nights instead of 5 in Feb. They have not changed connecting flight from Heathrow to Inverness which is still on the 5th day. I used a 241 to book which will have expired as it was originally from 2020. What are my options? I would still like to go so don’t want to cancel but can we change the whole flights to another time so we could go for longer?

[Roberto]

Your options are
(1) accept
(2) ask BA to move your flight home back to suit
(3) accept the new return and move the outbound forward to suit
(4) ask BA to reroute you onto AA via the US on your original date home
(5) Cancel

They will obviously take care of any connections, decide in advance and call them

[Lady London]

Yes you can choose new dates for both legs and does not have to be same trip length, not at all.

As a matter of interest, by proffering you only an earlier flight option and perhaps by not offering you a flight departing perhaps nearer to your booked departure time but later, BA hopes to reduce its costs due to their cancellation of the flight you had booked, in 2 ways:

1. If the flight you agree to be rebooked on departs earlier, so that your final landing time at the end of the journey is less than x hours later (on a long journey this is 4 or 5 hours, on a short journey it’s fewer hours) than you booked, in this case the compensation you could claim, of £520 per seat even on a 241, they would have the right to reduce.by half. So £520 per seat becomes £260 per seat. Good if you needed to get back home on time but you may have shortened your holiday reducing your compensation.

It does seem aa though BA has switched to only offering earlier flights. Perhaps earlier flights even a day earlier, when there may well be their own flight or another airline’s flight (which you would have a right to free of charge if they don’t have their own), just a few hours later that is easier for you to get.

2. By you leaving a day earlier rather than later (later might perhaps require an extra night’s hotel en route, or you choosing to wait for next available later flight, you may lose a day of paid hotel if you agree to leave earlier. But the good news is that if a hotel is required due to the reroute then BA would be responsible for its cost, transport to and from it and all meals during any extra wait or travel time. So by rerouting you earlier (which you don’t have to agree to and may not be in a position to) BA stands to save a lot of potential cost.

You have the right to choose completely different dates for the whole booking now, as well as the above options. You akso have the right to choise to have the whole booking refunded. Note some airlines may try to say refund is the only option if they have no other flights but the choices arw yours not theirs.

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

[Lady London]

Roberto wrote:

Your options are
(1) accept
(2) ask BA to move your flight home back to suit
(3) accept the new return and move the outbound forward to suit
(4) ask BA to reroute you onto AA via the US on your original date home
(5) Cancel

They will obviously take care of any connections, decide in advance and call them

Roberto should we not be adding choose completely different later dates to your list? The above is if they atill want to travel around the same times.

[Roberto]

Lady London wrote:

Roberto wrote:

Your options are
(1) accept
(2) ask BA to move your flight home back to suit
(3) accept the new return and move the outbound forward to suit
(4) ask BA to reroute you onto AA via the US on your original date home
(5) Cancel

They will obviously take care of any connections, decide in advance and call them

Roberto should we not be adding choose completely different later dates to your list? The above is if they atill want to travel around the same times.

Prehaps, the current easy to follow flow charts in the rebooking centers will allow moving the cancelled flight only up to 14 days. There is also a cavet to allow the moving of the outbound forward but only a couple of days or so .

Moving the whole thing opens another can of worms and whilst possible you might be getting pushback from the agent and it brings the 365 day ticket validity issue into play with early booked 241

I have the same situation looming for a 6 day September Bermuda trip which could be cut to 5 (which I don’t want) . The added issue for me is I have non connecting inbound international flights into LHR as its a 241 on the old style ticket.

[Anna]

They do this all the time! I suspect this will be because they are now using those planes for PLS some days. If you call them they will move you to any other flight with availability. Push the return out? It’s a long way to go for 5 days!

[Mandy]

Anna wrote:

They do this all the time! I suspect this will be because they are now using those planes for PLS some days. If you call them they will move you to any other flight with availability. Push the return out? It’s a long way to go for 5 days!

We were going then because it was half term holidays but now wondering if I can change to a time when it’s longer holidays, although will I need to stick to off-peak days?

[Lady London]

You can change your booking to a different holiday period. You don’t have to stick to offpeak days. If you used points/avios for all or part of your booking, points/avios seats don’t have to be available for you to book into. Any available seat in same cabin class you have a right to on a new date convenient to you. This is all legally mandated due to them having cancelled a flight on your booking.

Some agents will tell you otherwise but that’s not legally correct. Roberto refers to BA’s internal flowchart – that is BA’s own preference (ie policy) and is considerably more restricted than what you are entitled to.

What Roberto refers to is what may be less of a struggle to get from BA. Broadly speaking any date within a year of the date you booked regardless of if it’s a peak date or not they should be willing to reroute you onto very readily. Read up here in the Flight Cancellations and Changes section as to what it will take if you want more it’s covered over and over again every day.

[The real Swiss Tony]

@Mandy – how did you get on? I have a similar problem on the same route, but BA want us to drop from a 4 night stay to just 3!

[Mandy]

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

@Mandy – how did you get on? I have a similar problem on the same route, but BA want us to drop from a 4 night stay to just 3!

After finally getting through to BA, I asked to be moved to alternative dates, the staff member was looking into it, put me on hold and then I got cut off. Haven’t got the will to phone back yet. Let us know how you get on.

[yonasl]

Mandy wrote:

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

@Mandy – how did you get on? I have a similar problem on the same route, but BA want us to drop from a 4 night stay to just 3!

After finally getting through to BA, I asked to be moved to alternative dates, the staff member was looking into it, put me on hold and then I got cut off. Haven’t got the will to phone back yet. Let us know how you get on.

I found the chat is a much better way to get these issues sorted. Plus you have a transcript to use in case anything goes wrong (and they do too, if you contact them again they can see the previous conversations and continue assisting you based on that).

[The real Swiss Tony]

Unfortunately it’s more complicated for us as I’m going to have to move both the outbound and return legs. Because of how i’m interpreting the rebooking policy and the fact GCM doesn’t fall under the transatlantic JV, I think I need to wait/hope that AA add more flights. They’re still on a massively reduced post-COVID schedule to the island right now.

[pauline]

As the flights are in February would compensation still be payable if the flights offered were later? I thought a cancellation more than 14 days before was ineligible for compensation?

[ChrisC]

pauline wrote:

As the flights are in February would compensation still be payable if the flights offered were later? I thought a cancellation more than 14 days before was ineligible for compensation?

correct. if more than 14 days notice has been given then no compensation is payable but duty of care would still apply (if required)

[Mandy]

Managed to finally speak to someone after being passed to 3 different people and then cutting off. After calling again, I was told I could change to any flight within 14 days regardless of avios availability but if wanted to move to Christmas or Easter school holidays, that avios had to be available? Is that correct as I didn’t think so and said that but they were adamant.
I said I didn’t want to cancel as didn’t want to lose 241 and they said they couldn’t see any 241 in the booking! Is this because it was wrapped up in a FTV and the original date has expired?

The real Swiss Tony – any joy?

[JDB]

@Mandy I’m not sure some of the earlier advice you were given is strictly correct. As BA has cancelled one flight, not both, that doesn’t present the opportunity to rebook the whole trip for completely different dates. Even if BA had cancelled both, they probably still wouldn’t agree to flights months hence without being ordered to by MCOL/CEDR. BA has offered you a suboptimal alternative that cuts short your trip or to fly in the following 14 days without needing Avios availability so they are providing options. They would probably bring forward your outbound if pressed and conceivably reroute you via the US but beyond that you probably need to decide what sort of fight you are up for.

[Mandy]

@JDB I did ask if they could put me on a flight a day later, if they would pay for accommodation but they said no.
Don’t want to ‘fight’, just want to know what I am legally entitled to so I can choose the best available option as cancelling isn’t an option if i lose 241.
I picked those dates for a reason for school holidays so can’t just extend to anytime within the next 14 days as that isn’t practical.

[AJA]

@Mandy did BA say no to the flight the following day or no to paying for the extra night’s accommodation?

I think BA should pay for the extra night’s accommodation and put you on the following day’s flight but getting BA to agree may be the issue as you’ve found so far.

The reality is that you have the right to rerouting on a day of your choosing and does not need Avios availability but that is only on the same route. Unfortunately BA thinks that giving the option of -3/+14 days to rebook is acceptable. That said in your case you can’t extend 14 days due to other commitments.

I’d be inclined to try to get BA to put you on the following day, then separately book an extra night hotel and try claiming from BA after the event under duty of care (with the proviso that you may have to go to CEDR or MCOL to get your money back)

[JDB]

Mandy wrote:

@JDB I did ask if they could put me on a flight a day later, if they would pay for accommodation but they said no.
Don’t want to ‘fight’, just want to know what I am legally entitled to so I can choose the best available option as cancelling isn’t an option if i lose 241.
I picked those dates for a reason for school holidays so can’t just extend to anytime within the next 14 days as that isn’t practical.

Yes, in theory, under UK261 (per Articles 5 & 9), BA should be liable to reimburse you for staying the extra night as you are booking the next available flight – food, hotel etc. but it is very much on a pay and claim basis.

From recent personal experience and that of friends, BA currently appears to be adopting the view that for cancellations notified more than 14 days in advance they are not liable for Article 9 ‘Right to Care’ costs which appears to be incorrect, but is an effective mechanism to shake off a lot of claims. This means you may have to fight to get reimbursed via CEDR or MCOL and take the slight risk you might not get your money back for the extra costs. For the time being, given the schedules are changing and you are restricted on dates, it seems important to secure the seats.

[NorthernLass]

For such a short trip I would opt for an extra night in GCM rather than re-route via the US (though BA seems particularly intransigent about allowing that option IME). Don’t forget you would need ESTAs and very likely an overnight stop in the US due to the flight timings. It would be a huge amount of extra hassle, especially with children, on top of your INV connection.
Where are you staying in GCM? My feeling is that BA would have to pay up eventually for your extra night as they have made you extend your stay, but you might be expected to find the cheapest option available (well, cheaper, as there are no budget options, especially in the winter!)

[The real Swiss Tony]

Same day connections on the eastbound work fine and whilst it’s a pain, with the extra stop in NAS on the direct flight, it’s not adding that much to your overall journey, especially heading all the way to INV.

That said, I thought we were being ambitious doing a 4 night trip and that’s starting from LHR. That INV leg really adds another dimension!

[NorthernLass]

Apologies, I was thinking of re-routing on the outbound. Yes, you can connect to JFK or MIA and then get an overnight flight back to the UK, but you’d still need the ESTAs of course and extra visits to immigration and security. Also it would mean cutting the last day short as instead of leaving GCM at 6pm for the direct flight, you’d need to get an early afternoon flight to the US to connect to the UK one.

It IS a really long way to go for 4/5 nights. The 12 hour leg from LHR starts to feel interminable once you get to NAS and realise you still have 3 hours to go. Even if you’re in Club it’s not that much fun as you only get a drink and a bag of nuts after NAS so you’re exhausted and starving by the time you disembark in GCM!

[The real Swiss Tony]

Not really losing any time at all, as the MIA flight leaves a90 mins before the direct one and I suspect given the connections into INV it’ll be the same plane up to Scotland. You’re simply trading hours in the lounge at LHR for an hour in an AA recliner seat.

Of course this is all moot if BA can’t/won’t play ball and rebook onto AA. The ESTA might be an extra cost but there’s likely a fighting chance the OP either has an ESTA already or will need to get one in the near future. Certainly I do so this isn’t factoring into my thinking…

[The real Swiss Tony]

I still haven’t made contact with them – am hoping that AA ramp up their schedules first as that will give us more sensible options.

Having read the rebooking rules, I believe @Mandy you should have no problem moving to, say, GCM-MIA-LHR on the original day of travel. They don’t offer much wiggle room here, but so long as the flight departs within 24hrs of your originally booked one they will put you on American Airlines. Depending on the day of travel, that might mean you only lose a few hours on the Island.

Note Cayman isn’t part of the transatlantic joint business agreement, so you don’t have the same flexibility you would with a flight to, say, a secondary US city.

[NorthernLass]

Just my 2 cents but I’ve had this flight cancelled several times over the years (once when we were actually at MAN) and BA have always flatly refused to re-route via the US. I generally book for 3 weeks now as I know I’ll lose a couple of days when BA cancels one leg or the other! Let me know if you manage to persuade them otherwise as I’m sure my April flights will be “tweaked” in the next few months …

GCM-MIA is actually a lovely 90-minute hop over Cuba and the Florida Keys with great views all the way, probably my preferred route out of all the ones I’ve done over the years!