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Hi all, looking for some advice. I had two flights booked on one ticket LHR-ICN then ICN-AKL. Initially there was a 2 hour gap between the two flights and this has now been reduced to 30mins meaning the flight is not possible. What are my options here? Korean Air are saying I have to deal with the travel agent I booked with (booking.com) and the agents are saying ‘there are no flights from anywhere’. Is my only option to take a refund a rebook? Thanks
booking.com use kayak for flights. Kayak will then reditect you to any mumber of agents with whom you book. It may help us to know which agent the flight is booked with.
if you selected booking.com as the agent through which to book the flights, I believe this is a skinned version of gotogate.co.uk
I fear that you will havw alot of difficulty trying to get any sensible answers from the agents
Hi Bill, that sounds correct. Booking.com facade with Gotogate plumbing behind the scenes. Booking.com so far have been useless. Reluctant to take the refund at this stage at the flight is for December 21st and prices have gone through the roof between our time of booking and now.
If it’s all on one ticket and both flights are on Korean Air (?) then when you rock up at ICN and miss your connection because of their retiming, it would surely be their responsibility to put you on the next available flight (if not their own then another carrier) and provide you with duty of care in the meantime. Whether you want to leave it until then to sort out though is another matter 😉 (I’d prefer the certainty of knowing my onward flight was sorted out in advance, personally, but I guess just showing up would be your fallback). If there are literally no onward flights at all though, that obviously won’t work.
As it’s an ex-UK itinerary, UK261 applies, and as operating carrier, Korean Air is responsible for providing your statutory rights, regardless of who you booked through. As it’s more than 14 days out though, you probably should try to deal with the booking agent first, but if you can’t get any joy through them, push it back to Korean Air (albeit that might ultimately involve Letter Before Action and potentially MCOL – lots on that elsewhere in the forum). There’s a good lesson here – always book direct with the airline if you can 😉
Have they cancelled the second flight and replaced it with a new one / new flight number, or just re-timed it? That may make a difference. But bottom line, do not accept a refund unless that’s actually what you want. Korean Air is responsible for getting you to your destination.
Thanks Jon, second flight still going ahead. Both flights still have the original flight numbers and have just be re-timed. Assuming due to Russia/Ukraine airspace issues.
Ah, is it a case of the first flight arriving later, rather than the second departing earlier? Not that it makes much difference (I think – not sure whether it might affect any potential travel insurance delay/missed connection claim? 🤷♂️). A quick Google search suggests your options are either a 24 hour transit at ICN and continue on the same flight next day (for which Korean Air would be on the hook for your hotel and transport to/from etc), or a direct flight same evening on Air New Zealand, or various options via Sydney. Or if arrival date/time is key, could you leave London a day early, nightstop in Seoul, and then take your original onward flight? Worth having a browse and deciding what suits you, before trying to deal with anyone 😉
Have Korean actually offered you any rebooking options? I would have thought by default they’d offer you an overnight hotel and rebooking onto their Auckland flight the next day (for what it’s worth as a data point/comparison, a family member is booked to fly BKK-LHR with Finnair and the airline has cancelled the HEL-LHR sector, necessitating a nightstop and next-morning flight – all taken care of by them, hotel provided etc).
Thanks Jon, all very helpful. Correct, the issue is the first flight. Korean have washed their hands of any responsibility and just pushed me back to Booking.com who have said they have nothing available. As you say, there look to be various options available to arrive as intended on the 23rd.
I’m surprised at that – I’d have thought putting you in a hotel overnight would be cheaper for them than having to fly you on another carrier, so you’d think they’d be willing to do that rather than have you (or your insurer) potentially claiming for replacement flights on another carrier per your rerouting rights. Then again, they’re an airline, so… 😉 Unsurprising that they’re pushing you back to Booking.com, who no doubt will push you right back to Korean, and so the merry-go-round goes 😉 But ultimately, it’s the operating carrier that eventually has the responsibility in law.
Others may be able to advise better, but it might be worth a letter/email to their UK office (I assume they have one?!) reminding them of your statutory rights and asking them to confirm that your connection is protected and they’ll ensure you get to your destination on time. Probably best to set out what you’d find acceptable, eg setting off the day before or whatever. But do try sorting out with Booking.com first if you can. Good luck!
Did you pay by UK issued credit (not debit or charge) card? If so then ask card for cost of rerouting under the card’s joint Section 75 liability. This would avoid the whole mess of having to pursue the airline/booking.com etc. directly.
If it can be processed as a s75 claim this means card accepts cost of ypur replacement ticket as you didn’t get what you paid for, for which card is jointly liable. So you’d bill the replacement ticket tp your card but they pay not you. Even if cost of ticket is muvh higher. So less hassle for you aa well. You can be pretty sure your card has lawyers big enough to get the needed costs off Korean Air if the card can be bothered to recover
Thank you also for posting aa it will warn others not to use booking.com for flights, ever. I’ve used them for the odd hotel in the past, your experience tells me never, ever book a flight with booking.com .
Let us kmow how you get on?
Thanks Jon, all very helpful. Correct, the issue is the first flight. Korean have washed their hands of any responsibility and just pushed me back to Booking.com who have said they have nothing available. As you say, there look to be various options available to arrive as intended on the 23rd.
While echoing @LL’s advice not to book with an agent if you can possibly avoid it, attempting to enforce EC261 rights via s75 as a back door route is technically and realistically implausible. While the Act makes the card jointly and severally liable for performance of the contract, that is only between you and Booking.com who have no EC261 obligations to you. It’s also a process that takes too long.
Booking.com is actually brilliant in dealing with problems with hotels and I doubt it is different for airlines – you just need to escalate it to a sufficient level and it will be resolved quickly, but be clear what it is you (reasonably)want them to do. Korean will do the necessary, but no airline will willingly deal directly with a passenger booked via an agency, save during the journey itself; it’s a breach of multiple agreements.
You might also want to double check that you haven’t booked two separate tickets. OTA have a tendency to sell you two one-way tickets without telling you or burying it in small print.
I’m surprised you haven’t been auto rebooked by their systems due to the illegal connection, when did they make the change ? Though this would likely have you leaving London on the original flight so wouldn’t work for you anyway
One thing to try is to get Korean Air to add the new segments that you want into the reservation and then you only need to get booking.com to reissue the ticket. But often the airline just doesn’t want to touch it. But the agent should be able to liaise with them to get it sorted
If you need a hotel then I don’t think you’ll have much luck getting it sorted in advance but you can pursue that via their UK addresses & contacts under your UK 261 rights
I think getting a different airline added would be a pretty impossible task unfortunately!
Thanks all for your tips and advice. Spoke with Booking.com this morning and they are currently waiting for an authorisation from Korean in order to re-book the flight which is expected in 3-5 days. First that I have heard of this and I hope that I am not being fobbed off! Will keep you all posted….
Quick update from me. Finally resolved with Korean being super helpful. They booked me on an alternative route LHR-VIE-ICN-AKL, the painful part was getting Booking.com to re-issue the ticket. There was a lot of computer says no but in the end its done. Phew! Thanks all for your help
Excellent, glad you got it sorted out! Out of interest, what airline(s) have they put you on? Sounds like it might be Austrian to ICN and then your original Korean Air flight, or some such?
It is BA LHR-VIE then Korean the rest of the way. End up landing in AKL as intended with the original booking which is fortunate as we are then taking another flight which is on another booking.
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