One leg of redemption cancelled due to LHR strikes

[baflyer44]

Hi,

Looking for some advice – just had the dreaded email to tell me that the LHR-ABZ leg of my CDG-LHR-ABZ ticket on Friday 31/3 has been cancelled – presumably due to the security strikes at BA.

Best offer CS could give me was refund or a place on a LHR-ABZ flight on Monday 03/4 (obviously not suitable).

Anyone had any success convincing BA to reroute on another carrier in similar circumstances? There is an aer lingua CDG-DUB-ABZ that I thought I may have convinced the CS to route me on but they weren’t budging past refund or flight 3 days later

Thanks

[Lady London]

That sounds like 3 nights at the LHR Sofitel at T5 to me. Friday Saturday Sunday as they are not able to continue your booked routing to Aberdeen until Monday.

You could probably mitigate the total cost of this to BA by only having 1 meal per day at the Sofitel and the others at pubs and restaurants around Heathrow.

PS make sure you don’t take a refund as that lets BA off the above EC261/2004 duty of care and/or duty of care by rerouting you as you are entitled.

Practically, if the above does not appeal make sure you keep evidence of BA’s refusal to reroute you, purchase it and go through MCOL or CEDR for recovery (read up on HfP for how and how much effort etc it is).

Wondering if AF/KL do Aberdeen from CDG or via AMS

How long would Eurostar and train to Aberdeen take? I suspect its doable in 1 day

[Lady London]

PS if they’re not rerouting you so you decide to go with that and wait with the overnights till they can, make sure you mention that as they’ve refused to reroute you then request them to provide hotel vouchers. They’ll likely refuse but you must be seen to give them the opportunity and make sure you keep evidence that you did so (even notes taken right after a call and ideally who you spoke to).

If you have trouble getting through ask at the desk in Paris and London and keep phone records of attempts to get through to ask.for reroute and/or accommodation needed due to their cancellation. 1 hour on hold then cut off is not unusual.

Stick to no refund if you want reroute or above expenses covered – be aware as agent may try to claim there is no alternative

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

BA have a deal with LNER. Ask about being put on one of their services from Kings Cross.

[baflyer44]

Thank you both for the responses – very helpful.

KLM CDG-AMS-ABZ was the first rerouting I tried but as per above the person I spoke to didn’t budge.

Good to know re: BA’s obligation for duty of care – obviously logic doesn’t apply in these cases but the cost of them putting us up would be less than them buying a ticket on another carrier for the 31st! I’ll read up on the MCOL/CEDR as suggested and give another try to call customer services tomorrow to see if I’m met with a more sympathetic agent.

Appreciate beggars can’t be choosers in this scenario but 7.5hr train journey with our 9 month old really isn’t appealing!

[RK228]

baflyer44 wrote:

Appreciate beggars can’t be choosers in this scenario but 7.5hr train journey with our 9 month old really isn’t appealing!

Better than waiting days for a flight and, in my experience, it’s not really that big a deal, although there can occasionally be some difficult/awkward moments.

[JDB]

@baflyer44 obviously as you say, it’s worth pressing BA one last time, if you can get through but realistically in this unfortunate situation rapid self help is the only sensible solution.

If the cancellation is indeed related to the potential security staff strikes, then lots of other people will be in the same position, so seats will become scarce (BBC reported a couple of days ago BA stopped selling some flights) and the Sofitel will become full. The annoying thing is that if past practice is anything to go by, were the strike to settle, they won’t reinstate the flights.

[Matt]

3 days delay is well beyond anything reasonable for a short haul route. Find the flights you want (AF or EI best, but any airline that suits) that are still for sale. Phone up BA and ask them to re-route you on the day you want, if they refuse explain that you will be forced to book yourself and reclaim the costs. If they refuse, make contemporaneous notes of what was said on the call, and when. Then book yourself on the replacement flights.

Afterwards, make a claim to BA for the cost of the replacement flights, explaining that they weren’t able to re-route after a cancellation. If they refuse, as for a deadlock letter and take it to CEDR. Explain that BA could have re-routed sooner but refused, and that waiting 3 days was not suitable for you with a baby/work/whatever.

Do not ask for or accept a refund from BA – that would end their obligations to you.

Is this the final flight of the booking? If not, you would need to ask them to protect the subsequent flights.

The EU261 thread on Flyertalk is a great resource for support with this sort of thing.

[baflyer44]

Thanks for the further comments.

Spoke twice more to BA on the phone who are sticking to their stance that a re-route at a later date is best option.

If I book the CDG-AMS-ABZ with AF, assume there should be no issues claiming the cost of the full route when it’s only the LHR-ABZ leg that’s cancelled?
Checked through travel insurance docs yesterday and no mention of any cover from this scenario but Amex gold that it was booked with seems to cover £200pp for alternative travel.

This is final leg of the journey so no further travel to worry about.

[Froggee]

BA are bandits.

They can and should rebook you. Their own guidelines certainly allow it.

They might refuse to pay up when you claim. This then means you either need to write off several hundred pounds or CEDR/MCOL them.

One other option you might consider is flights to Edinburgh from Paris are considerably cheaper on Friday. These plus a one-way car rental from Edinburgh up to Aberdeen would come in at £300 or so.

If I were in your shoes, I might be tempted to do this as it reduces the financial risk from BA saying no. Some people relish arbitration/small claims court. Me not so much.

If you just let BA win and accept cancellation, you’d get back your fees and Avios from BA. Given that it sounds like you’re a family of three, the fees netted off from the additional cost would likely leave you out by about £200 (?)

I had a scan at the Amex gold insurance and it looks to me like they would cover you to the tune of £200 so this might be the option that sucks least in terms of battling to get home and then having a further battle on your hands.

I speak as someone who took eight months to get made whole (eventually by travel insurance) when BA cancelled my flight. They refused rebooking and then couldn’t even refund the fees correctly…

[SteveR]

BA canceled our flight back from Turkey last summer/ They offered us some stupid re-routes, but refused to book us on any direct flight home. Easyjet / TUI /Jet 2/ Sunexpress etc

So we booked our own flight home. Ended up having to take them to court. But they paid up before they even filed a defence.