Schedule change for Iberia ‘blue’ redemption – help please

[friendofbiffin]

Hoping someone might be able to provide some advice regarding an Iberia redemption. I booked 4 avios seats with Iberia (direct booking on its website) for SPC-MAD-DUB. Both legs are in ‘blue’ class, i.e. the cheapest redemption bucket.

I’ve been notified of a schedule change to our flights and we’ve been rebooked onto different flights but bizarrely our MAD-DUB flight now departs before our SPC-MAD flight. When I rang up to query this and check my options the agent said (after half an hour’s deliberation and checking with his supervisor) that my only option would be a full refund as there are no ‘blue’ class seats left in or around our travel dates for us to be rebooked onto.

Is anyone able to advise on what I should do? Am I within my rights to ask Iberia to rebook me regardless of whether there are any of the cheapest redemption seats left? Many thanks!

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

How long is the schedule change?

With a schedule change there is no automatic right to be rebooked like there is with a cancellation.

[NorthernLass]

When is the flight? If it’s not for a while, give it a few days as it may be the case (as with BA), that the system will recognise the anomaly and put you on a new MAD-DUB departure.

I don’t know the Ts and Cs for blue redemptions but you are still covered by the relevant legislation, if applicable. Does your notification talk about cancellations or just a “change”? Was any reason given? Do you have a different flight number?

[friendofbiffin]

Thanks for the replies. The time of the first flight has been put back by 3hrs55mins. Flight number remains the same for that flight. The emails say it’s a ‘change’ rather than a cancellation. No reason given. The trip is still a few months away so that sounds like a good plan to wait for a while.

[friendofbiffin]

The waiting option seems to have worked already: I logged back in to the app and it’s now giving me a sensible rebooking option. Very strange that the call centre agent wasn’t able to do this, maybe some back-end IT needed to realise there was a problem first. Thanks again for the replies