Originally Posted by
NickB
Their obligation is to reroute "at the earliest opportunity". Whether that means at the earliest opportunity on their services or at the earliest opportunity on another carrier is debatable and, AFAIK, there have been, to date, no judgments to clarify this.
As to which national enforcement body (NEB) is responsible, it is normally the the NEB of the country of departure when the departure is from the EU, so the Belgian NEB rather than the UK NEB for a flight departing from Brussels.
If you were to take it to court, you would have a choice of jurisdiction between country of departure (Belgium) or country of destination (UK) to start proceedings.
Ah the expert has arrived
I think if there were to be a judgement on a reroute on another carrier it would sway in favour of a passenger given the way all the previous decisions seem to have fallen in their favour. Smaller airlines would be disadvantaged, but they already are with the present legislation anyway.
Given the purpose of air travel to get you quickly from one place to the next, being forced to take a flight on a totally different day because the carrier changes the schedule defeats the whole point of traveling. IME most large carriers will book their own metal, alliance metal and other airlines, in that priority order so it seems the larger airlines are interpreting it to be a reroute on any scheduled airline. Of course they all have interlines in place, even with competitors so the small and LCC airlines are disadvantaged.