corporate-wage-slave

Post 4

Right to reimbursement or re-routing (Article 8 of EC261):

Q1: I no longer wish to travel. Can I get a refund of my ticket?
A1: You can get a refund of your ticket in case of denied boarding and in case of cancellation of your flight.
In case of delay to your flight, the Regulation states that you are entitled to a refund if the delay exceeds five hours. There is an argument that can be made that an entitlement to a refund exists for shorter delays but that is speculative. In any event, BA will usually accept to refund your ticket if the delay is non-trivial and you no longer wish to travel, however the formal time period is 5 hours.

Q2: I have already started to travel. Am I entitled to a refund of the whole ticket?
A2: If you are on the outbound part of your journey and the journey would no longer serve any purpose in the light of the delay in the journey, you are entitled to a refund of the whole ticket as well as a (free) return flight to your point of origin. Thus, if you are flying from Hamburg to Chicago via Heathrow and the LHR-ORD flight is cancelled while you are in transit in London and the rerouting options offered would result in your arriving too late in Chicago and negate the purpose of your journey, BA would have to fly you back to Hamburg and reimburse the whole ticket. BA specifically asks for proof that your trip no longer serves its original purpose.
If, on the other hand, you have stopped over in London for a few days and intend to resume your onward journey to Chicago when the flight is cancelled, you would only be entitled to reimbursement of the part of the journey that you have not flown. The Regulation suggests that BA would still have to fly you back to Hamburg if you so wish. If you do, it is likely that BA would only have to refund the LHR-ORD-LHR part of the journey rather than LHR-ORD-LHR-HAM.

Q3: I do not want a refund. I just want to get to my destination. Must I be offered re-routing?
A3: Yes: the airline has an obligation to offer you re-routing and it is up to you to choose between refund or re-routing.

Q4: I do not like the re-routing option I have been offered. Can I ask for alternative flights?
A4: You can always ask for alternative flights if what you have been offered is unsuitable for one reason or another. If what you would prefer is to take another BA flight on the same day, or the day before or after, BA will normally be accommodating provided there is availability. Ultimately, though, you do not have a right to insist on any flight of your choice. You are expected to accept the flights offered to you as long as they comply with the requirements of the Regulation: as long as the airline has offered you re-routing ‘under comparable transport conditions’ and ‘at the earliest opportunity’, it has in principle fulfilled its duty under the Regulation. If this does not satisfy you, you always have the opportunity to ask for a refund instead of a re-routing or a re-routing at a later date (see Q6 below).

Q5: I have been offered re-routing departing tomorrow. I noticed, however, that there is a flight on another airline that can get me back home much earlier. Can I insist that BA puts me on that other airline’s flight?
A5: The obligation on the airline is to re-route you under comparable transport conditions to your final destination “at the earliest opportunity”. Thus, if there are two BA flights to your destination and seats are available on both, you could insist on being put on the earlier flight. However, the Regulation is silent as to whether the obligation extends to putting you on any flight, including other airlines’ flights.
Most airlines take the view that they are only obliged to re-route you on their own flights and that, if they reroute you on another airline, it is a commercial gesture rather than a legal obligation. There does not appear to be any authoritative court judgment on this issue so this is a grey area.
In practical terms, the more expensive your ticket and the longer the alternative wait, the more likely it is that BA will agree to put you on an alternative carrier.

Q6: The alternative flights I have been offered are not very attractive. I would rather give up on this journey and fly again in a month’s time. Can I do that?
A6: Yes, the Regulation provides for a third option, beyond refund and immediate rerouting: you can ask to be re-routed to your final destination at a later date of your convenience. This, however, is subject to there being availability in the same booking class as your original ticket. The Regulation does not specify a deadline by which the flight has to be taken. It is reasonable to assume that you can book any flight currently open to reservation (i.e. normally 330 days ahead) subject to availability in the relevant booking class.

Q7: I have noticed that there is a BA flight leaving earlier than the one on which I have been offered re-routing. However, I have been told that I cannot get on that flight because my ticket is a frequent flyer ticket and there is no award availability on that flight. Can I be denied re-routing on the earlier flight?
A7: If you are asking for re-routing ‘at the earliest opportunity’, then the answer is no: as long as there is a seat in the same cabin as your original ticket, you should be offered it, regardless of booking class. If, on the other hand, you are asking to be re-routed at a later date of your own convenience, then the airline can indeed refuse to rebook you unless there is availability in the appropriate booking class.

Q8: There is an earlier flight available but it only has seats in Club Europe whereas my ticket is in Euro-traveller. Can I insist to be re-routed on that earlier flight?
A8: This is a grey area but the answer to the question for the time being is likely to be: “on balance, perhaps not”. The Regulation does require the passenger to be re-routed “at the earliest opportunity”. On the other hand, it also states that the passenger must be re-routed ‘under comparable transport conditions’, which probably means, among other things, in the same class of travel. Whether the “comparable transport conditions” requirement can be interpreted to the detriment (rather than the advantage) of the passenger is debatable. However, we do not have authoritative court judgments on this for now and there is at least one small claims court judgment in the UK finding in favour of the airline on this issue.

Q9: I understand that I have to be offered rerouting “under comparable transport conditions”. What does this actually mean?
A9: There is no definition of ‘comparable transport conditions’ in the Regulation nor has there been to date any authoritative judicial pronouncement on the matter. It is generally assumed to imply the same class of travel. It could also conceivably cover comparability of number of flights/stopovers. In that sense, an alternative flight with connections may perhaps not necessarily be regarded as constituting “comparable transport conditions” to a direct, non-stop flight.
Some FTers take the view that comparable transport conditions implies looking in more details at the characteristics of the product offered beyond the mere classification as “business class” or “economy class”. They would argue, for instance, that a business class product featuring a lie-flat seat is not comparable to a business class product with a cradle seat or with a ‘middle-seat free’ intra-European business class-style product. From that perspective, they would argue that there are no comparable transport conditions when a short-haul B767 is substituted to a long-haul B767, since the former involve a CE type product whereas the latter a CW-type product. It is, however, doubtful, albeit not entirely impossible, that the intention behind the Regulation was for courts to engage in substantive product comparisons between carriers. To that extent, the conventional view is that such differences are probably not what is meant by the use of the phrase “comparable transport conditions” in the legislation.

Q10: Will BA reroute me to a different destination?
A10: BA may reroute you to a different airport serving the same city (eg: LCY instead of LHR) or the same region (eg: GLA instead of EDI or MCO instead of TPA) but they are unlikely to routinely reroute you to an entirely different region or country unless there are special circumstances in your case.

Q11: I have been offered a flight landing at LGW instead of LHR (or GLA instead of EDI). Do I have to accept it and who pays for the transport from LGW to LHR (or GLA to EDI)?
A11: The Regulation contemplates that a passenger may be carried to an alternative airport serving the same town, city or region but is silent on whether the passenger has to accept such alternative. In practice, unless the original airport is no longer served by BA (eg: a service is switched from LHR to LGW), BA will normally offer a reroute to the originai airport if the passenger wishes. If a passenger is offered re-routing to an alternate airport and accepts it, the airline will have to provide onward transportation to the original destination airport or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger at no additional cost to the latter. If the airline does not make transport arrangements, the passenger should be able to claim reimbursement of the cost of the bus/train/taxi as appropriate.
The situation is greyer when the passenger takes the initiative of suggesting a change of destination (eg: offers to take a flight to GLA or NCL rather than EDI and make his/her own way from GLA or NCL to EDI). It is likely that, in that situation, the airline could legitimately ask the passenger to bear his or her own onward transportation costs from the airport (NCL in this example) as long as the airline did offer re-routing to the original airport.

Q12: Does this also apply when I have been offered a flight departing from an alternative airport or where one of my connections is changed and now involves a change of airport?
A12: The Regulation only explicitly contemplates the situation where the arrival airport is an alternative airport. It would be in keeping with the spirit of the Regulation to extend that situation to departure and transit airports and there is a fairly high chance that this is how the European Court of Justice would interpret the Regulation. There is, however, no authoritative judicial precedent to rely on to date.

Q13: I have an onward flight on a separate reservation. Will BA change my second reservation too if the first flight is delayed or cancelled?
A13: In principle, from a formal-legal perspective, BA has no obligation to change your reservation under a separate transportation contract on a different ticket because of delays on the first one. If, therefore, you miss your onward flight on a separate reservation, it is your problem and you may have to buy a new ticket. You might have a recourse under the Montreal Convention if the delay to the original flight is attributable to BA and/or BA did not do all it could to avoid the delay or damage to you resulting from the delay. This, however, is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
In practice, if your onward flight is on BA itself, BA may try to put you on a later flight. This, however, is not something that you can rely on. If you want to be protected for misconnections, you should buy a through-ticket rather than buying separate tickets.

On anything other than a BA to BA connection, or one involving a oneworld airline, BA is unlikely to help you in case of misconnections on separate tickets.