Firstly, this is not an 'I demand to be compensated' question, rather a 'where I stand' one
It actually made a pretty dull Saturday afternoon into a more interesting one lol
I did a cheap CE return to JER yesterday to get me the few TPs needed for my GUF2 before my year end in August. I didn't do a real (same plane) back-to-back and was booked on the Eastern operated BA2775 JER-LGW (dep 1710 arr 1815). This was cancelled at 1813 and I received a text saying I had been rebooked onto today's BA2767 (dep 0705 arr 0810) and was sent from the lounge to checkin for hotel info. As I didn't even have any hand luggage (phone and wallet fit in my pockets and I wan't planning on staying) I guess I could have overnighted, billed BA for emergency supplies and claimed EC261?
In the event, I got to checkin and was handed a voucher for BE246 JER-SOU and told a taxi would pick me up at SOU and take me to LGW. Then sent to Flybe checkin where they kindly re-opened the closed flight and gave me my (Y) boarding card. The voucher from BA clearly states Invol Reroute IATA 735D which doesn't suggest I 'volunteered' for any of this...
So the BE246 was delayed and we landed (wheels down) at SOU 2007 and I got out of the terminal at about 2020, obviously no taxi driver with my name on a board...
By road SOU-LGW is about 90mins (by Apple/Google Maps) so the earliest I'd have got to LGW would have been 2150 (so >3hrs late)
So I checked for trains and there was a 2038 via Woking and Clapham Junction that would arrive LGW at 22:26 (so >3hrs late). The 2038 also goes direct to Waterloo and as I live in Vauxhall looping back to LGW via Clapham Junction would have made no sense whatsoever, so I stayed on it to Waterloo and arrived 'in London' at 21:49 (>3hrs late)
- If I had just taken this morning's flight would I have been able to claim EC261 + reasonable expenses?
- As I was effectively abandoned at SOU, and had no other option, can I claim the cost of my train ticket home?
- As I was booked in CE but was involuntarily downgraded to Y, and to another airport, is there anything due on that?
- As I had no chance of arriving at LGW by whatever route other than over 3 hours late, is EC261 due?
- Most importantly, can I claim original routing credit JER-LGW and get the 40TPs which was the whole purpose of the trip anyway!?
The staff at JER were great and no complaints there whatsoever (other than the 'you'll have a taxi waiting' part!), and I got mildly inconvenienced but still got home on the same day. My biggest concern is the TPs!
Thanks
