Originally Posted by
rachel333
Its the final bullet point that throws me. BA cancelled my flight with 9 hours notice, and offered no alternate route, that allowed me to depart no more than one hour before the time of departure and reach my final destination less than 2 hours after the scheduled time of arrival. BA offered absolutely nothing. I paid for the train ticket myself, got there myself, BA had absolutely nothing to do with it. That’s why I’m expressing shock at the fact that because I paid my own money and got myself there, as BA offered nothing, that therefore doesn’t entitle me to compensation.
Actually, BA did offer you an alternative route to get to your destination. Instead of flying Newcastle-Boston, they arranged for you to fly Heathrow-Boston so that you arrived at the originally scheduled time. That is the reason that you may not be entitled to compensation. (Note: "may not", not "will not".)
If, in addition, BA agreed to pay the expenses you incurred in getting to the new start point, then obviously BA should pay that.
If you had not made those arrangements, would you really have had to cancel your holiday? At worst, you'd probably have ended up getting to Boston about 24 hours late. Many of us have been in that position. If that had happened, you would undoubtedly have been entitled to compensation. Unless you were flying there to start a cruise immediately, or there was something else equally time-critical, missing a flight or a connection is not the end of a trip.
BTW: You may know this already, but as a new member you have a 5-post limit in the first 24 hours, or something like that. So we will all understand it if you hit that limit and can't post again until the limit expires.