Originally Posted by
UKtravelbear
But there is still nothing in the wording of the regulation that states that rebooking to other airlines must happen.
Until that gets changed (unlikely) airlines will implement their own interpretations of 'earliest opportunity'.
The delay penalty is actually one mechanism which would encourage airlines to rebook passengers on competing airlines. Do so -> avoid lengthy delay -> avoid EU261 penalty is a motivation. The problem is that once the delay penalty threshold has passed, there is no additional penalty irrespective whether the delay continues for one or twenty hours beyond that. In my case, BA's decision to reroute me on another airline shaved off seven hours of the delay which I appreciate. The easy way to fix this would be to define the penalty to be compounding at certain intervals.