Originally Posted by
LTN Phobia
Not necessarily. I believe there are some commercial arrangements in place between some airlines to book each others' disrupted passengers and the costs under that arrangement may not even be anywhere near as the EC261 compensations incurred by BA.
In this case, the EC261 compensation outcome wasn't going to change. All they can do is hope the OP doesn't successfully claim it.
There might be a small number of cases where a rebooking to another carrier can mean no EC261 compensation. Of course as you say there's a commercial arrangement to pay for this - I think it's a safe bet that the cost is on average at least the face value of the ticket? This can't mean they're saving all that much? If the savings were substantial and widespread, BA would be better at implementing this.
Also, the reality is probably that those travelling long-haul from BRU are seen as low-yield, unimportant customers. Higher value customers would probably stick to AF/KLM, using the train from Brussels Midi to CDG or AMS and then flying non-stop. BA isn't going to splurge on accommodating ground staff to keep these customers.