Male - London cancellation
Hi All,
Hoping to receive guidance on the viability of an EU261 claim under the following circumstances;
Flew outbound, without issue, to Male on Wednesday 4th Nov. As part of the same booking, was scheduled to return to London on Thursday 12th Nov at 11:25.
Happened to look at the BA app on the afternoon of Thursday 5th November to find the inbound flight was cancelled. No reason was stated. No other contact was received. This was just within 7 days of scheduled departure time.
Phoned BA immediately to discuss options. Was offered seats on ‘the final’ BA operated flight to London on Monday 9th November, which I declined as unsuitable. I was then offered ‘the next available BA flight’ on 3rd December, which I declined.
After some discussion, I was offered seats on Qatar Airways on Sunday 15th November, which I accepted.
A search of SkyScanner revealed no flights on any airline that would depart within 2 hours and arrive within 1 hour of the original schedule. We were not offered travel on the nearest alternative flights to our schedule which were with Emirates.
I understand I have no right to claim consequential losses such as hotel accommodation, because I declined the offer to fly home three days early. I totally accept this. However, as far as I can see, BA cancelled the flight due to commercial reasons. There was no reason not to operate the flight, BA simply chose not to. Based on that, do I stand a reasonable chance of being eligible for EU261 cancellation compensation?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts or guidance.