Originally Posted by Colossus

We arrived this morning into JNB on BA57, approximately 45 mins late. This meant we were unable to make our BA Comair domestic flight to Durban at midday. The flights were all on the same ticket/PNR. We tried moving onto the next Comair flight to Durban at 14:20, which there was plenty of availability to purchase tickets for. After being mucked about for 30 minutes we were told they had rebooked us on a 16:45 Airlink flight. The BA service desk at Jnb airport did tell us we were welcome to book the earlier flight, but we’d have to pay for it.

This new Airlink flight means a lot of waiting around (an almost 5 hour delay from our original itinerary), and we could not access the Slow lounge (we tried, but apparently management wouldn’t allow as it’s the fault of the international carrier), which we could do if we were a Comair flight, as we are BA silver card holders.

Are there any valid reason for not booking us on the first available flight? Any grounds for an EC261 claim? For what it’s worth, the issue with international delay was due to a wait on loading catering.

Thanks - and apologies if this belongs in a master thread.