Originally Posted by
Scots_Al
Instinctively I’d have thought that whilst in the current circumstances it might be reasonable to argue that ‘at the passenger’s convenience’ meant a year later, the regulation is generally intended to ensure that people get to their destinations at roughly the time they travelled.
Should the requirement be entirely unrestricted? Is it reasonable to request a re-routing ten years hence? I suspect reasonableness in these cases is probably practically bound by whatever schedule the airline is selling tickets for at the time.
Well let me put the argument against that. As noted the passenger is entitled to choose one of three options after a cancelled flight:
(a) — full refund of the booking, and where appropriate a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;
(b) re-routing to the final destination at the earliest opportunity; or
(c) re-routing to the final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats.
You can see that what you describe in terms of getting to your destination roughly at the time you booked is option (b). However, there is a clearly distinct option (c) which allows rebooking at a later date where that is at the passenger's convenience. There is clearly an intention here to allow the passenger to go at a later date instead of having to stick to roughly the same dates. The problem is trying to understand whether there is supposed to be a limit to (c), if any - and this is where BA can argue at least in the OP's case they had already rebooked a March 2020 flight to March 2021. To your question, you are right is that really completely open ended? Would 10 years later be reasonable? I suppose you could argue it falls down on the "subject to availability of seats" as flights are only available up to a year later. Or is the intention the ticket should be left open so the OP can rebook maybe 2 years later when flights do get released for their desired new date?
The March 2021 flight was cancelled again allowing the OP to choose from the above option, but as he was already at the end of ticket validity effectively BA's denial to rebook any later was denying him any ability to choose (c).
I think the last point will chime with those who booked the 50% avios tickets for travel nearly a year later or those who book 241 trips at 355 days to get scarce reward availability. BA's policy of not going beyond ticket validity effectively denies them any ability to select (c) at all.
In terms of covid it is perhaps less relevant to rebooking here as there is no exemption for the airline based on extraordinary circumstances - unlike with compensation. There was some EC guidance issued early last year which acknowledged that as the world went in to lockdown 1 the rebooking options may simply be non-existent with regard to (b). However, that was less applicable to (c), and you can argue at this point a year on options generally do exist for rebooking for most destinations.