Originally Posted by
SK AAR
Sure, and in that case you just ask for a full refund (which I believe Vueling will not and has not denied).
Refraining from asking for a (full) refund and purchasing a new ticket with FR expecting to get a full reimbursement subsequently, leads to a significant risk on the part of pax. Most would not be prepared to do that (and I would advise against it)
This is nonsense. The passenger may well have - entirely reasonably - booked other products and services based on the contract formed with the airline to leave A and reach B at specified times. Non-cancellable hotels being just one possible example. The passenger is not made whole by the mere refund - this is why the regulation specifies that the passenger gets to choose between refund or rerouting. If the airline can void the contract and merely refund, the contract is meaningless in the first place.
The risk involved is because airlines can and do push their luck on denying these claims, knowing that statistically they win when a certain percentage of people do not assert their rights. Given that there are no escalatory penalties for wrongful denials, that percentage doesn't have to be terribly high at all - and you're contributing to it.