Hello all. I was supposed to be flying this evening LIS-MAD on IB3103 then connecting onto the last BA flight to LHR.

EC-NTA landed on schedule into Lisbon but seemed to develop a technical issue (no updates were forthcoming for over an hour after scheduled departure time at the gate). Seeing where this was going I attempted to ask the gate staff if they could re-route me to the direct BA flight from LIS-LHR. They refused to do this and told me I had to fly to Madrid for them to rebook me (by which time I would have missed the last flight of the day to LHR). I tried to call Iberia and the line goes dead when you select change booking option. I then tried to call BA Gold Line who had a lot of empathy but told me me since Iberia ticketed it they could not touch it.

So I rebooked myself onto BA503 direct to LHR tonight with the last reward seat.

How would I go about claiming EU261 with Iberia / refund and will they reimburse me for the alternative self re-route? The Iberia booking is still live and the flight still has not departed LIS and they haven’t even bothered to update the est departure time on the app