Originally Posted by
SK AAR
If your parents are offered same date flight with FR to BLL there is no right to buy a ticket on your own and seek reimbursement of the expenses. Despite inconvenient to your parents, having to travel 7 hours earlier is normally considered within suitable/comparable conditions and any claim for reimbursement is likely to fail in court.
Your parents have the option to ask for a full refund of the ticket and book on their own, if the alternative same day flight doesn't work for your parents. Finally, I'm sure FR would have rebooked to the earliest flight Monday morning, if it was impossible for your parents to depart London Sunday afternoon.
They were only offered the flight leaving at 12.25 and alternatively a flight on the Tuesday. Monday was fully booked, so that was not an option. It is a rather big inconvenience to have to travel on a Sunday morning instead of afternoon for a weekend trip as that would essentially change their trip from 2 full days to a little over 1 day. I'd agree it to be more fair on a long TATL flight, but for a short 1 hour flight I would disagree. The CAA does not seem entirely clear on this (as they say that the time of day is also relevant in assessing whether alternative carriers should be offered), so I guess we will try our luck with ADR.
The 12.25 was significantly cheaper when we booked their 19.45 flight approx. 2 months ahead, so it seems a bit odd that FR can just sell passengers expensive tickets on the 19.45 and then cancel the flight a few weeks later offering only the significantly cheaper option (which is obviously a lot more expensive this close to departure and with it being the only FR departure of the day).