Originally Posted by
ThatT1Feeling
If they cancelled 6 weeks before departure, then as far as I understand it, you're entitled to a refund and that's it. EU261 only comes into play from 14 days before departure, certainly for flight only bookings. Did you get your refund of what you'd already paid?
That's not correct, although I appreciate you may have picked it up from misinformation provided by an airline (it wouldn't be the first time such a claim was made).
The
only UK261 provision that is conditional on the amount of notice given is the right to
compensation for cancellation/delay. All other rights, including re-routing, "right to care", downgrade reimbursement etc. apply regardless of the amount of notice given.
Originally Posted by
Hod100
Thanks TT1F.
Is that right though? I know compensation doesn't apply if cancellation is more than 14 days, but I thought the re-routing requirement was irrespective of timing (there's no mention of 14 days in Article 8)?
You are correct. Bear in mind you may also have rights under Israeli consumer aviation law, I am not familiar with it but it may give you better rights than UK261. Obviously you can only claim under one regulation (UK261 contains a provision setting off any claim made under another country's regulations).
Originally Posted by
theroz
My gut tells me you are SOL. I know many people who did just what you did and in then end it was on their dime.
We were in Israel 10/23 when all hell broke loose we were on AA tkt stock but all BA metal and got lucky when BA decided to take over our tkts and we ended up leaving 1 day later on what turned out to be BAs last departing flight. However many friends simply purchase 1 way tkts for $1000s of $$$ and some even had a 1 or 2 night layover, all thought theyd get refunded by their Carrier NOT a single one of them was refunded.
The main thing is once you go out on your own and make your own arrangements that is exactly what it is unless your carrier tells you otherwise. In some cases travel ins will kick in but not when its due to war, terror etc etc
We are on our way back to NY from TLV we finally hit it with our 4th tkt that we purchased, UA wouldnt do anything except put us on a LH group carrier and said we can get a voucher it was only when we mentioned what do you mean by a voucher you have to refund us in full, which they did only after they kept trying to get us to take their voucher(a bunch of sleeze balls) 1 of the 3 CXed tkts was BA and at the time they didnt offer anything except to book for another date when they will be flying or a Refund, LY was not an option although weeks later it was
Im sorry for the bad news, we have been thru it as well but we knew that doing anything w/o consent of the Carrier meant its on our own dime.
BA is far from perfect in terms of compliance to UK261, especially when it comes to re-routing. Just because they refuse to reimburse you doesn't mean they are legally correct to do so - don't take legal advice from your "opponent".
You don't need the carrier's consent to be able to get reimbursement for re-routing expenses. If they are reasonable, necessary and appropriate to remedy a carrier's shortcoming or refusal to comply with the law, there is clear case law (
WZ v Austrian) that confirms the right to be reimbursed.
Of course that doesn't mean it will necessarily be easy to enforce your rights. You may need to go to CEDR or Court to get what you are owed.