Originally Posted by
ShelboBaggins
Thanks, we've tried to argue this point too and OTB won't offer us the Qatar flights for rebooking as apparently will cost them £2.8k for 10 of us, they're saying they will have to pay the difference not BA, they wanted to offer a "free" flight with Cathay via HKG but my BIL is in civil service and has very tight restrictions on where him and immediate family can travel and China is on their high-risk list even for transits!! They've told us we have to accept the HKG offer or take full refund, so that's our family holiday ruined as we now have limited options without having to fork out thousands more than we originally paid. Lesson learned always book separate flights/hotel as booking a package doesn't guarantee much protection! We have no right to compensation as its more than 14 days.
For the HKG transit - I would suggest your BIL gets hold of his People desk/Secretariat, since it is an area that can be cleared.
Always be wary of a TA telling you that you must accept particular solutions, that's not how contracts work. HKG strikes me as sensible, with possibly BIL having to go a separate way, but for the rest of you that seems OK to me. As ever keep talking and negotiating.