Originally Posted by
flarmip
Some context would be useful. Were other airlines still running flights at TNR? Was the airport still open to passengers? If the answer to both questions is yes, and the part-cancellation was out of an (over)abudance of caution then you arguably have a claim. You would also have a claim if there were quicker ways of getting you to TNR which AF refused to rebook you on - were there?
Thanks for the fulsome reply
I think there was a lot of confusion about the airport being open or not. I believe (but don't know how to prove this) that the AF flight was the only one to actually divert.
FR 24 shows no landings at all that evening/night - the only other flight KQ262 was due at 0205 but was cancelled. Yet, as I said, the AF airframe did land at 0245.
AF didn't actually refuse to book us on to anything earlier, the Paris team just refused to deal with it. They told us we had to to go to the airport to get it sorted. However, getting to the airport was not easy and by the time we got there, we were indeed on the next available flight. There do appear to have been two flights from RUN to TNR on Sep 26 (one long haul coming from Paris) but even so, it is possible we were on the first available which was on Sep 27.
Meantime I have put in a claim for our return (noted that it should be under UK261) and am ready to respond to them that leaving a day early is indeed a reason for full compensation.