The lack of a rebooking policy/agreement simply means that in practical terms, you'll have to make your own arrangements. It doesn't affect BA's legal obligation to re-route you.

The absolute cost is only really relevent insofar as it's the amount you're on the hook for until you get the money back from BA. BA don't really have a choice when it comes to reimbursing you if they've refused to rebook, and I think there is a fair chance they will pay up without too much argument. Of course you have recourse to CEDR or ultimately the County Court if they refuse.

Alternatively, if you paid with a UK credit card then you may also have a case for claiming back the cost from the lender under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 as the refusal to rebook is plainly also a breach of contract. The advantage here would be that you have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman - which can also order compensation to be paid for time taken/inconvenience etc. - if the lender refuses your claim.

The usual claim form (ba.com/claims) has an option that asks whether you've been offered alternative flights. Select no and list the rebooking costs as one of your expenses.

Thank you so much for this sage advice. I booked a return with EL AL as I panicked, watching the flights available disappear in real time on their website (even though my BA return 10 days later does not show as cancelled. I suppose it probably will do though so I shall just wait and see. But to be clear, should I just not contact BA until after I’ve flown and not accept the refund at all?

Ah, the return flight adds a slight wrinkle. You will struggle to get anything back for that part of your rebooking expenses in the (admittedly unlikely) event the BA route has has resumed by then. If it's still suspended then it would be a question of whether BA would have been willing to rebook you onto El Al for the return flight. But certainly in respect of the outward flight I think you have a fairly watertight claim.

If you still wanted the opportunity to fly the return leg, you should ask BA to 'protect' it, but it's a moot point now anyway.

You should only accept a refund from BA if you no longer want to travel at all. Once you accept a refund, you become a former customer - it is an alternative to rebooking and thus extinguishes any rebooking/right to care rights you have.

Was your BA flight booked in business class or economy class? If booked in economy and you booked LY in business class, then I wouldn't have much hope that you would get reimbursed for the new ticket. You are only entitled to be rebooked in same class of travel

My BA flights were in economy, there was only a business class flight El Al available on my day of travel (I booked the much cheaper Luton version than the Heathrow one) and economy back. I was lucky to get that, the whole week is now sold out. Fingers crossed BA gives me something back.

Do I risk losing my Avios and taxes refund and not getting anything from BA for what I spent in El Al if I don’t accept the refund from BA?

The idea is that you lose the Avios and taxes. The point is BA replaces your BA ticket with the El Al ticket, or here covers the reimbursement. If you ask or voluntarily accept a refund that is game over, BA has to give either a refund or a rerouting, not both.

However moving from Economy to Business won't be part of any EC261 claim, you have to come up with a price representing the economy fare by some reasonable way.

Currently, it looks to me that BA are selling the evening LHR-TLV and early morning return: I see availability on BA 405 as early as 15 May.


All seats on the other rotation do appear zero’d out into June.

Understood, thanks. Let’s see how it goes, I shall report back.

Things are starting to get weird ... Week of 8th June: Every day there is a morning flight from TLV to LHR ... but there are NO LHR-TLV flights the whole week. Just where does BA think those aircraft flying from TLV are meant to come from?

Could be positioning out?

i have a redemption booking in J for the evening TLV-LHR flight on 18th. If they do cancel that one but keep the other flight, will they at least rebook to the remaining BA flight without fuss?

I can see flights two flights every day from the 18th May internally within BA.

Removing new ticket sales has consistently been the first step towards cancelling on this route over the past 18 months, so I'd expect a full cancellation to be forthcoming shortly, for flights until 15th June.

Advice needed please.

My TLV-LHR-GLA flights were cancelled. Chatline person said there was nothing until 13 May - I asked twice for him to check El Al availability to London but he swore there was nothing. (I have the chat transcript.) He rebooked me for 15 May and said any further changes would be subject to fare rules.

Then I went to the El Al site and found a flight to Luton on 12 May. I booked it.

So now I am out of pocket for that, plus BA won't refund my return fare, which was mostly Avios, but I'd still like them back if I can't get BA to pay for the flight they should have rebooked me on. What's my best course of action here? How can I avoid an AI-fuelled auto-reject to my compensation request?

I do have travel insurance but they insist I do whatever I can to reclaim from the airline first, which is fair enough.

TIA.