railways

Strengthening, I think, which should at least spare BA further pain and embarrassment in having to deal with a myriad of claims for small forex losses.

irishguy28

Well, anytime an airline has cancelled a flight on me, I've had to deal with the agent that issued the ticket, rather than the airline directly (when not purchased directly from the airline).

I agree that it is not ideal to be running after a travel agent waving EU261/2004 - but in a genuine case, it is no skin off the nose of the travel agent, and they, in turn, should take the case up against the airline that issued the ticket and/or cancelled a sector.

In this case...it's more a crusade to force the travel agent to stop telling porkies.

As the agent who sold the ticket, all requests for changes must be made to that agent. So, I would still advise that poster to confront their travel agent with the rebooking demand that EU261/2004 states they are entitled to because of the "schedule change".

irishguy28

I actually don't think that BA should be "on the hook" for forex "losses".

Anyone booking via the BA website was warned that the ticket would be issued in Euro. If people wished to be charged in pounds sterling (or any other currency), they could instead have purchased the ticket via a third party/travel agent.

When you agreed to conduct the transaction in Euros, I don't see why anyone now has any right/expectation to have the refund made in a currency other than Euro, too (which is effectively what the demand for "forex losses" amounts to).

Wozza2404

If I had made the refund request, I'd agree with you. As the refund is being forced upon me, however, I would lay it at BA's door to (at the very least) return me to the position I was in before the transaction took place.

Tobias-UK

Oops, absolutely correct. I was meant to say GBP weakening against the Euro! [blushing emoticon ]

irishguy28

I suppose you do have a point there...

Tobias-UK

I did reply to this point when you made it earlier. BA will not be responsible for contacting you about the cancellation. That is your travel agent's responsibility.

shady

I agree with your logic. However we all know how this will end. They will pull the "obvious error fare" at some point. While all this reasoning might make a difference in the court, it will never get there.
My friend admitted the defeat on this sale. All he wanted was to get the refund as early as possible to be ready for the next sale.

tangey

All it implies is that he could afford the original F fare, but not the new one.

danam

I agree, but if you follow the path of demanding a rerouting under EU261 due to a schedule change and you are refused, what can you realistically do?

Not saying that you shouldn't press the OTA, but beyond that I personally think it's all over. It's a real shame for the OP.

irishguy28

No arguments here. It's the inevitable outcome. But I do not condone the dispersal of incorrect information, which this travel agent appears to be doing in a mere attempt to fob you off.

Again, no arguments here.

But it should re-educate the travel agent involved that they should not be so economical with the truth. Either they are mistaken - in which case, they need to be informed that a cancellation/schedule change allows the customer to call the shots - or they are knowingly lying, which is something they should be called out on. Why can they not just be honest to the passenger?

acquiescefc

I have a booking with an OTA. The full itinerary still shows there but now the record locator has disappeared and says 'your request was sent to the airline' instead.

I assume eventually they will contact me to say something went wrong and 'we can rebook you for 11k' as above.

Don't know much about this eu261 but do I have any leg to stand on to demand I get what I paid and was ticketed for? Do they have any extra grace period to allow to protect themselves for things like this as they're an OTA?

shady

Sorry I did not make it clear enough. I am talking about two different bookings.

One is my own booking made directly on ba.com, that I still did not get a cancellation notice.

The one made with OTA, we are discussing now, is my friend's.

Tobias-UK

AH! Understood, it's not easy keeping up with all these bookings! ^

Poor show again from BA - you'd expect everyone to have been contacted by now.

BTW: Are you the real Slim Shady?

irishguy28

No, EU261/2004 will not help you.

And your real beef is against BA anyway - not your OTA.

(The reference to this regulation above was only in the hypothetical scenario whereby a travel agent claimed that the ticket had to be cancelled due to a "schedule change". In that scenario, where the validity of the ticket was apparently uncontested [which we know NOT to be the true status of the ticket in question; the travel agent involved just seems to be afraid/unwilling/unable to give the real reason for the ticket cancellation, but we know that it must be due to BA's cancelling of all tickets issued at these fares], EU261/2004 would force the airline/agent to offer rebooking/rerouting instead of refund if the customer preferred this option).

Despite the lack of information from your travel agent, it is safe to assume that your ticket was cancelled by BA because of the claimed "obvious error" in the price. As such, you do not have an uncontested, valid ticket anymore. EU261/2004 therefore does not apply to you.

There really is not much that you can do. If you have incurred other expenses as a result of this ticket, then you may have a claim against the airline, but you would have to fight for this, probably in the small claims court.

If you feel that your ticket was cancelled in breach of contract law in whatever jurisdiction such a claim can be raised in, then you would need to engage the services of a lawyer to take a case against BA in the hope of having a judge side in your favour and force them to honour the contract. Note that this is a very risky, and potentially costly (if the judgement went against you) thing to do, and certainly not for the foolhardy/uninitiated.