adcords

Hello all, bit of a slightly complex case here, but trying to work out where I stand.

I was due to fly from Mty, Mexico to Dallas and then Lhr, U.K. Today via 1st leg AA economy 2nd BA Premium economy. (Part of a return journey).

My flight from Mty has been delayed 5 hours, American Airlines have therefore taken me off my BA flight to Heathrow and downgraded me to an economy ticket on an AA flight later in the day. There's no premium economy on AA and they don't appreciate I had a better than economy ticket...

There's no BA staff at Mty, so called the Mexico City office but got cut off when the lady was going to hand me to her supervisor.

Naturally I should be entitled to some compensation for the difference in fare (at a minimum & I believe there's some EU rules around this)...

Question I have though is this premium economy leg from Dallas to London was going to give me my tier points for silver (collection period ends next month) which I won't get if I don't fly it...

What happens in this situation, any ideas how BA would treat this?

Gshumway

At minimum you should be able to contact BA and request original routing credit and get the tier points for what you had paid. This will be easier if the ticket was on BA stock, which it probably was as you had a WT+ flight.

Calchas

Deleted

Cymro

EU261 doesn't apply to a flight operated by a non-EU carrier not departing from the EU.

I'm not sure what the rules are when the downgrade affects a flight operated by an EU carrier but the delay is caused by a non-EU carrier, which is a more accurate description of your situation.

adcords

Well my ticket is a BA ticket (so an EU carrier) and I'm ticketed on the same PNR to an EU destination, so I thought it would apply. I would think it is the airline you ticketed on, not the operator for EU rules?

I argued thick and thin at the AA desk, but the wouldn't appreciate my WT+ fare is not an economy fare

wrp96

No it's definitely the operator under EU rules, not the ticketing airline.

And unfortunately there are no later flights from DFW with premium economy available as you will arrive after the last BA flight departs.

Calchas

When you get to DFW, you could get yourself on tomorrow's BA flight instead?

I can see that they weren't going to put you into J unfortunately.

Dave Noble

You are not covered by EC261

The impacted flight is the Mexico to Dallas flight on AA and definitely not covered

If you have time , you may want to look at whether to stay another day and travel in class booked

The amount of refund may be pretty small

SteveF

I agree with the previous two posts; refuse the downgrade and travel tomorrow in the class booked.

so3003

Surely the OP is entitled to involuntary downgrade compensation as per EC regulations, for the flight to LHR?

kanderson1965

No, as the BA flight would depart as normal and BA would not have denied boarding if the OP had been able to catch the flight. The rest is outside of BA's control.

Dave Noble

No. BA has not downgraded the passenger - AA has rebooked the passenger onto an AA flight

Virazuno

Perhaps OP would be better served posting in the AA forum?

Often1

There are three EC 261/2004 issues:
1. Delay/cancellation - Not applicable as the delayed segment is on a non-community carrier (AA) between two points outside the EU.
2. Downgrade - BA did not downgrade the passenger. Presuming that BA operated the flight and would have acommodated OP in WTP as ticketed, BA does not owe OP anything for the downgrade.
3. Duty of care - Same problem as #1.

What can be done? OP need not accept AA's proposed reroute. Simply ask to be acommodated on tomorrow's BA flight in the booked cabin. If he can't accomplish this locally, he can do this be calling AA (call US #). As AA is the late-delivering carrier, it is AA's responsibility to rebook.

Nothing prevents BA from fixing this on arrival at DFW, but BA has no obligation to do so.

Do bear in mind that the costs of overnighting at DFW are OP's unless he has travel insurance which would cover a situation where there are earlier flights.

MSPeconomist

Anoother option might be to reroute from DFW to another international gateway from which the OP could catch a same day connection to a BA flight with premium economy available. This would add another stop to the itinerary and transferring terminals at ORD, BOS, or JFK might not be particularly pleasant. It also would mean flying farther in AA domestic coach and having a shorter and therefore less restful nonstop TATL flight. However, it sounds like the OP's arrivial into DFW will be sufficiently late to make such a same day rerouting difficult if not impossible.