flight time change advice needed
 

Later this year I have a CE booking from SVG to LHR that has been moved forward 3h35m on a Sunday turning it from an evening flight to an afternoon flight. The new time makes it impossible for me to get from the event I am attending to the airport in time to make the new earlier departure time.

A quick look online shows that I can get to OSL fairly cheaply with Norwegian in time to get the last OSL to LHR flight so I called the gold line and they are refusing to change me to the OSL to LHR flight and are saying my only two options are to have a refund or fly the following day from SVG, which is also not feasible. If I want to go via OSL they are saying I need to pay the change fee and fare difference rather than it being a free re-booking due to a flight change.

I thought that getting myself to OSL at my own expense was a reasonable way out of this hole but BA don't seem to agree (and if I'm honest I'm a little disappointed with the lack of flexibility). What does the collective FT wisdom think? Do I suck it up, take the refund and re-book with a different carrier or should I persist in trying to persuade BA that the OSL move is a good compromise all round?

First time I've used the acronym, so here goes...HUACA?

When did the change take place? They can get crabby if you leave things a while but what you're asking doesn't seem unreasonable.

Definitely HUCA at least once; I imagine this sort of change can be implemented by the right agent.

BA's guidelines for schedule changes do not have the option of flying to a different city within a max 300 miles radius, which is available in the event of a cancellation. The only options are a full refund or time/date change.

I would hang up and call again. This does not seem like a logical approach. BA have, in the past, been quite flexible to move me between various UK domestic routes due to schedule changes, most recently from a NCL to MAN service.

+1. You can certainly call again and hope for a more accommodating supervisor but you have no leg to stand on either under ba's own rules or under ec261/2004.

Agreed, but I am not asking to fly to a different city, I am asking to fly from a different city. Stavanger and Oslo are 188 miles apart as the crow flies.

Either way you'll be asking for something that BA's policy does not expressly allow for a schedule change. I am all for hanging up and calling back when an agent has acted against the rules, but calling back and asking for something that agents can't do may be a waste of time.

Here are your rights in the BA Conditions of Carriage:

9a3) If, after you buy your ticket:

we make a significant change to the scheduled departure time of your flight;
you find this change unacceptable; and

we or our authorised agents cannot book you on another flight which you are prepared to accept;

we will give you an involuntary fare refund.

You don't have the *right* to fly from Oslo (which is, P2P a much more expensive route than SVG), so you are at the mercy of negotiating with an agent.

In your shoes I would be inclined to rebook and take the refund.

I guess that's the conclusion I'm coming to, and the sooner I do it the cheaper the fare with the other carrier will be.

This doesn't happen to me very often so I'm grateful for that. Given that another poster has indicated that BA have been flexible with them it does annoy me a little that BA are refusing to be flexible with me. Perhaps naïvely I was hoping my offer would be taken. Lesson learned!

Despite me offering two alternatives BA would rather give me.my money back, and so the booking has been cancelled and Norwegian are about to get my cash!

Sticking to the rules rigidly at the loss of a customer does seem a rather strange stance to take, especially when it's not the customers fault in the fist place.