Being rerouted on American from a BA cancelled flight
 

If you have a BA Club world ticket where the flight is cancelled and you are rerouted on AA, here are several questions.

If the tickets were purchased with avios and $500 for taxes and $136 to pick a seat, and you are now rerouted on AA, are you due any refund if you got a business seat?

Would you automatically get business class since you had club world

Or, should you just be happy you got to your final destination?

Just curious.

You should get business class seat on AA, refund of your BA seat $136. If you arrive late or have to leave too early you might even be entitled to EU261 reg stipulations.

You would definitely be able to fly business. They may give you an option in Economy if that's the only direct option (if there are no Business seats left), but you could then go indirectly.

I don't know about the seat assignment charge. AA does not charge, whereas BA does, but I'm not sure what the deal would be under the circumstances.

Just seen your post. OP, I would listen to him!

Lots depends on the reason for the cancellation.

But yes you should be re-routed in like for like...

The seat reservations fee should always be refunded...

The rest depends on how long you had to wait for the re-routing when the re-routing gets you to your final destination, if the re-routing leaves before the original booking... and most importantly the reasons for the cancellation.

Are you entitled to EC261 if a flight has been cancelled and you are rebooked with more than a 3 hour time delay? I thought that strike action was an extraordinary event

Strikes are a legitimate reason for not paying Article 7 compensation, yes, but I would expect it to have to be a direct consequence of the withdrawal of labour on a particular flight, rather than (e.g.) shortage of WW crew numbers covering other flights.

You might get rebooked into a revenue bucket and get TPs and Avios too!

A redemption is a paid ticket. It is not treated differently for IRROPS rebooking or EC 261/2004 purposes than a cash ticket.

If you are rebooked onto an AA service, your BA J ticket ("Club World" is simply BA's marketing hype name for its #2 cabin) should be in AA J (or F). If J is not available, you will have to decide whether to accept a reroute into Y or to wait for J availability.

If you are rebooked into Y you are due a refund of 75% of the avios for the segment, your BA seat fee and the difference in APD for your now non-premium UK departure.

If the offered flight arrives 3+ hours later than your originally scheduled arrival, you are due EUR 300 (4+ hours gets you EUR 600) unless the reason for the delay is "extraordinary" e.g., weather or strike.

Are all strikes considered a legitimate reason for not paying out under EC261?

I can understand strikes by air traffic controllers, ramp workers, third party baggage handlers and caterers, but isn't it a little bit different when a company can't negotiate an agreement with its own employees for months / years? BA is making business decisions which are seriously impacting its customers. Surely they shouldn't be able to shrug their shoulders and deny any responsibility for it. Has anyone tried challenging this "fact" via small claims or other legal channels?

I suspect that if this got to a senior court it may well rule that strikes which the airline can control - so the dispute is directly with the airline and it is within its power to fix it - are not extraordinary circumstances. Clearly ATC strikes would be a very different scenario, there is painfully little that BA can do if (or rather when) French ATC goes on strike. However I doubt that at the entry level court process it would work, the wording just says "strikes" without making any further distinction.

As to whether OP must claim a refund, yes. This is an EC 261/2004 matter and nothing regarding class of service downgrade is automated. Seat fees, APD and the like should be automatic, but probably won't be.

As to the strike issue, there is no precedential case remotely suggesting that there is a difference between a strike by carrier employees and by employees of a third-party, e.g. ATC. The reason for that seems fairly obvious. Of course anyone can end a strike by meeting the demands. Thus, any strike by airline employees can be resolved relatively instantly. But, that seems a bit foolish to suggest.

Given the politics of the EU and the role of the unions, one can imagine why this provision won't be interpreted otherwise.