omarlc

Due to fly back from LAS to LHR tonight. Flight appears to have some sort of engine issue which means it has been delayed / potentially cancelled. The first officer was fronting up and said he wasn't sure (I guess they will try and fix it but timing uncertain - he said it was a 9 hour fix and 2 hours for part to arrive).

Sent to go and get coaches, mass confusion, no BA staff anywhere. No proper information on which hotel we were going to. Sent to get bags, no ba staff, none at the shuttle stop, no busses so we jumped in a cab once news of hotel filtered. No staff at the hotel either! Shambles

What are our best option for getting back? Try and rebook or wait it out? Thanks

LondonCanuck

I guess that is one of the downsides with outsourcing and no local staff...

Menzies or whoever is supposed to be there simply don’t care to stay/come back :-(

Tobias-UK

BA.com says this flight departed 90 minutes late at 23:00. Did the aircraft leave and return to stand?

Tobias-UK

This is what ExpertFlyer has:

DOBA274/02OCT
* OPERATIONAL FLIGHT INFO * BA 274 -1 MO 02OCT17
CITY INFO HOUR (LOCAL)

LAS ESTIMATED TIME OF DEPARTURE 2230
DELAY ZY
LEFT THE GATE 2300
DELAY ZO
ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL 1518 LHR

simons1

Currently running with a delay of 25 hours it appears.

To answer the OP's question I think I would look for a re-routing if I needed to be back in UK. There is never any guarantee that the 'fix' will work and if not the delay could mount up.

If time is not critical then enjoy BA's hospitality and collect your €600 on return.

mikeyfly

I wonder if this route (aircraft?) is more prone to tech problems - or we just here it more here on FT than other 52J routes

As always - I'd enjoy the 600 Euros and not hang around - unless it's a Fri / Sat or large event, you'll always get a centre strip hotel for under £100 which you will get reimbursement for easily.

scottishpoet

seems this route could be taking over from the A380 in JNB as the new EU261 provider

allturnleft

Must be in odd day to be stuck in Las Vagas!

omarlc

The oddest day was Sunday evening but thankfully we were in our hotel at the other end of the strip. However even yesterday the atmosphere was very somber. Certainly didn't have much desire to stay here another day!

No idea where the 11pm departure information came from but we managed to get to the hotel and received the text re 25hr delay. So we luckily managed to rebook all of us into the 5pm. Thanks for suggestions.

Gaurantee BA will not be offering any 261 information to anyone. Is it true that delays over 5 hours you can essentially re route yourself and BA will cover the cost (assuming similar travel conditions)?

Tobias-UK

This flight certainly qualifies for €600 EC261 competition ^

corporate-wage-slave

The 5 hours comes from BA's own conditions of carriage which allows for an involuntary refund at that point, should that be your preferred outcome instead of being rebooked. EC261 has its own thread in the Dashboard with heaps of details, there is a debate out about self rerouting and EC261 in the light of the Ryanair issues, but in the circumstances, and given the possibly limited flight options from LAS, I would certainly advise you to ring BA as soon as the flight has been cancelled on the system: the Contact Centres can rebook you on AA and other JBA airlines. Outside the USA there may be a case in getting the airport agents to rebook you since they will potentially be able to rebook on a wider range of airlines including those outside oneworld.

BA's EC261 information is available online via BA.com or via this link:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...s/compensation
and also via the shortcut:
ba.com/delay

omarlc

Thanks CWS. The EU261 thread is certainly a great source of information and I have submitted my claim. In the end we re-booked onto the 5.10 flight the next day which resulted in 19hr delay so it should be a slam dunk.

I have a number of other gripes with the way they handled the situation which I will be complaining about separately along with my expenses (lack of staff, lack of information, horrible hotel etc). It's just a shame they only told us about our ability to book into our own hotel when we checked in the next day. Whilst obviously a ploy to save money it did leave to a disgusting night in a terrible hotel.

Tobias-UK

In what way was the hotel disgusting/terrible?

Often1

Putting aside EC 261/2004 which will, of course apply, there is absolutely no need to wait 19 hours or more. BA's natural process is to simply leave the booking in place and for most people that is exactly what they want.

But, there is nothing here which remotely suggests that OP asked to be rebooked on other services. I count 38 daily combinations other than the non-stops between AA & BA on the LAS-LHR route. These largely involve an AA domestic service to a BA/AA gateway and onward to LON with a choice of LHR/LGW on some routes.

Many of these routes are covered by the JV so not even the ordinary pause on rebooking OA. And on those routes where there is no JV, this is a simple OW connection and does not get into the messes associated with Ryanair and its lack of interline capability.

OP could, of course, cancel his LAS-LON ticket for a full refund and then purchase a new ticket. It might be worth looking at walk-up fares because while walk-up fares are sometimes exorbitant, there are occasions when there are dirt cheap alternatives and one can then collect the EUR 600 from BA and actually save money on top of it all.

My preference here, even though counter-intuitive to fly West to go East, is through LAX. A micro-hop to LAX followed by the lengthier flight back to the UK.