BA - Just don't care
 

Just one thing - stop flying them. Enough people do that - BA will care.

The simple way forward is for a clever legal person, when they affected by silliness, to take them to court to get clear judgements that would benefit all passengers.

BUT the so called clever legal person is wealthy enough to fly on private jets, so it ain't gonna happen.

The first flight sounds like a case for EU261 compensation at least. Have you already been down this route or not? If a crew was pulled for another flight, and especially given it was at LHR, not sure how BA could claim that as extraordinary circumstances...

There are 5 flights from LHR to FCO on May 25th with availability in both classes, and only one flight is zeroed out. Call back and ask to be re-booked onto one of the flights with availability.

Welcome to Flyertalk Ashburton52. It's good to see you here, but not so good to see why. You certainly have had a really bad run of flights there, and I actually completely see the point in shifting trade to other airlines in this context. BA won't be in the least bit bothered, but at least you know your money isn't going to an airline that has fallen short on your expectations. So it's the right way to go, so long as you don't make life unnecessarily difficult for yourself along the way.

I agree with ratechaser that EC261 seems to be payable on the SA trip, if it was a commercial decision to allocate the service to another route. There is a guide to this in the Forum Dashboard, but cancellations of this sort should enable Article 7 compensation of 600€ per person in this circumstance.

For Vueling, that I don't really understand - the following box should have been very visible during the booking process, at least it is on my PC when I tried it just now:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4916d68f44.png

It's certainly a fact of life that codeshares are often cheap for a reason. If it wasn't cheap, and there was no such box then I can see you have an argument, and there are remedies open to you if you were not properly informed before travel (e.g. the Consumer Rights Act, see also the Dashboard).

For the Rome trip, that I don't quite understand. Just one flight is sold out (BA558), there are five other LHR services with space available in both ET and CE, and a LGW service which has space too. So I think you better call them again, you appear to have been incorrectly advised there. There's also a 300 mile rule, so there are other places in Italy that could be used instead of FCO itself, though I imagine that would not be as convenient. Moreover, with such a long time before departure, it is almost certain that availability will appear on BA558 between now and departure, at some point.

I would like to think that the Rio flight will remain OK for you. It's difficult to get out of the contractural side of it, unless something else changes. I guess it would be a novel (i.e. implausible) use of the CRA to try and get out of that, but more pragmatically you may be able to change it to an Iberia service, though perhaps a case of spending more money rather than less. However if there is a big change to that service then you're in a stronger position to argue for a refund.

The only thing is to stop giving them your money. Simple as that.

The Vueling thing is annoying but, as pointed out above, they do make it clear. It just goes with the territory of codesharing with an LCC. I'm actually glad Vueling flights are options on ba.com as, especially from BCN, they offer direct flights. Seat pitch is rough, of course...

Are not seats on VY flights quite a lot more expensive when booked through BA on. Code share compared with buying direct?

Generally they are more expensive when compared to the Basic (HBO level) but at Optima level then buying via BA can occasionally be cheaper than direct purchase on VY. For those with BA Gold cards, there is lounge access in LHR T3 (but not BCN) provided it is bought on BA.com

LOL, when are some people going to realize that as long as the public cares about nothing but price, the airlines are going to provide poorer and poorer service along with everything else, as a result. I'm not gonna spend 1000s on training personnel properly in customer service, when the customer wants it all for free and I can't set a price that pays for personnel to be properly trained.

The people always get what the people deserve. When flight costs today are half what they were in real money 30 years ago, what do you expect to get for that?
https://www.theatlantic.com/business...oticed/273506/

No doubt, some readers are not old enough to remember what flying was like 30 years ago. It might open a few eyes to read a bit about it. Like having to wear a jacket and tie in First Class! I can remember when the only things anyone put in an overhead bin were a hat, coat, briefcase. Seats were wider, reclined farther because a greater seat pitch allowed them to, flights were often half empty. There were no fights over overhead bin space or people using 'knee defenders' to stop the person in front of them from reclining their seat. In a word, flying was 'civilized'.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/wha...e-30-years-ago

But today, the public wants 'cheap' and are unwilling to pay for 'civilized' travel. The people get what the people deserve.

OP - On the contrary, BA does care. A great deal. BA cares about the one thing its customers bang into its head every day they care about. That is price, price, and price.

I say customers rather than passengers because I am referring to the ticket purchaser, more often than not a large corporate customer spending GBP Millions, which could care less about BAEC status, who credits what to whom and is also well aware of how to have its employees rebooked to JNB, FCO or wherever.

1. You are likely due EUR 600 unless there was some "extraordinary circumstance" surrounding the JNB cancellation. Does not sound likely.
2. You didn't need to read the contract to determine the operating carrier of your flight. It is specified on the BA schedule page so that it cannot be missed.
3. FCO, as you have been told, has other services with availability, so not sure what your concern is.
4. Your flight to GIG is 9 months from now. If you don't want to fly BA, don't. You have options.

This is the only solution. And it will make you feel better.

This assumes that the most talented people and/or the people who get the best results earn lots of money, which is manifestly untrue. So there is hope for that legal case to materialise yet! :)