Hello, I’m a long-time reader, first time poster, after a bit of advice please. I got caught up in the melee that was Terminal 5 last night. I arrived at the airport to find out my flight to Newcastle was cancelled. I actually got to the airport quite early in a hope to use one of the showers in the lounge.

There were no obvious members of staff anywhere so I rang the number in the text I had just received. The lady advised the systems were down and she couldn’t help, I needed to find someone in the airport.

I managed to find the ‘Hotel Accommodation’ huge queue in Zone F and joined it. Flights cancelled to Geneva, Hamburg, Inverness, Manchester etc. After about 45 minutes I had got half way up the queue when a BA member of staff announced a bus might leave tonight heading to Newcastle depending on numbers. Eight of us came forward and the lady said a bus would leave from stands 17 or 18 downstairs at 9pm and take us to Newcastle. She advised NO flights were going to Newcastle today (Sunday 7 July) which I can see is incorrect, unless she was inferring they were fully booked. She also said BA would NOT pay for a second night’s hotel accommodation (is this true?)

Based on the above I elected to take the bus transport. We were given complimentary refreshment vouchers and told to meet at the bus stop at 9pm. I got down there at 8.40pm and it was packed full of people trying to get on Hoppa buses which were full. It got to about 9.20pm and nothing had arrived. One member of the group went back up to find out what was going on, when they came back it turned out nothing had been arranged, and we should have gone to the Central Bus station and bought our own bus tickets which would then be refunded, and we should have also received compensation leaflets (which were never received).

By this point one of the group went for the hotel accommodation but BA had no more hotels, allegedly due to Wimbledon and people were being asked to book their own hotels and get reimbursed up to a certain amount (I think they were saying £200), which is chancing it on a Saturday night in London in July.

Another member of the group went back up and a BA member of staff came down who was much more helpful. He took us back to Zone F and arranged a seven seater taxi to Newcastle, taking our booking reference numbers and final destinations. We were also given more refreshment vouchers and a crate of water bottles.

The taxi left Heathrow at 10.50pm and arrived at Newcastle airport at 4.10am before taking me to my own home. Obviously the journey was very uncomfortable and today is a bit of a write off for me now.

I just have a couple of questions:

-I am still booked on the 9pm flight tonight. Should I formally cancel this (‘cancel and get a refund’) - If I don’t do anything will I be down as a no-show and have repercussions later?

-I paid £200 for my original flight (return), would the above scenario apply under the EU 261/2004 and would it be better for me to apply separately under this outlining the above series of events?

-Minor point - this was one of my last flights to gain enough Tier Points to retain Silver - what do I do based on either of above scenarios, would these be honoured?

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

Thank you both for your welcomes - I have confirmed the cancellation and refund option online to free up the seat. I will see what comes of it - I presume I will get a refund of the ticket I didn’t use. Do I then claim additionally for EC261? I’ll check out the dashboard too, very helpful. Thanks.

Just add my welcome to the BA forum too.

i noticed you mentioned nearly silver. As nothing was flown you’ll earn zilch (and I can’t believe you got a cab) try and book a cheap back to back day trip somewhere and start enjoying those silver perks

edit : ignore me, I didn’t know about original routing claims, good shout tobias. Best of luck with all the claims

Thanks again everyone, very helpful - the option on manage my booking was something like ‘cancel and refund’ so I just went through the relevant pages - I’ll see what happens. I have also completed the separate EC261 form online and will work on the Original Routing Credit.

I'd advise the OP to be very careful about the timing of the decision regarding ORC. It's not obvious to me that ORC will apply, especially if a refund is paid for the cancelled flight. If OP is close to the end of his/her TP collection year, be sure that if ORC hasn't been granted by then, some alternative MR is done to guarantee the required number of TPs. A small extension to the year might apply, but again be sure to meet all deadlines for this so that status isn't forfeited in the end due to not receiving TPs for the flight that became a long shared taxi ride.

It’s probably not a big deal as different departments will be looking at it but I would have got my ORC first, then applied for EU261.

Follow instructions in guide and contact them saying please provide Tier points and Avios for plane journey that I took by bus. Mention not delay/cancellation compensation.

Thanks everyone - BA contacted me directly on here today via private message regarding Tier Points before I had a chance to look into this further myself. Quite impressed.

Thanks everyone for all your help above. I’ve had the return cost of my flight refunded, my Tier Points and Avios I would have gained have already credited to my account, and the EC261 compensation will be paid into my bank account within the next few days.