Andriyko

The Regulation only requires for airlines to offer accommodation free of charge when an additional stay becomes necessary (e.g. when the airline can't send you to your final destination on the day of the canceled flight). If you choose to stay another night I'd plan on BA not covering the cost of the extra night. You can basically choose to travel even in a week but the airline won't be paying for the hotel.

tuonopepper

Day flight is good if you can get on that....

tuonopepper

I'd argue that it was 'impossible' to make the earlier flight due to pre areanged commitments. Therefore it was Nec to stay another night and travel next day.

rapidex

I suspect there may be a good deal more of these cancelled flights due to lack of crew.

DYKWIA

Exactly... if you were flying in from somewhere else for example.

Edit to add - there is no mention of 'same day' from what I can see. Even the Wiki on here states :-

Q1: When does the “right to care” consist of?
A1: The right to care entails:
a) Food and drink: Meals and refreshments “in a reasonable proportion to the waiting time”;
b) Communications: 2 telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails. In practice, airlines often give passengers a telephone card;
c) Accommodation: hotel accommodation where the passenger is rerouted (or the flight delayed) the next day or later as well as transport to/from the hotel.

From CAA site :-

Care and assistance
If you choose an alternative flight you are also entitled to care and assistance. This usually means food, drink, access to communication (this could be by refunding the reasonable cost of phone calls) and accommodation (if necessary).

Often1

None of these contortions are necessary. If OP wants to fly the next day, subject to availability, EC 261/2004 requires that. The three rebooking options are: rebooking now, rebooking later (could be a lot later, e.g. months), or a refund.

However, the later option is not attached to a duty of care. Accordingly, OP could have been rebooked the next day (subject to availability), but so long as BA was prepared to get him out without the need of an overnight, the duty of care would not extend to the hotel or any additional meals. Entirely possible that OP's travel insurance would pick up the extra night, but that depends on a careful reading of his insurance contract.

One can argue anything, but the Regulation is fairly clear. As others note, there is a vast difference between rebooking rights and what one must get paid.

footballfanatic

But then you get a refund on a cheaper fare bucket purchased in advance (a reasonable assumption for most pax), compared to a walk up fare on VS. The chances of this being favorable are slim.

the refund mechanism is intended more for trip-in-vain.

Globaliser

I thought that Article 5(1)(a) and 5(1)(b) were pretty clear in saying that if the re-routing requires an overnight, the duty of care includes accommodation? I can see that if BA could get the passenger out at some later time on the same day then an overnight is not required, but in this case BA would like the passenger to fly earlier than booked but the passenger's commitments preclude that. So an overnight would seem to be required.

tuonopepper

But if you're not physically there 3.5hrs earlier to get the early flight then BA would not be able to get him out. He could be coming in from a domestic hop on a different sector on a separate ticket for example.

Often1

Separate tickets are not BA's problem.

Same ticket means that it is a connection and BA would reroute the entire ticket.

But, that is not OP's situation (or one presumes he would have said so).

Globaliser

Surely BA can't discharge its obligations just by saying (at short notice) that the OP has been rebooked on a flight leaving, 3, 6 or 12 hours earlier on the same day? It might not be a connecting flight on the same ticket. The OP might have an 8-hour drive to get to BOS, or the entire point of the trip might have been that he has a lecture to deliver at 6.00 pm before flying back on a 10.50 pm flight. There are lots of proper reasons why it might be completely impracticable for a passenger to fly 3½ hours earlier than originally booked (as BA's alternative for the OP required), so that the passenger has to take an overnight delay. Given what 261/2004 is there to do, I'd be surprised if it doesn't require the airline to accommodate the passenger overnight. These are obligations, in my view, that are more important than the lottery winnings that most people seem to be interested in.

Another reason that comes to mind as to why BA can't discharge its obligations like this is that it's only happenstance that the OP knew in advance that the flight had been cancelled and that BA's offer was to carry him 3½ hours earlier. If he had not seen the email - for example, if he'd been out of range or if he had no working device - he might not have discovered this until arriving at the airport (say) 90 minutes before departure, by which time it would have been too late for him to get on to either of the earlier BA flights. Again, surely it can't be the case that BA has discharged its obligations by saying "Well, we did rebook you and its none of our business that you didn't know that so you're on your own now." That would seem to be exactly the sort of thing that 261/2004 was properly intended to avoid.

There are many people who would have gladly accepted the rebooking because it was important to them to get to London the same night as originally booked. BA's system has worked well, and it's an improvement on how things used to be. But for those for whom the first alternative offer doesn't work, I can't see why BA's obligations should be any different from the examples I gave above if (for example) the OP says "The earlier flight doesn't work for me because I already have plans that I don't want to change, so I don't want to fly any earlier than my originally-booked flight."

Brisbane Road

I've no idea what the OP paid for his business seats from London to Boston, but let's say they price at around about £1500 which would be a fair average for a route like that. I'd bet a princely sum you won't be able to find a one way business class seat from the East Coast to London (non stop) last minute one way for anything less than a grand. Assuming BA would refund around half his journey as he already flew out, so that's circa £750 returned?

Go ahead and check this on Google Flights, you'll be in for a surprise if you think there are last minute one way seats to London in business for anything remotely close to that

KeithS

As I am home I thought I best update this thread as people were kind enough to offer advice.

We were staying away from Boston and had plans for the day of departure. This was a specific reason for booking the last flight of the day (and to get a better sleep on the flight).

We decided to cancel our plans and get to the airport for the earlier flight. It involved leaving our hotel much earlier than planned, cancelling plans, non-stop drive etc etc.

I would have happily stayed and got the flight the following day, but that was veto'd by my wife. I think I have to agree with Globaliser's point that BA would have got me on the following morning's flight - afterall, if I wasn't picking up emails then I would have got to the airport oblivious to the cancellation after the last flight had left. However, my wife did not want to take the risk.

So now I will put in my EU Reg 261 claim, now that I am home. Also may write to BA as they forgot to do my breakfast on the flight - by the time I realised we were coming into land. And after the issues, I had asked my taxi to pick us straight up so didn't go into the lounge for breakfast. Minor point in the scheme of things.

Another interesting point - the check-in staff tried to tell me that the cancellation was because the aircraft had gone tech.

A silver lining though - we were on the upper deck of an A380, something I had not done before.

Many thanks for all your pointers.It has at least put me right on one thing - I could have sworn I had seen many threads where flights were cancelled and passengers had said they requested a reroute on another carrier. It appears from this thread that I was under a misapprehension.

nufnuf77

Call centre wont reroute on non-OW carrier unless specifically instructuted and allowed (eg strikes on Ba have specific guidance for Call centre to be able to do that).
Airport staff can put you pretty much on anything - so had you shown up for you original 10pm departure they would have tried to find you a space on AF/LH and if not available put you on the morning BA flight and give you a hotel.

babats

Why do you say that?