steveholt

I have a JFK-YVR flight booked on CX with Avios in F for March. The flight (and the whole route) was cancelled by CX. BA notified me of the cancellation and gave no alternative routing, telling me I needed to call in to try and rebook. I've called in twice now (with no status). Agent 1 told me that there was nobody else who flew that route (when AA flies JFK-LAX-YVR). I asked if she could work with the oneworld liaison to try and open up award space and she said that doesn't exist. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that supervisors don't talk to customers. Agent 2 told me that they need to cancel the booking and then re-book me on a new itinerary, which is the opposite of what I want (since oneworld would have no reason to open up new award space on a new booking as opposed to a cancelled one). I asked to speak to a supervisor there as well and was told that the wait would be too long and that there were lots of cancelled flights they were dealing with.

So:
1) Does the oneworld liaison really exist?
2) Is there a BA agent who is aware of the liaison and sufficiently empowered to contact them?
3) Is there any chance of me ever reaching this BA agent if I hang up and call back?
4) Are there actually supervisors in BA call centers?

KARFA

To answer a different question, there would be a vague possibly of CX opening reward space to allow rebooking of an existing but cancelled CX reward booking. There is basically no chance of AA opening up reward space because your CX reward flight has been cancelled.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, oneworld liaison does exist, eventually you should get an agent aware of it. From what I can make out, there isn't much point in contacting a supervisor, you basically need the right agent to begin with. Clearly it gets a lot easier if you are able to find Avios availability in the first instance since I doubt Cathay can do much on AA's services. This isn't a great place to be in, to be honest.

You don't have any EC261 protection on this, I don't know about DOT in this area or if your insurance can help. If you are UK based you may have some Consumer Rights Act protection, though I would try hard to avoid this if possible. The risk is that it may be argued that a full refund is the remedy rather than rebooking. So I would keep ringing up, once a day to see if you can find a route through.

JAXBA

I agree.

There are indeed oneworld liaisons, I was the BA/AA one in another life - but we wouldn't have asked AA to create space after a CX cancellation, and AA wouldn't ask BA, etc.

Often1

It is theoretically possible for BA to use the liaison scheme to request the space, but it is more than likely that given the volatility in the market relating to CX (not just the JFK-YVR hop) that BA knows that AA is not forcing space. Nonetheless, this is a HUCA until you get an agent who understands the system and either tells you that the liaison scheme will not work here or who initiates the request. I would be very surprised if AA forced space because CX cancelled an entire route.

If you can find redemption space to SFO or SEA on AA, cash tickets for SFO-YVR tun about $150 and for SEA-YVR about $80. So, those might be the best option (AA won't check bags across tickets, but it will protect a delay).

DeltaFlyingProf

OP go have a look on the CX forum. There is a discussion of this situation.
You may be in luck as a new Canadian law, applying to all flights from/to/through Canada are subject to it. The gist of it is that it seems the airline has to provide you with a re-route.
It seems however that award tickets issued by others than CX are a bit of a mess as they were bouncing responsibility.

haroon145

I would try sending a DM on Twitter. In the past and very recently when I have had partner flights booked with avios that have been cancelled I have been rebooked with my preference of routing/airline. As this is a cancellation avios availability would be irrelevant here. BA can rebook you on AA or offer you a refund or a reasonable reroute. Unfortunately, some of the agents need a push to do this, but generally the Twitter team are helpful with this.

Often1

You are mixing apples and oranges. BA can and would rebook OP on BA metal, but it does not serve the route in any way, shape or form. BA can rebook OP onto AA via SFO if there is award space on AA. It cannot, however, force AA to open award space, but can ask. That is what the liaison scheme is all about.

Prospero

Since you have obviously expended significant effort and time to find a resolution using the normal channel, at this stage I’d be inclined to contact BA Executive Club here via PM

haroon145

I would disagree. I have been in a similar situation many times and BA has used commercial availability for the reroute where avios seats are not available and if they could not request these through OW liaison. There’s a process for doing so and I am not staying that BA can force AA to open award space.

Andriyko

I think it depends very much upon which airline you're talking about. If it is a joint business route then BA can do more as the other airline's policy allows more. Similarly as BA allows rebooking onto JB partners following a cancelation of its flight/withdrawal from a route. BA can't book revenue classes on AA following a cancelation by CX on a non JB route. With AA, for example, BA would not ask for an award seat to be opened up but would simply use commercial availability (but not on CX, though). In this situation BA, as a travel agent, must follow CX policy for the cancelation (if such exists).

wmaciej

See this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...continued.html
I'm in a similar boat, but with a revenue ticket and sadly expedia is in the picture as well... Under new regulations (https://rppa-appr.ca/eng/know-your-rights), CX is obliged to re-route - I'd ask BA (your travel agent) to get CX counterparts sort this out.

Anonba

The Oneworld desk as its known internally only works on the basis of certain agreements within Oneworld. They cant just ask any carrier to release Avios availability as they wont do it. In the case of a cancelled flight if the carrier has other flights the sane day BAs Oneworld desk could ask that carrier to release space but as in your case wouldnt ask another different carrier.

BA6501

Would JFK-LHR-YVR be feasible? (from a ticketing/BA perspective, not as something I'd recommend!)

steveholt

I wondered about this myself! BA didn't suggest it, but I might bring it up as an alternative. It would certainly be backtracking, but I don't think it would be cabotage...