Expense hotel stay due to flight cancellation
 

Hello,

I am just off to the phone to British Airways Gold Line. My Warsaw-London flight has got cancelled so have been given an option of full refund or changing the flights.

I want to change the flight to the later flight however will miss my connection ( on the same booking) to Edinburgh. And the next connection is the following day.

The agent on the phone said they cannot guarentee that BA will pay the expenses for my night stay at a hotel in London Heathrow due to the high number of cancellations happening.

Do you think BA will pay this hotel stay? Do they have to? And what budget are we looking at? Hilton is around £100 and Sofitel T5 is at £125 currently (£150 with breakfast!)

This is a grey area and it depends a bit on how far off this is. In the past they have said before travel they won't give a refund if 2 weeks notice is given. But then at least for BAEC Gold cardholders they would in reality pay up to £200. So I would do two things: first check if a refund can get you home on KLM or whatever without the hassle. Then if it can't, pay up yourself for a hotel at a budget you find acceptable if it was your own money. Then send the bill into BA with a very short note and see if it gets paid. If BA refuse then you can try EC261 but there are arguments both ways on this and so you'd have to be up for that battle if it happens.

Hello

It is in October, I can book through Brussels Airlines but I need to quarentine for 14 days as its Brussels

I was thinking Wizz or Ryanair, actually.

You also have LOT to Heathrow at fairly reasonable prices.

Finnair an option via HEL?

BA certainly has no obligations to pay for a hotel for an October change. Whether it might do so after the fact as a customer service gesture based on status is a different question.

If this is concerning, I would definitely rebook OA.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...lines#schedule

Ask BA to reroute you via one world or another carrier as per last 2 policies other is a refund. IMO they wouldn’t pay for a hotel. (They didn’t for me but I was only Silver at the time]. .

Whilst inconvenient can you shift trip or cut it short /extend it. I think with flight cancellations going forward for the next 12-18 months this is going to be more of a problem and such issues are to be expected sadly.

I might just sit tight. OP is not flying until October. Restrictions on entry are shifting daily and that may affect routing as well as scheduling.

I would maybe see if they could get you on a LOT flight to LHR or LCY and then onto the BA flight.

There are a host of options open to them, especially if they are willing to look outside one world.

ryanair have 4 flights a week WMI to EDI, and by the end of october 2 flights week to GLA, but could mean a very early start. 6:30am from WMI would not be nice.

The quarantine countries today are unikely to be the quarantlne countries in october. If things carry on as they are Poland will be on the quarantine list before long.

Better question is whether any of the options are cheaper than the current BA e-ticket. If so, just cancel the BA ticket for a refund and purchase the new ticket on whatever carrier works best for you.

Are you sure about this? Duty of care has no 'upfront' limit to when an airline has to notify you of a change. The cancellation forcing an overnight connection could be tomorrow or 355 days away; duty of care always applies.

Case: I had a Warsaw cancellation back in March. Re booked to the next day. Flew it last weekend and put in a claim for the last night of the hotel and it was promptly paid.

If BA does not want to pay the hotel for the forced overnight stay, then they should pay LOT, Austrian or Lufthansa to get you back to not need it.

There's nothing in EC261 to suggest the duty of care only applies to disruptions unfolding on or near to the date of travel. Also, I don't think anything can be gleaned from the passenger agreeing on a re-route: the regulations explicitly allow the passenger to choose a refund, a re-route (including duty of care) or rebooking at a later date altogether. Of course it looks like BA might try it on, and OP might have to pick between writing the loss off, or going to Small Claims.

Edit: Just read the post above! I shouldn't reply too quickly!

This policy is not EC261 compliant. It is interesting to see this in black and white: for cabin downgrades, they refund the difference in the cost of the tickets, not the the up to 75% legally required for the sector.

And to add to the original poster:
- You can request rebooking on another airline
- if there really isn’t another option I would book the hotel and charge it to BA. Duty of care does not have a 14 day window.