Globaliser

Welcome to FT, paulinportsmouth!The most recent experience that I have seen is a negative one, just a few posts up in this thread: Ticket validity.

paulinportsmouth

Cheers, i somehow hadn't spotted that response. Will attempt to get validity extended on the ticket to allow rebooking first. Had been sitting on it for a while, wished i'd booked when I had an idea of when I wanted to go now.

Globaliser

Good luck with that. Do you have a basis for asking for a validity extension? Many of us would like to be able to get that too!

paulinportsmouth

Not really any more than any one else does, but stated the ticket validity terms and eu261 article 8 in an effort to get it extended, more a no harm trying crusade as i'll take the refund if I can't do anything with it.

Bluekjp

Had a case two weeks ago whereby the ticket I’d purchased in Feb 20 for travel to TIA on 31 Dec 21 was cancelled and 01Jan offered, which was too late for me to see how they celebrate NYE in Albania. That only left me the month of Jan to rebook within the unfair validity rule. However, I managed to change it to a sunny bank holiday weekend in May. It turns out BA had accepted the 1Jan date on my behalf (eg I hadn’t accepted and was still showing as red in MMB). and
had reissued the ticket according to the agent. She checked with a supervisor and was told that because of the erroneous involuntary reissue I had another year to play with from late Nov which was when they had reissued the ticket. Yet, above in post 259 ANONBA mentions that invol reissues do not give an extension to tickets under the current policy. Let’s face it, it is very much a lottery unfortunately.

DrGee

Just thought I'd mention that BA have kindly given in to my request following a lengthy wait for a response from them to a CEDR claim. Why it takes this amount of time to do the right thing baffles me.

AdBoy

Did you take it to CEDR or it was resolved before then? Would be interested to know the steps to take!

DrGee

I took it to CEDR. BA were due to make a response in a week or so but I called them directly and got it sorted. CEDR claim now resolved.

ABZLocal

A further data point.

I had a booking made in December 2020 for travel in October 2021. This was cancelled in September 2021.

Ticket re-issued in September for travel later in October 2021 due to rumours of the US opening. This was cancelled again later in September 2021.
I had requested new dates for October 2022 and was told the tickets are outside validity, it can only be extended to September 2022.

I tried to get BA to agree to no avail so took it to CEDR end of December and a very helpful person from BA called yesterday and agreed to move the flights to October 2022 without issue. Case closed with CEDR within 90 days.

gallagher

that’s great news. What details did you send to CEDR? Did you purchase another ticket (as recommended) and send those details too!?

ABZLocal

i sent all the correspondence I had with BA customer services and via Twitter along with dates booked, all changes and all flight cancellation emails. Also, requested a reroute as per EC261 which I quoted and attached. It's quute easy to do and I put as much detail in there including all dates, ticketing details and flight numbers. I also included the flights I'd like in October 2022 but the BA agent didn't seem to have this information.

i didn't book or pay for new flights. CEDR from memory did ask a price, which I did based on the prices that day but did write that my preference was rebooked flights.

As I said, the gentleman from BA couldn't have been more helpful once he made contact.

G_CIVV

I had a return from LHR-San Jose (SJC), booked on 08 April 2021 for travel on 12 Jan 2022 cancelled several months ago. Rebooking was offered to SFO given that BA are not serving SJC in the Summer 2022 schedule.

BA refused to extend ticket validity beyond April 2022, so in January, I referred the case to CEDR stating I wanted to travel to my original ticketed destination when the SJC service (hopefully) resumes in October 2022.

After a long and convoluted process, I was informed that the CEDR adjudication would be received by 05 April 2022, leaving me with virtually no time to rebook if the adjudication went in favour of BA. The fare I paid was exceptionally good value, especially with the TP/Avios factored in, so I was determined NOT to take a cash refund or voucher.

I bit the bullet and booked a very short trip in order to use the booking before the ticket expired, and ironically the adjudication came back on the day of the LHR-SFO sector. See below the key paragraph from the adjudication:

“After reviewing the evidence, I am satisfied that the Airline has fulfilled its obligations under Article 8. It is not required to keep the Passenger’s ability to reroute for longer than the IATA industry standard of a year. I appreciate that the Passenger has specific reasons for wanting the rerouting period to be kept open for longer, but this does not change the Airline’s obligations under Article 8. As the Airline has fulfilled its obligations, there is no justification to find that the Passenger be allowed to rebook the same LHR to SJC route when it recommences in October 2022.”

So I would strongly warn against anyone expecting a positive outcome on ticket validity going down the CEDR route. I found the entire CEDR process clunky, frustrating and downright useless. Their communication was also inept.

Ironically, the EU261 compensation that I am due after the itinerary was caught up in the IT fiasco means that, when the Avios are taken into account, I will end up making a cash profit from the trip, and it serves BA right.

corporate-wage-slave

Thanks for the detailed report. The thing that distinguishes this from other reports is that BA did offer a rebooking offer, whereas in other cases BA just didn't give a rebooking option. The other factor is that the Bay Area is unusual in having 3 large airports within a few miles of each other - there is provision in the Regulation for airlines to take advantage of this. I guess your scenario will be more likely going forward. I'm not entirely happy with this outcome, not least because surely if CEDR had to balance between BA's desire to stick to IATA norms and the passenger's desire to travel in a way that suits the passenger, the key decider is that the Regulation is intended to be a consumer protection regulation? The paragraph above seems to treat BA and the passenger as approximately equal participants. And fundamentally BA is over-riding EC261 here via terms and conditions. So I think there probably is a case for going MCOL on similar cases, and that is an option still open to you, at least in theory since it bring perils of its own.

Tobias-UK

This is inconsistent with EC261 and wrong in law. I agree entirely with what corporate-wage-slave says above. The mediator has erred in law and had this been a MCOL judgment I’d be appealing.

Whilst I can accept there should be a reasonableness test in these situations, perhaps it would in some situations be unreasonable to expect an airline to reroute after, say, a period of one year from the date of the affected flight, it is wholly unreasonable and against the ethos of the Regulation to impose a limit that does not exist in the Regulation that rerouting must be within ticket validity.

Bobbex

Hi,

I have lost track of the current position with all the rule changes so would appreciate some help.

I originally bought a ticket to Hawaii last summer, operated by AA, which has multiple legs that have had their times changed or cancelled close to a dozen times. I was originally due to fly the ticket in November. When the flights were cancelled again a week before departure I contacted BA to have the dates changed to May 2022. In January they sent me a receipt for the new dates, which shows that the ticket is now valid until May 2023. A couple of weeks ago BA cancelled the first leg of the journey rebooking me from a morning to evening flight which means I will arrive a day later, which causes problems with another set of flights I was planning to take. What I would like to do is change the dates to September but is that likely to be permissible or will they ask me to rebook 3 days +/-14 days of the May departure date? I don't know how the booking with confidence and any other ticket rules currently interact. I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what my options are before I call them.

Thanks
Bob