sbonathan

They have offered to cancel and rebook, but that would (as far as I can tell) mean spending more avios (and possibly taxes) as it was booked as part of multi carrier award ticket.
I am just amazed that our BA booking can be cancelled and they don't have to offer an alternative - or an alternative that my partner can legally take.

guv1976

If the traveler were to appear at MNL on the 23rd, would JL then be responsible for re-routing the passenger back to LON -- or at least to FRA? I would probably call JL in advance, and ask if this is what would occur.

sbonathan

BA (or they say Qatar) are unwilling to rebook my partner onto a Qatar flight.
The LHR flight from Tokyo is unfortunately from Haneda and so a non starter as Japan bars non nationals from entering the country.

pogonation

AA search function is famous for showing phantom availability on MH so is not a reliable way to check MH availability. Unfortunately it fails at the point of ticketing. I find that all other airlines show correct availability through AA however so if it shows QR, BA etc it should be available to BA.

corporate-wage-slave

This is indeed one of the perils of redemptions off BA metal, particularly when the replacement options maybe few and far between. I would rebook the best you can, telling the agent that you are doing this under protest, and then when it's over see about reclaiming the excess back via Customer Relations or the Small Claims Court. Make a contemporary note of what you said and who you spoke to.. Be aware this isn't a sure fire route, but I would suggest the priority is to get rebooked at this point. I haven't read anything here that is wildly out of policy, and it's not the agents fault that they have to apply the policy.

pogonation

BA is chatting rubbish.. They will be talking about revenue availability. guv1976 is correct and BA should be easily able to rebook onto the MNL-DOH-LGW he suggested without any issues. Call them up and just say you would like to change to that redemption availability.

Edit: I can't actually see DOH-LGW availability in J but there is QR availability to MAN (long connection time) or to FRA (good connection).



BRU also available with a good connection time:



I can see that in your OP you said flying back on QR would mean you aren't flying on 2 or more OW members.. Am I right to assume that is because he flew out on QR LHR-DOH-MNL? If so you could probably tag a LHR-MAD or FRA-MAD sector on at the end at a later date to check that box. ALternatively you could book QR to HEL and continue on AY to LHR like so:

guv1976

AA is showing mixed-cabin availability for MNL-DOH-LGW, with DOH-LGW being in Economy on BA:

etiene

I would hope that BA would see this as involuntary and not reprice - it's not like the passenger is choosing to cut it down to only one other carrier! Granted, that could be very optimistic.

sbonathan

Thanks, that's helpful if not quite what I wanted to hear.

I must not be the only person that feels if someone sells you a ticket (however you pay for it) and then flies you around the world, it is their responsibility to bring you home safely. I have had redemption tickets cancelled in the past and been able to rebook easily when no avios availability. I don't understand why this time should be any different?

Anyway I will keep looking at options and will update if I get any positive news (or if my partner manages to make it back safely to the UK!)

1Aturnleft

Surely this is what travel insurance is for?

Dave Noble

How many Avios would you get returned? tax/xhrges would look to be around GBP190. A oneway business class ticket seems to be available for about GBP1036 from Qatar on 24th .

If you were then to pursue JL to cover the cost after the cancellation, you wouldn't be gambling on too large an amount to be successful in claiming

sbonathan

yes we're looking at that, and it might cover us. But weirdly I don't think it is for insurance to pay for the failure of a company to fulfil its contract. Also our travel insurance has been very good to us in the past so feel it is best to avoid claiming when you shouldn't have to

sbonathan

Yes I've been looking at the options. BA won't tell us what we will get back until we actually cancel. We'd booked it on points as we don't really have the cash at the moment because it was not something we'd planned for and had to be booked very last minute.

1Aturnleft

I think you have exhausted the options available to you and now is the time to claim. Cancellation of journey is usually covered on most policies. Please don't feel bad for claiming, it's precisely why you paid your premium in the first place.... and they were glad you take your money.

corporate-wage-slave

If you have insurance, yes it's there for risks that you don't wish to self insure, so I wouldn't overthink that. The insurers can take up the legal battle if they want, probably won't. If you were not insured then I think you potentially have a claim against BA for non fulfillment of contract or unfair trading, but it's a bit of a minefield. But unless a few people do that, and publicise it, then it's unlikely to change quickly.