abligh

I've just had a message saying BA0639 ATH->LHR on Wed 18 May has been cancelled. This is part of a BAH booking (LHR->ATH out ; ATH->LHR,LHR->ZRH return) in CE including car hire, which should qualify for double tier points.

Both of us to be in ZRH early the next morning for work, and the point of going was to celebrate a friend's birthday the previous day, so flying on a different day is not really an option. As far as I can see it's not possible to reach ZRH the same day using BA now unless I take an 8:40am flight, which will require staying a night in ATH in a hotel rather than with friends on a greek island (as I'd never make it to ATH for 8:40 given the need for ferries etc). There are direct flights (e.g. on Swiss) but ORC isn't going to apply I presume because this is not IRROPS. And ... think of the lost TPs! There's a reasonable Iberia flight via BCN (presumably ineligible for double tier points as "British Airways flights including codeshares and British Airways marketed and/or operated flights only." - would that invalidate it for the whole trip?).

I'm unfamiliar with BAH rebooking rules, so I have a few questions:

• Prima facie as this is more than 2 weeks before the flight, EC261 should not apply. But BA have said they will contact me re options (not given me any options). If they don't contact me (which would not be a huge surprise) prior to 14 days before the flight, and I can't contact them (definitely would not be a huge surprise with BAH given recent experience), does EC261 kick in? IE if they haven't given any additional options prior to 14 days, what happens?
  
  
• What are the options of rerouting the return onto other carriers?
  
  
• It's conceivable (I need to check) that we might be able to take the late flight out of ATH to LHR and fly LHR to ZRH early the next morning. Will BA then cover a London hotel?
  
  
• What would you do?

corporate-wage-slave

They've given the 2 week notice and you are able to call to rebook now if you wish. I can't see EC261 applying here. BA will rebook via IB, VY, EI or AY if there is a sensible connection, but they won't use other airlines at this point. If the ticketing is ATH to ZRH and an overnight stay is necessary for the purposes of your trip, BA will pay the hotel fee overnight, send the bill in after completion. As to what I would do, if the new arrangements are inconvenient then I would cancel for a full refund and rebook elsewhere.

abligh

Thanks. However, I’d query whether I can either “rebook via IB, VY EI or AY” or “cancel for a full refund”. Both of those require being able to talk to BAH. Past experience suggests this is in practice impossible, unless you are within 24 hours of outbound flight or post-outbound flight, in which case the duty office will deal with you sporadically by email. By “impossible” I mean the phone line tells you that due to high volume of calls, they cannot deal with your call. So if I wanted to do either of the foregoing, how in practice would I do it? Do I just not turn up for the outbound, make my own arrangements, and MCOL?

corporate-wage-slave

The Cancel one can be done online, via the link in BA.com/confidence, just tick the right box. Because that is easy option that is why I would be looking at it.

For rebook, then yes you need to talk to BAH, and though it is certainly tricky, we can see from other people's post that it's isn't impossible. Moreover if you do have a ZRH-ATH booking on BAH then you have to call Bremen anyway and they don't have significant queues. If it is in fact LHR-ATH and paid in sterling then that's for BAH in the UK. You will obviously save a bit of time if you come up with a few alternatives before calling, one of the reasons why BAH is overloaded is that calls can take a long time, but if you have your 2 or 3 preferences lined up then that will defnitely help.

You do have the option of self-repairing the holiday yourself and using MCOL, but I suspect that's more work then just cancelling and getting a refund.

abligh

So I spoke to BAH after "only" 20 mins on hold. They proposed a far earlier flight out BA 631 which I can't make unless I travelled the night before as I'm staying on an island and the ferries don't run sufficiently early (and the point of the exercise is to celebrate a birthday the previous night). There was not a lot of interest in booking on other carriers given BA can get me there, so I went with BA627 (earliest possible flight I can get to), and the flight to ZRH the next AM.

Question: the agent said they would not cover London hotel cost as they had informed me more than 14 days before the flight. I said I'd claim for it after. Who is right here?

corporate-wage-slave

I am, of course.

abligh

Well that was definitely my go-to opinion as well ;-) More practically, are they not going to argue I could have taken the earlier flight (which I had good reason not to) which would not have involved a hotel stay? Am I in UK 261 land here or something else?

corporate-wage-slave

This is still under EC261. There is a section relating to cancellations where there is a 2 week cut-off. There is no cut-off on Right to Care, which is based upon your needs when travelling. If the other flight options were not open to you and you require a night in London then Right to Care applies and it's very difficult for BA to argue about it. In reality BA just tends to pay hotel bills sent in after travel, and the usual response from contact centre agents is to say "that's a matter for Customer Relations, we don't handle EC261". BA could presumably have mitigated this by rebooking on Swiss, so it's their look out really.

abligh

... also I'm interested in whether now, as my car rental doesn't extend for the "whole of the trip", I'll get the double TPs. I can hardly have it for the whole of the trip or I'd need to return it in London!

abligh

Just to close this one off, I got back on Thursday AM having spent a night at the Sofitel. I filed a claim on Saturday carefully setting out the relevant part of the law that shows the duty of care obligations are not obviated by giving more than 2 weeks' notice, and with remarkable efficiency for BA this afternoon received confirmation they would be paying my claim in full.

For future readers, the wording I used was as follows:

My partner and I were originally booked on BA0639 on 18 Aug ATH to LHR. This was cancelled, and we were rebooked onto BA0637 the same day. We could not be rebooked onto the earlier flight due to travel to Athens from a Greek island. This caused us to miss our connecting flight to ZRH, arriving after the last flight had left. Therefore we had to stay in a hotel and travel the next morning. While the cancellation was more than 14 days in advance, UK261 regulation requires carriers to provide Article 9 right to care irrespective of the notice of flight cancellation given; only compensation is governed by the notice given. See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/5 . I am therefore claiming under UK261 Article 9 reasonable hotel and meal costs.

As should be unnecessary to point out, corporate-wage-slave was of course right!

If only they'd respond on the ones I filed back in April ...