G_CIVV

I was travelling Newcastle-LHR-Montreal and due to a significant delay on the domestic leg, missed the onward connection to YUL.

There were no alternative options to get to YUL that day, so I asked to be booked back to my point of origin given that the purpose of the trip was now pointless.

Unfortunately, there were no seats available that evening back to Newcastle and absolutely nothing the next day, so I decided to book a hotel and call the GGL line the next morning.

I did so but was informed that as the ticket was under airport control, there was nothing that could be done and I would need to go to the airport. Having explained that I was 30 miles away (necessary in order not to bust the £200/night rule), a supervisor agreed to book me back to Newcastle by train (LNER)

I was satisfied with this resolution but want to know what my rights are from here. My understanding is that I have the following options:

1. Claim a full refund for the ticket.

2. Rebook (on a different routing if applicable but with the same origin/destination) the itinerary within 14 days even if equivalent fare classes are not available

3. Rebook on the same routing beyond 14 days if the same fare classes are available

The agent I spoke to said that they would seek advice but were 95pc certain that I would only be eligible for a pro-rata refund for the sectors not flown.

They also said that as I had already used the NCL-LHR and LHR-NCL “coupons” of the ticket, any re-arrangement would need to be a fresh booking but that I could use “credit” from the disrupted itinerary.

My current preference from the above is Option 3, but given time is not on my side, can anyone advise the best way of achieving this?

cauchy

The EC261 position is that, in light of a 5+ hour delay, you’ve decided to cancel as your trip no longer serves its purpose, and your entitlement is a full refund of the ticket. This includes anything flown and no pro rata.

Call centre might offer eg LHR-YUL on other dates as a commercial offer.

corporate-wage-slave

If I read Article 6 of the Regulations, certainly 1. above applies. Plus Right to Care. I'm not entirely convinved 2 or 3 applies unless you had persisted with the original trip, and in some situations it may be sensible for BA to send you home if the next possible flight is a week away. But that's not in the Regulation as such, so I see the options as being
- full refund and Right to Care or
- rebooking, and extended Right to Care until a flight had turned up.
From the way BA's has ticketeing then the first option is problematic and is handled by Customer Relations, thus well detached from the travel process, but actually I think they would pay the retund.

This is the first report I have seen of a contact centre, albeit GGL, offering an LNER ticket, did they book you a new PNR and give you a link to a special print area? I know this is a LHR offering, but it would be useful to know if people going the other direction can use this.

orbitmic

exactky. The trip in vain WAS the option that you chose (return to origin and full refund). You do not get a chance to reconsider that choice now (and personally I doubt Ba will offer it as gesture of good will as they tend to stick to ec261 fairly strictly when accepting it).

G_CIVV

This is the first report I have seen of a contact centre, albeit GGL, offering an LNER ticket, did they book you a new PNR and give you a link to a special print area? I know this is a LHR offering, but it would be useful to know if people going the other direction can use this.[/QUOTE]

Yes, this was a first for me too and somewhat surprising how easy the process was. The existing PNR was used and in fact the land sector appeared in MMB (somewhat hilariously) as “9B6732 Kings Cross to Newcastle International - this flight is operated by First Great Western” - no mention of LNER.

The GGL Supervisor liaised with LHR in order to make it happen. Although booked on a specific LNER service, it was valid on any train on the nominated date. No printing was required and the system generated a PDF ticket. Although my itinerary was in J, I was booked in Standard Class on the train but was just pleased to get home after another BA debacle.

BA refund helper

Contact centres have been able to rebook on LNER for at least a year now, maybe longer, when no flight option exists to get customers from or to London. The rebooking can be done in the existing PNR and eticket reissued.

DaveS

Would you earn miles on the train if the original ticket did?

carrotjuice

Why then did the (uninformed?) agent tell the OP that "as the ticket was under airport control, there was nothing that could be done and [they] would need to go to the airport" before eventually a supervisor agreed to issue the LNER ticket?

G_CIVV

An update on this: Customer Relations replied that "This booking wouldn't be eligible for a full refund, however the full value of the booking can be used towards a future ticket"

This is clearly rubbish given the educated responses above - I will ask for them to reconsider but would CEDR or MCOL be any use in this case?

corporate-wage-slave

MCOL would be the easiest purely because I don't think CEDR would see many such cases. But if you will be spending similar sums in the next few months then I would consider the voucher, it's not a ditch that warrants mortality. You could say to them that you will accept the voucher provided some Avios are provided as a customer service gesture, otherwise you will ask the courts to enforce Article 8.1.a. It such a crystal clear provision that I doubt BA would want a hearing on this, but I suspect it happens so inferquently that they are simply unaware of this.