mustkill

Booked on QF2, LHR-SIN-SYD. Qantas advised scheduled time had changed from 20:35 to 19:55.

We are flying into LHR T5 via BA and landing at 18:40, so <90min transit from T5 to T3 and likely to miss the connection.

All booked on one PNR. What are our options?

Don't really want to spend a night in LHR and pay for our own accommodation.

Will Qantas comp the hotel if we miss the connection?

DownUnderFlyer

If in one booking the QF is responsible to get you all the way to SYD. And yes, they will pay for accommodation and food. If the connection is legal then nothing will happen before the day of your flight, if the connection is illegal I am sure they will move you to a different BA flight.

Dave Noble

90 minutes is a legal connection and no reason to assume that you would miss the onward flight.if you have 90 minutes

in the unliukely event of a miconnect, then BA would be responsible to rebook you to your destination and to provide hotel/meals/incidentals. With a BA delay causing a missed connection, then you may well also be eligible for GBP520 compensation from BA

If the time change means that you have droipped below the minimum connection time, then Qantas will need to rebook your flight into Heathrow such that you are on a flight with a valid connection time. What flight are you arriving in on and when?

It would not be Qantas's responsibility to pay for hotels etc but BA's

mustkill

With the timing change, it is under 90min so won't be a legal(?) connection.

Does that mean this itinerary can't proceed at its current state?

Inbound flight is RAK-LHR BA669

Dave Noble

I believe that BA-QF T5-T3 min connection time is 90 minutes and so, if you have dropped below that, Qantas will need to rebook you on a different flight from RAK-LHR or a different flight from LHR-SYD - or of course it could rebook on a completely different route to Sydney

Koru Flyer

The MCT for T5 to T3 is 90 mins.

I am not sure how far away the flight is, if it is fair distance away, I would be tempted to wait and see what options that the give you. You do not have to automatically accept, and also it may in time wander back outside of 90 mins.

If the flight is relatively close (less than 1-2 months away or is at a peak time such as school holidays, I would be tempted to be more proactive).

QF will note that the MCT is violated and will not let you fly on the itinerary.

I would suggest doing your homework on what you preferred option is. Which are probably one of either
- Rebook to another carrier to preserve the journey - I think REK has one BA flight a day (you could try a rebook to FI?), and I suspect that your preferred option is going to be rebooking onto BA16 as that leaves from T5 and usually close to 10pm. CX and QR may have later flights, and QF may be preferring the EK codeshare.
- QF will probably want to suggest you fly a day later or earlier (you actually can move it even further if you wish I think -3 and +14 days) - noting that they will not stump up for a hotel if you VOL and agree to change - insurance may pay though.
- The Nuclear option is if QF do not play ball is to cancel the inbound, book and pay for a one way on the carrier and connections that you want, attempt to get it reimbursed from QF, then either go to CEDR and claim it back under EU261 - that of course has the huge risk that if you loose it is an expensive exercise! Not to mention that cash flow hit. This is not a recommendation I would follow.

The above changes would be free of charge - and note you only get one bite of the cherry. If the flight times change again you cannot switch back to the original flight without paying a change fee and fare difference. As illogical as that may sound.

You could of course claim a refund.

If you have a travel agent, then I would work through them - be very specific. I assume it is a Qantas 081 ticket rather than BA 125 ticket? BA are easier to deal with in terms of disruptions...

If you let us know the date of travel, your preferences and class of travel we can make some more specific suggestions. Date of travel becomes important, as if it is with I think 14 days then EU261 also plays are part in terms of compensation. At the moment EU261 is important due to duty of care and also that airlines must get you where you need to be by the most practical route - and you have the choice (within reason) not the airline.

And I will say it again, once you make a decision and accept you cannot change your mind.

KF

mustkill

Thanks for the detail. Some things to think about!

mustkill

Is it true they can only rebook on open reward seats?

Dave Noble

Who is 'they'? If Qantas has made a change and you contacted Qantas , then it is obligated under the terms of UK261/EU261 to rebook you and it cannot restrict based on award availability.

It would be logical for it to try to rebook you on the next Qantas flight to Australia and , in that case, there should be no issue anyway since it can create award space

mustkill

They = Qantas.

They said they could only rebook us on award seats.

Don't believe this falls under EU261 jurisdiction given its only a transit through UK.

Origin = Morrocco
Destination= Australia

Dave Noble

Of course it falls under UK261 - it is a Qantas flight from UK . It doesn't matter how you get to the UK. The RAK-LHR is also covered under UK261 since it is operated by BA

You need to go back to Qantas and get it to rebook - it is obligated to under UK regulation

(Qantas is singular = 'it' )

mustkill

It's not within 14days and not more than 1hr. am I SOL?

Dave Noble

That only relates to whether the airline has to pay monetary compensation - if within 14 days then you would be likely getting GBP620 compensation - all other terms apply regardless of how far in advance the issue arises

etiene

Is this an award ticket? If so it'll be more complicated, but QF should be able to talk to BA and see about getting space opened up. At a guess that's likely to be easier on the short[ish] haul rather than trying to get BA space on LHR-SYD. I only looked at a random date in September, but RAK seems to be a twice a week operation from LHR so presumably not much scope for changing that. There seem to LGW flights, but that would involve the LGW-LHR transfer.

QF need to fix this, but if it's an award it may be quite complicated. I'd advise sharing the actual date along with the booking method here so that more specific advice can be offered - there is in general nothing to be gained by vagueness. Can we assume this is the return portion of a trip...? And was the outbound part of the same booking or a different one?

Oh, and the organisation=singular seems to be an American English thing - Qantas as they is perfectly acceptable in British English, and I presume also Australian English.

Koru Flyer

Note. It is only complicated because QF chose to make it complicated. GB620 does not discriminate between award and revenue. They need to provide a practical solution. They can put a revenue segment in an award booking, just probably not trained either in the regs or how to fix…..