hyperspace

Seeking the forum infinite wisdom. I received an email regarding the cancellation of the LHR-MXP leg of my LAX-MXP trip. Not a major issue since the flight is in April and there are plenty of alternatives, but when logging into my reservation I do not see the accept/decline usual warning regarding a cancellation nor do I see any option to choose a different flight than the one proposed. The reservation looks like as if I'd accepted already the changes, but I haven't.

Is this just a glitch and I just have to call up customer service?

orbitmic

Yes just call, possibly due to the change of airport.

hyperspace

I called in and was able to sort it out (albeit after waiting for 30 minutes. I do miss fondly the gold line direct number, such an underrated perk of being gold).

CS explained that after a certain time the proposed new flight gets automatically "accepted" and reflected in MMB. Sounds a little strange to me as only few hours had passed from receiving the email and logging into ba.com to try to reschedule.
Anyways CS said that because I did not actually accepted the proposed change but it had been an automated process, I was still able to ask for a different option, which I did.

Travelling Inspector

Similarly with my cancelled flight from Palermo in May - it's the only flight (one way) on the booking, but there's no working 'cancel' link. I shall call at the first opportunity, but it's a tiresome waste of time.

ScienceTeacher

I had this with the Tirania cancellation on the ‘do’ next year.

Phoned BA who were pretty certain I accepted the change despite it being only forty minutes since said cancellation.

After a long hold it was agreed there’s an ongoing “auto accept rescheduled option” issue going on and a note was made. They said it happens with complex bookings, not limited to open jaws or in my case where a UUA has happened.

To add to this, a friend decided to join me on a future LUX-LHR flight I’ve booked but couldn’t find it as it’s cancelled. I went into the booking and sure enough I’ve been rebooked and no notification, yet, has appeared.

BA May be sending out emails very very slowly?

ABlue

45 minutes and counting on hold trying to call about my fight that was cancelled and auto rebooked with no option online to accept or change. They put me on a later flight that will mean a very long layover at Heathrow, I want them to put me on the earlier flight but this is an award ticket and while there are seats available on the earlier flight, there are no award seats available. Can they still put me on that flight since this is due to BA cancelling a flight? Any tips on getting them to do that? I would not have booked with them if I knew I was going to put on this later flight, I’m essentially losing an entire day of my trip because of the schedule change.

corporate-wage-slave

The ability to self serve flight cancellations to other services isn't widespread in these circumstances. If it was weather related and the booking was on FLY then that would be different. For timetable changes usually BA books to the next flight afterwards and it's up to the passenger to contact BA if that isn't the preferred outcome.

For Avios bookings, if the desired service is on BA metal then usually a move to another flight with availability in the same cabin will be allowed. If it involves another airline then no, normally you need redemption availability or they need to use the oneworld liaison desk to come up with alternatives.

ABlue

Thanks, CWS! Yes, this is an Avios booking on BA metal. I also tried DMing them on Twitter and haven’t gotten a response, but I finally got through by phone after 90 minutes and the representative was able to make the change to the earlier flight (with a much preferable 2 hour 35 min layover) without issue. She was very nice and apologetic about the wait times today- sounded like they sent out all the flight cancellations at once for upcoming schedule changes, so everyone was calling in at the same time!

Oddly enough, the email about the cancelled flight had specific instructions that I was required to accept the change online or pick an alternate flight and a link to where I was supposed to be able to do that in Manage my booking, but those options were not available. Not sure why the email would say that if that’s generally not possible?

mshimazu

My wife and I just received cancellation emails (DUS-LHR) and exactly like the OP we cannot reschedule online. The best part is they automatically rescheduled us on a flight that would have us miss our LHR-SAN international connection. It gets better. After trying to call in, I get a message that the call cannot go through due to "high call volume". Looks like BA has made a mess of significant people's itineraries once again

corporate-wage-slave

I wouldn't say so, it happens twice a year, every year, and everyone rings in immediately after the new fleet plan is issued. Leave it a few days and it will be easier to resolve. More information on this in the BA Forum Dashboard under "Managing Timetable Changes"