Accepted immediate rerouting for cancelled flight – to different airport
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My LH flight to BRS was cancelled 30mins before boarding. I found out via app notification and went immediately to the nearest staff member. He asked which airports were nearby and said he was just closing a flight to LCY, which I agreed to be put on.
Assuming the reason for cancellation is not extraordinary, would (EC) 261/2004 compensation be due? I landed at LCY before the cancelled flight would have landed at my original destination, but I was nearly three hours away from home in BRS by public transport (DLR/Tube/Train/Bus).
Even if compensation is not due, I assume LH would be liable for expenses incurred to connect me back to BRS?
At no stage have I been informed as to my rights due to the cancellation by LH, either by the staff member or by email.
To give you an example: I arrived 4 hrs late after a passenger incident (no compensation) at LHR so asked for the cab home to be refunded (I took the train to Paddington and then cab). BA refunded both and never really made any trouble.
In your case you may want to try that for the additional transport.
As for compensation: you don’t know why the flight was cancelled but if it was indeed BA’s fault then it depends how early you arrived. I think it has to be quite a large difference and not just an hour or two.
Look at your booking on their app/website and see if you can claim through there, if not look for a customer service form.
Claim for expenses first and consider compensation separately.
As for compensation: you don’t know why the flight was cancelled but if it was indeed BA’s fault then it depends how early you arrived. I think it has to be quite a large difference and not just an hour or two.
BA is responsible for a lot of things but it isn’t responsible for what Lufthansa does!
I’m in two minds as whether LH is on the hook for travel expenses as @jeff seems to have willingly accepted going to LCY and not BRS. There is no harm in claiming but LH don’t have a good history of coughing up either for compensation or expenses reimbursement,
**I did a detailed post here for Jeff and it’s been lost **
Thank you for the responses. I am not overly bothered by compensation, but I think it would be fair for LH to pay the expenses. As it was, they got me over the sea at no extra cost to them, and the time, if not the location, was convenient to me (I had stuff to sort out that day). From a reading of 261 it seems as if they need to pay reasonable expenses for a rerouting to another airport.
As for compensation: you don’t know why the flight was cancelled but if it was indeed BA’s fault then it depends how early you arrived. I think it has to be quite a large difference and not just an hour or two.
BA is responsible for a lot of things but it isn’t responsible for what Lufthansa does!
I’m in two minds as whether LH is on the hook for travel expenses as @jeff seems to have willingly accepted going to LCY and not BRS. There is no harm in claiming but LH don’t have a good history of coughing up either for compensation or expenses reimbursement,
BA was obviously a typo.
Accepting a change doesn’t mean you are happy with it.
For instance: you flight gets cancelled and you get put in one the next day. We all agree that the hotel gets refunded. And yet I could argue it is you “who accepted the change”.
As for compensation: you don’t know why the flight was cancelled but if it was indeed BA’s fault then it depends how early you arrived. I think it has to be quite a large difference and not just an hour or two.
BA is responsible for a lot of things but it isn’t responsible for what Lufthansa does!
I’m in two minds as whether LH is on the hook for travel expenses as @jeff seems to have willingly accepted going to LCY and not BRS. There is no harm in claiming but LH don’t have a good history of coughing up either for compensation or expenses reimbursement,
BA was obviously a typo.
Accepting a change doesn’t mean you are happy with it.
For instance: you flight gets cancelled and you get put in one the next day. We all agree that the hotel gets refunded. And yet I could argue it is you “who accepted the change”.
That’s not correct EC/UK261 provides for hotel/food/communications but not transport save to/from that hotel. @BAFlyerIHGStayer is correct – once you voluntarily accept a change of destination, the airline is technically off the hook, so any payment they make is a matter of goodwill. It is absurd that airlines say they will pay your hotel and food for several nights if that’s when the next flight is, rather than pay £100 taxi fare but that’s what most do.
That’s not correct @JDB and I covered this in my long reply for @Jeff on this thread yesterday. The HfP system lost the reply and I note that rather than retrieving it from wherever WordPress stashes its mistakes and enabling my work to post, HfP staff have deleted the marker post I left on this thread to alert them.
@Jeff did not accept a change of final destination. He accepted a reroute to his final destination via a flight that was offered to him on the spot that was just closing. There was no agreement that Jeff didn’t still need to reach his booked destination Bristol. LH is liable for all expenses complete to BRS.There was more in support of @Jeff in my reply the system lost yesterday (apparently the system decided I had logged out whilst typing the reply 🙁 ). But typing one-fingered on a phone since my computer just went kaputt the above is all the finger-power I have to set straight.
Aaah apologies HfP staff I see the marker post I left is still there. The thread got longer in the meantime so it’s now much further up and I missed it, Apologies
@Lady London everything you say above is logical but unfortunately it isn’t what UK/EC261 says, so you have to fall back on either goodwill or contract law which is rather more complicated. The OP wasn’t obliged to get on that flight to LCY, but many of us would have done so, just to get back to the UK, but LH’s responsibility doesn’t extend to the ground transport although it oddly would have done between different London airports.
I am similarly about to make a claim to BA which I am fairly sure they will refuse, even though the cost is much lower than their proposal. Valencia to London flight cancelled a few weeks prior, rebooked via Madrid, then the domestic IB/Air Nostrum flight cancelled on 8 days notice owing to Air Nostrum strike. BA proposed a flight two days later and to pay for hotel, food etc. for three people – cost to BA maybe £1200-1500. That didn’t suit, so instead we hired a car and drove to Madrid – cost £115 + £50 petrol. BA won’t pay without a big fight although it’s obviously totally illogical. Still getting my head around compensation for the cancellation although it didn’t affect our arrival in London so they will refuse that as well.
@JDB @Jeff’s flight was cancelled just before it was due to depart from the airport. He went immediately to a staff member at the airport and asked for a reroute to Bristol. The LH staff member said we have a flight to LCY just closing having searched nearby airports with no inference of journey to BRS not having to be completed following the part-rerouting provided so far as that flight went. Passenger had to take it on the spot and complete the rest of his arrangements himself to complete his rerouting to Bristol, which is not unusual.
Speed and having to take whatever rerouting available on the spot mattered here. Had he even had half a day or a day to think about it then it’s just about possible an argument could be made that he’d accepted a different final destination. But in these circumstances where he asked the airline to reroute him to BRS and this was the first leg of what was offered by LH all done right away no one in their right mind would think Jeff had agreed to change his final destination.
@JDB on your one isn’t your compensation claim against Air Nostrum as the operating airline? If it was Air Nostrum’s own staff striking then I believe it’s viewed as own responsibility of the operating airline so not exceptional circs so you should be eligible for 250 eur each compensation. Problem is I suspect Air Nostrum may not be an airline that does pay EU261 dues easily.
If it was a flight operated by Iberia and somehow a strike by employees of a different airline was the reason then it would exempt IB from paying compemsation. But duty of care, such as you now having to leave your booked starting point earlier,and by different transport means with a cost, should still be the responsibility of the operating airline surely?
obvs you would have given them the opportunity to provide this or another reroute if you still needed to travel close to the same time instead of two days later, but if a reroute was not forthcoming from them that would fulfil your timing need then if you went ahead and sourced your own replacement transport, within reason,surely operating airline is still responsible.
Leaving aside any question of whether Vueling pays correct claims willingly or has to be compelled..
but at least leaving early on replacement transport due to a flight cancellation is still viewed by European interpretation as eligible for EU261 protections?
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