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My 09:35 BA flight to JFK was cancelled on Friday 22 December. I had a separate booking on AA from Newark to Charlotte at 19:40 that evening. I had allowed 7 hours to clear immigration, collect luggage and change airports. The second leg of my AA flight was from Charlotte to Grenada the next morning.
I called BA customer services once it was confirmed the flight was cancelled and we were all put on a bus back to the terminal, at around 13:30. There was no workable option to fly to Newark or even direct to Charlotte and so I accepted the rebooked flight to JFK I was offered at 17:10 that evening.
I then had to rebook with AA to get to Charlotte in time to make my connection to Grenada, and the cost of the change was £1,016. I was desperate as I needed to be in Grenada to meet the boat I was travelling on over Christmas, so I paid the change fee.
I submitted a claim to BA for the cost of my hotel at JFK that night (I did not claim for the cost of the hotel in Charlotte I had prepaid) and the cost of the flight change. I also claimed my legal compensation under UK law.
BA have confirmed they will refund the hotel cost and pay £520 legal compensation but not the cost of the flight change as the booking were not linked. They also pointed out that they fly direct to Charlotte and that their legal obligation is to get me to my booked destination within 24 hours of the original arrival time, which they did.
In my opinion I had left a reasonable amount of time to make my connection and the only reason I incurred the cost was because of the delay in getting me to New York, so I am minded to appeal their decision and try to get my change cost paid in full. Do I have a chance of succeeding in this claim or should I take what’s offered and avoid further stress? Any advice much appreciated.
@StephG – under UK261, BA has no liability for your consequential losses. That’s the peril of separate tickets. The additional flight cost and or unused hotel cost may however, be covered under your travel insurance. The compensation you have received is intended to cover all the inconveniences you suffer and does make a significant contribution to the flight cost.
This is not BAs responsibility.
Check your insurance policy re travel disruption clause(s) to see if that will cover you for sone or all of the costs.
Even when we leave what we think is a good time margin between separate bookings sometimes circumstances hit us in the face.
Bussing you back to the terminal at 13:30 for a 9:35 flight seems a bit late and not re-routing you earlier than 17:10 is poor.
Bussing you back to the terminal at 13:30 for a 9:35 flight seems a bit late and not re-routing you earlier than 17:10 is poor.
You can only be rerouted if there are available seats on available flights!
Bussing you back to the terminal at 13:30 for a 9:35 flight seems a bit late and not re-routing you earlier than 17:10 is poor.
You can only be rerouted if there are available seats on available flights!
Yes. But BA, AA, Delta & United have lots of flights to the US everyday from LHR, 17:10 is a bit late.
Still doesn’t mean there is any availability on them though does it?
BA will rebook onto other airlines but can’t magic up seats where none are available!
Still doesn’t mean there is any availability on them though does it?
BA will rebook onto other airlines but can’t magic up seats where none are available!
Maybe that close to Christmas there wasn’t any availability on earlier flights, but usually BA are reluctant to rebook you onto other airlines. You would really need to know your rights, and push for it before they would do so. I think many people don’t know their rights, and when dealing with a last min cancellation, understandably, sometimes don’t think straight.
Bussing you back to the terminal at 13:30 for a 9:35 flight seems a bit late and not re-routing you earlier than 17:10 is poor.
Well, there’s the theory and there’s the day to day reality of airline operations. I don’t know what happened to the OP’s flight, but it sounds most likely to have been a technical issue and I’m sure the ongoing delay from 09.35 was in good faith until a decision was taken to cancel the flight. It’s better for passengers and the airline to operate the flight late rather than cancel it and the airline also suffers the return cancellation and other costs so they don’t do this lightly.
BA is then left with up to 300 people to reaccomodate on other flights at a time when airlines are operating with very high load factors. BA is quite willing on the day to rebook with UA, but often will not even be able to access live availability, so have to request seats. If you are a single person travelling in economy without luggage you are likely to be moving sooner than a family of four in club with luggage. BA operates 50% larger business cabins than other airlines, so they are potentially looking for a huge number of seats at the same time and there probably aren’t enough – they are finding two here, four there etc. Retrieving luggage takes time, as does rebooking them and sending them off to another terminal in plenty of time for conformance etc. etc. There are just so many factors that are being ignored.
It’s not easy or simple and nobody should pretend it is.
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