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Hi All,
I am looking for some advice please I am new to the forum. We had a BA Flight from Heathrow to Düsseldorf booked for 07:10am 22nd December flying Club Europe (2 Adults 2 Children) they cancelled our flight at 17:00 on 21st December we were already booked into the hotel for an early night.They offered an alternative flight at 09:10am on 22nd December but it was from Heathrow to Cologne / Bonn it was also a downgrade in cabin.
I spoke to BA customer service explained that this was not suitable as we had a car booked from Düsseldorf plus it was a downgrade.
They booked us on to a flight 20:00 on 22nd December Heathrow to Düsseldorf in Club Europe which was fine.
However we now had to be out of the hotel at 10am and find things to do until our 20:00 flight also this meant we couldn’t check into our accommodation in Germany until the next morning as the office is only manned daytime which incurred an extra hotel stay in Germany.
As they stated ” Air traffic control / adverse weather” I understand we are not eligible for anything under EU261.
Does anyone know if we should be entitled to any compensation from BA and if so how to go about claiming ?
I appreciate any help or advice.
Unfortunately I don’t think you’re entitled to any compensation. The original flight cancellation if due to weather definitely rules that out. Plus you were offered a rerouting leaving 2hours later than originally scheduled and you turned that down. The rerouting much later in the day was your choice.
Have you tried claiming the hotel bill under right to care? I’m not sure you’re entitled to that either but that’s probably the best you can expect.
If you had asked at the time I’d have recommended accepting the routing via Bonn as BA would probably also have paid train from Bonn to Dusseldorf. You would also have been able to get a downgrade reimbursement or at least some Avios for the inconvenience of the short economy flight.
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Thankyou AJA, that’s what I expected to hear but thought I would ask the question.
With two children and luggage re-routing via Bonn wasn’t really an option unfortunately.
Thank you for your response I appreciate it.
Well @AJA’s advice actually with these concerned airports was a better journey than it might sound.
The rail connections between CGN (Cologne/Bonn airport) and Dusseldorf and Frankfurt towns and particularly these airports are made exceptionally easy. So that the destinations can be easily interchangeable. Highly likely you’d go down an escalator or lift 1 or 2 floors within the airport after landing, and then be on the rail platform right under the airport. Then fast and frequent trains amongst those destinations unless you land after the last train in the mid to late evening.
Even with 2 kids and luggage in tow I’d have absolutely taken the offer of CGN Cologne/Bonn and got the train to Dusseldorf and likely it wouldn’t have added much time to the length of my overall journey to pick up the car.
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