BA flight changed to Finnair then moved to a day later

[LB]

Looking for advice regarding mt Finnair flight.
I’d booked a 241 flight to Bangkok with BA which was cancelled by the airline then moved to Finnair. Although this means a connection in Helsinki we accepted this change. We’ve now been contacted by Finnair and told our return flight leaves a day later, at 8.30am. We’ve already booked our accommodation in Thailand so the question (s) I’m asking is… can I book another night in a different hotel (closer to the airport) and request a refund of that hotel fee from the airline? Also, do I contact BA or Finnair regarding the refund? The hotel room at the airport is of a similar cost/standard to out previous two weeks in Thailand. Do I need to show the airline responsible evidence of the other accomodation? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Lady London]

Finnair is responsible for your hotel, transport to and from hotel and meals at reasonable costs for the location if due to their delay or cancellation these are needed. EU261. Talk to them and ask them will they provide the hotel or shall you just include tbe hotel bill with the rest of your receipts when you claim.

Up to you but I’d also considee asking BA for a different rerouting as it’s now so much later if you’re unhappy

Talk to your hotel in Thailand and make sure tbey know you’re arriving late otherwise if you dont show for the first night they could cancel your booking

[Harry T]

You have a right to be rerouted on your original day of travel. If I were you, I would research options on Qatar and call BA with these, if you want to retain your original day of travel. I’d you don’t, then AY is on the hook for duty of care costs. Personally would much prefer to fly AY or QR over BA, so try to see the silver lining here.

[LB]

Thanks Harry & LL.
Just to clarify – the tickets were bought using a 241 voucher with BA. BA then cancelled the route and then moved our flights to Finnair which was acceptable. Even though we bought the flights from BA is it Finnair we contact to claim for the extra hotel night as they moved the return to the next day?

[Lady London]

Yes. As operating airline that cancelled is responsible.

But @HarryT’s idea is better.

[LB]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I’ll contact Finnair with the details of the hotel we’ve had to book.

[BJ]

The theory is all very well but the practice is a whole different ball game! The first hurdle is BA, they want you to take a refund and disappear without asking questions. If you got that AY reroute originally without asking that was a very positive result. I had to fight multiple agents for same thing, then had to fight again for BKK-HEL-EDI on the return after AY cancelled tbe evening flight from BKK to avoid two connections and an overnight in LHR. It is not easy but ultimately the things you want to do can be done with the help of a sympathetic agent. The second hurdle is that even a sympathetic agen cannot reroute you on flights that are not available, be that because the seats are actually sold out or because BA and/or partner airlines refuse to cooperate. For example, check Finnairs booking page, it is very difficult during November to find seats for sale from Heathrow or the regions to BKK via HEL that do not currently require 30h+ itineraries, seats are scarce! Same on Qatar, there is simply no way you can get a seat that is not available, and despite the any available seat rights you have more chance of winning Euromillions than sitting yourself on a seat that Qatar is currently selling for over £12k one way from UK to BKK. The third hurdle is AY and duty of care and EU261. If they volunteer it they are great but jf you have to fight it then they are a nightmare. I have experienced both, when it came to fighting it was my worst compensation claim of any sort in my life, I eventually gave up. My advice would be firstly to try BA CSA up to five times to try and get what you want. If that fails just try to live with what you have and make the best of it. Put the duty of care in to AY (as I will do too), if it goes smoothly great, if not then ditch it quick. The principles are important but often not worth the stress, time or hassle when it comes right down to it in my opinion. Don’t know when you’re going, November is very difficult, a bit less so after that.Good luck!

[Jon]

Presumably if Finnair (or any other operating airline in the same scenario) refuse to provide/reimburse the extra hotel night, you’d claim it on your travel insurance (and let them get it back from Finnair if they want to)? And/or claim x hours of travel delay from travel insurance / Amex Platinum/BAPP etc if applicable.

[Lady London]

Yes if you have insurance with terms that cover whatever happens to your flights, this is a much better situation to be in. Some insurance companies may try to get you to exhaust other avenues, eg a claim to airline for what the law makes the airline liable to provide you, before they will consider a claim. Some may even deduct from your claim, amounts they deem you were entitled to be paid by the airline.

If your insurance is insufficient then next choice would be those who paid on a UK issued credit card (not debit card and not charge card) do have the option to make a Section 75 claim on their card. Section 75 is UK consumer legislation that makes a credit card jointly liable for providing what you purchased and often, responsible for statutory rights governing that purchase. (such as UK261 or an item you purchased on the card breaking too soon so not of merchantable quality).

Importantly jointly liable means not airline and card liable each for 50% but either one can be alone liable for 100% of the purchase. For example if airline or supplier refuses to pay or goes bankrupt. If you paid on UK credit card, you can make a claim on ypur card eg for the cost of being rerouted (alternative tickets perhaps on some other airline) under Section 75, or for your vacuum cleaner tgat broke after only six weeks ( purchase must be min. £100). This can save you having to, say, CEDR or MCOL and spares you cashflow as well.as the card will simply credit the purchase of reroute tickets back

[Harry T]

I do find with BA that you often have to hang up and call again, as BJ says. BA cancelled half the flights from LHR to CPT in November and we didn’t manage to get rebooked on to the one remaining flight, as it filled up. First BA agent was insisting that we needed to be routed on BA via JNB, but I called a couple of weeks later and the agent was more than happy to explore options on QR.

One thing to be aware of is that it seems BA can’t always rebook on to seats that you can purchase directly from the other carrier – I could see two business seats for purchase via QR, but BA could only access one in their inventory. So have a few options in mind before you had to call. I had to change to the day before and google stuff whilst on the phone!

As BJ eludes to, flights are very full in general at the moment due to post covid rebound and problems with supply of seats due to staffing/equipment/airports. We got the last two seats on LHR-DOH in business in November, so expect difficulties rebooking on to QR if you are travelling anywhere near the World Cup dates.

Good luck and let us know if you need any more help.

[LB]

Thanks again. It’s very much appreciated.