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Hi, my wife and I used Avios and a 241 voucher to book first class seats on BA285 LHR-SFO on 16th April at 11:10. Two days before we were due to fly we received an email from BA cancelling the flight and rerouting us on the 16th at 15:15 to SJC and downgraded to Club. I called the You First helpline and the agent found me first class seats on the LAX flight but on the day before i.e. the 15th. We accepted this and we flew to LAX last Saturday and currently have a great time.
How much compensation can I apply for? Will the amount be reduced because we flew a day earlier than originally scheduled? Are there any others expenses we can be reimbursed for? We had a hotel booked in San Francisco on the 16th, and an internal flight to Las Vegas on the 17th. We were unable to cancel these and had to book a new hotel in LA and an another internal flight.
Any help is appreciated.
Cancellation compensation depends on the reason for cancellation.
SF hotel and LAS flight would be insurance claims as they dont seem tied to the BA booking.
Additional night from having to travel earlier should be paid by BA. It doesnt sound like you took it but onward travel from LAX to SFO shouldve also been covered by BA imo.
It’s a bit of a difficult one. First, all the consequential losses – US hotel and flight costs are a matter for insurance, not BA.
In respect of any cancellation compensation, which would be at the statutory rate of £520 per person, BA will challenge this on the basis that you didn’t arrive late and the rerouting you took was entirely voluntary. They could also cite ‘extraordinary circumstances’. There is an ECJ ruling from 2021 that says that departing more than an hour earlier would entitle you to compensation but technically, as it’s post Brexit, that doesn’t apply in the UK. The wording of Article 5.1 (c)(iii) is quite unfortunate owing to the use of “and” – “they are informed of the cancellation less than seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival.”
As also advised by another poster you ought to be entitled to transportation between LAX and SFO, but only if you actually incurred that cost. Again BA will likely dispute that.
All you can do at this point is to make the compensation claim, see how BA responds (and occasionally they do surprise on the upside). If negative, respond with all the reasons why they owe you the compensation with a 14 day deadline to respond, failing which you say you will escalate the matter to CEDR or MCOL.
Thanks @slidey @jdb. The San Francisco Hotel and internal flight to Las Vegas were separate from the BA booking so I will investigate claiming through insurance.
I agree it’s an interesting scenario regarding compensation. If we’d accepted BAs rerouting the picture would be clearer but we’d have flown Club and into SJC and then claimed expenses to travel to San Francisco, but we wanted to fly first class, and wr benefitted from an extra day – al eit in LAX bot San Fran.
My initial reaction on reading the OP was to think it’s a bit churlish or money-grabbing (compensation culture etc) to be seeking compensation in this case, when you’ve flown in First as originally booked, arrived a day early, and by your own account are having a great time. But on the other hand, it doesn’t hurt (for you and anyone else reading in future) to know what you’re entitled to, then you can make a decision about whether or not to pursue. And BA is not exactly a company worthy of sympathy or being let off the hook 😉
I’m honestly not sure whether any compensation would be due – my sense is not, because you accepted a re-route that did not get you there significantly later. Per @JDB’s comment, getting there earlier may not qualify.
I think the mistake made here was in not asking the agent who re-routed you to LA to also book you onward connection to your original destination SFO (though possibly they were remiss in not proactively offering?). You could then have still used your original hotel and LAS flight. As others have said, those are probably for insurance, but it might be interesting to see whether BA would cover them on the basis that they didn’t, but should have, connected you to your final destination. I suspect that may be flimsy though. The additional first night theoretically ought to be claimable as duty of care, I think, along with a day of meals, and transport from airport to hotel, but BA may argue otherwise as it was your choice to fly earlier.
I believe you would have had a clear-cut claim for 75% downgrade reimbursement if you’d accepted the offered SJO flights in Club, but totally understand why you wanted to fly in First.
@Jon unfortunately airlines don’t think logically as you suggest, nor are they required to! They need to pay for hotels etc. until your rerouted flight, but if you arrive early, that’s on the passenger. In this instance, I question whether the insurer will pay for the cancelled hotel in SFO, cancelled flight from SFO and the replacement from LAX since that was all entirely voluntary.
@JDB You may well be right. Probably worth an insurance claim anyway, but I wonder whether the offer of the SJO flight, albeit in Club, complicates it in that, had flying to LAX the day before been the only option, a claim for consequential loss might be stronger, but by voluntarily flying a day earlier (and hence also presumably having a day in which to get from LAX to SFO to pick up the original itinerary), might the insurer deny the claim on the basis the OP failed to mitigate their losses? Actually, question for the OP: what was the reason for staying in LA and booking a new internal flight (direct to LAS?) hence missing your SFO hotel night and SFO-LAS flight, rather than going LAX-SFO and then proceeding as planned? Or have I misunderstood?
I think the problem OP has is that they rejected the automatic re-routing offered by BA that would have got much closer to the original destination.
Therefore in requesting a reroute in First and voluntarily accepting to fly to LAX a day earlier the cost of the additional night in LA and the lost hotel and internal flight are theirs to bear.
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