-
Hi, had a quick look on the search but couldn’t find an easy answer to this.
We were due to fly at 6am tomorrow from Edinburgh to Dubai but I just had a text alerting me that the flights had been cancelled and the option they offered us was to fly on Sunday instead. A bit annoyed at the very short notice of less that 13 hours impacting all our plans.
We will probably roll with it and accept the re-route but I was wondering if anyone knew if we were still entitled to any other compensation for the cancelled flights if it was an Avios booking and we were rerouted the next day?
Thanks
It doesn’t make a difference whether you paid avios or cash, but the crucial factor as ever will be the reason for the cancellation.
The A380’s have had technical issues for a long time now, which would qualify you for compensation, if applicable.
You are well within your rights to call BA and ask to be re-routed earlier, e.g. on QR airlines via DOH.
Rebooking yourself on an airline BA doesn’t have an agreement with will probably be more complicated as you’d have to pay yourself then claim the money back from BA.You should be entitled to compensation of £520pp if the cancellation reason is outside the airline’s control. If you can see other options to travel tomorrow with any airline, and you prefer that, you should ask to be booked on one of those options. For these short notice cancellations BA would usually agree to book you on alternative non OW carriers. If you have already accepted the Sunday option that may be the end of it.
Fact you have paid with Avios rather than cash does not in any way alter impact of UK261 – so you are due compensation payments if reasons under BA control (think will £520 per person) and the duty of care also applies (e.g. if you had hotel nights as result of delay).
You can also explore with them possibility of flying via other carriers and routes to ensure arrival at your destination in line with original plans. But that will require phone-calls, and I imagine that with an entire A380 of passengers impacted, availability may not be straightforward.
@JDB, will BA not decline to rebook with certain airlines, e.g. Emirates, or have they become more amenable in this respect?
Just thinking about the reader who was refused re-routing from AGP the other day!
@JDB, will BA not decline to rebook with certain airlines, e.g. Emirates, or have they become more amenable in this respect?
BA has always been willing to book on any IATA airline for last minute cancellations. There are specific agreements in place for this. For longer notice cancellations it’s different and when there is a difference between cash and reward tickets.
A reader posted yesterday about being bussed from GIB to AGP due to weather but the flight departed without them. Told by staff at AGP it was refund or fly the next day, which wasn’t suitable. I thought you might have shared your own take on it, it was a bit unusual!
Compensation will depend on why the flight was cancelled. Did the e-mail or anyone at BA when you called them say why?
Calling will also get you other rerouting options than the rebooking bots initially give.
BA have a couple of flighte to DXB ex LHR tomorrow for example.
And google flights tells me QR has a flight to DXB via DOh tomorrow at 07.30. Or there is a KL routing via AMS plus some options on Turkish.
If you haven’t phoned already then get dialing!
A reader posted yesterday about being bussed from GIB to AGP due to weather but the flight departed without them. Told by staff at AGP it was refund or fly the next day, which wasn’t suitable. I thought you might have shared your own take on it, it was a bit unusual!
I didn’t share my own take because the poster’s only interest was re compensation.
Thanks for the advice, we will definitely try to claim any compensation due… The idea to ask for a flight with QR was inspired but sadly I shot myself in the foot with that one.
I phoned up BA and asked if we could go via Doha as there was a good connection option that way and I checked tickets were available but sadly I had already accepted the alternative as I mistakenly thought it was the same day and just thought the flight times that had been changed when I first saw the offer of alternative flights so was they basically just said I was an idiot for ticking that box already (undoubtedly true) so we owe you nothing!
Our plans are seriously impacted as we had just been planning Dubai for a couple of days and then off to Egypt so there’s almost no point even going to Dubai now but all flights/ hotels etc booked. Will have to have a think about it.
The fact you accepted the alternative doesn’t have any impact on the compensation due
This is true; also, being an avios booking it should be refundable (minus £35pp) up to 24 hours before travel, though that’ll probably take another call to BA.
So we have decided to can the flight to Dubai altogether and just fly to Cairo as I see reward availability available but the system won’t let me cancel the booking and the call center only opens after 24hrs before check in. Does anyone know of an out of hours number I could call? Thanks
This is true; also, being an avios booking it should be refundable (minus £35pp) up to 24 hours before travel, though that’ll probably take another call to BA.
Which wouldn’t apply here as the flight is less than 24 hours away he was due to depart EDI at 6am tomorrow but was only notified at 6pm today.
BUT @Joe_G could have used the cancelation provisions under EU/UK 261 for a full refund but that would also require there to be avios flights available for him to book himself and his party onto.
Though TBH I’d still rather go to Egypt on QR via DOH than BA to CAI on an A321!
So we have decided to can the flight to Dubai altogether and just fly to Cairo as I see reward availability available but the system won’t let me cancel the booking and the call center only opens after 24hrs before check in. Does anyone know of an out of hours number I could call? Thanks
I’m afraid you might be stuck since you accepted the rebooking. You only get one chance to change or cancel.
Yes, I put my foot in it by accidentally accepting the alternative flights, I didn’t register the dates properly. A refund or rerouting with QR would have been better. I just assumed they had moved the time of the flights rather than the dates. Life would have been a lot easier without having made this mistake which I am now trying to rectify
Yes, I put my foot in it by accidentally accepting the alternative flights, I didn’t register the dates properly. A refund or rerouting with QR would have been better. I just assumed they had moved the time of the flights rather than the dates. Life would have been a lot easier without having made this mistake which I am now trying to rectify
@Joe G – you should win this one, but you may need to persevere. If I understand the facts correctly, BA didn’t advise you properly of your rights/options although they will rely upon the fact they probably did put them in a link to your cancellation email – they have been making these things more prominent recently. It’s very easy when looking through MMB inadvertently to accept something you didn’t intend.If @Joe G has been booked on to a Sunday flight, can he not now cancel that as it’s more than 24 hours away? I would have thought the original Ts and Cs apply to the new flight.
Hi All,
Quick update on this if anyone is interested, I phoned up the BA call centre first thing this morning and a very friendly agent managed to swap our Dubai flight for a Cairo one for the avios booking fee though we are in a net positive as we got money back from the difference between the cost flight and a decent chunk of avios back.
It’s a shame we are missing out on seeing some friends in Dubai but this option makes our lives a lot easier and puts our itinerary back on track. the only real negative is we have 8 hours kicking around at LHR T5 tomorrow so if anyone has any suggestions for killing time there they would be appreciated.
I will go about trying to claim for the cancelled flight and have learned some lessons about blindly accepting alternative flights and also knowing I can ask to be routed on other airlines if something like this happens in future but fingers crossed its alls well that ends well with this one.
Glad that you’ve found an acceptable alternative. People don’t automatically know all this stuff, which is why sites like HFP exist -since I discovered it I’ve been able to smooth out any travel wrinkles much more efficiently!
I’ve seen posts previously about getting the tube into London for a few hours, though I don’t know how that works in terms of leaving the terminal and then going back through security. Otherwise it’s lounges/eating/shopping!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
