Compensation rights when BA rebooked flight is cancelled?

[Mart16]

Hi all
I had a situation in Vienna last month where my flight back to LHR was cancelled at short notice. BA have wrote back to my complaint rejecting my EU261 request for compensation citing bad weather. IMO, by the Monday 12 December this was no longer a major issue but I won’t bother chasing on this point as I don’t have the evidence that it was not weather/disruption related.

BA did rebook me on an alternative service via Amsterdam, both legs on KLM. VIE-AMS went fine, but at AMS the flight was cancelled at last minute (ie at the boarding gate) due to staff not having arrived in time.

My first question is what are my rights in light of the second cancellation which was not weather related (but also basically had nothing to do with BA)? Had this not been cancelled, I would not have incurred the costs that are being reimbursed eg hotel, taxis, food, etc as we would not have had to stay overnight at AMS airport.

My second question is that my original return was in club europe. We were rebooked via AMS with both legs in economy. As above, second leg was cancelled, and we were rebooked back into BA and back in Club Europe (so we essentially flew VIE-AMS economy, AMS-LHR club europe). Is there any compo due on this involuntary albeit partial (in the end) downgrade?

Grateful for any thoughts as my research/trawling the forums to date hasn’t found an answer to this quite unique situation. BA have written back agreeing to pay my expenses but absolutely nothing else (and not acknowledging the above 2 issues that I did initially raise – I expect a template response).

If I am missing anything that might help any knowledgable folk give a more detailed response please do let me know. I am keen to pursue BA for whatever is possible. Thanks in advance.

[JDB]

You have the same statutory protections on a rebooked/rerouted flight as any other. Any compensation claim for the AMS-LHR flight should be directed to KLM as the operating carrier, but this is always quite messy if it was a BA booking and ticket. KLM will quite likely not acknowledge staff shortage as being the reason for the cancellation.

You are theoretically entitled to compensation for being downgraded on the VIE-AMS flight at 30% of the fare for that sector (minus actual fees/charges) but this is unlikely to amount to much.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

For the cancelled KLM flight you claim compensation / duty of care from KLM as the operating carrier of that flight.

Re the downgrade that’s more complicated since it was a partial downgrade it would be based on reimbursement of 30% of the cost* of the downgraded sector (and proper taxes and airport fees are excluded).

* there is no compensation for a downgrade but reimbursement of part of the fare.

[Mart16]

Thanks both very much.

@JDB – I will add that it is actually quite a lot messier than how I set out. In essence, when we got to AMS, it was cancelled literally as we were trying to get our boarding passes at the gate.

It turned out that when BA had rebooked us, they had only “ticketed” the leg to AMS and not the leg to LHR. So essentially, even if the flight had run, I don’t think we’d have been on it.

Does this change your analysis at all? I presume this is more of a “complaint” point to BA rather than anything else. All very messy.

Agree that not worth chasing the downgrade as was an avios booking anyway. Not sure it amounts to much. But always keen to chase BA for anything as they constantly try to get away with murder!

[JDB]

In theory, the fact that you were booked on the KLM flight is sufficient as the legislation doesn’t specify that you need to be ticketed, but that doesn’t mean that KLM will pay any compensation and it certainly won’t help your case. It also depends how much later you arrived in London on the BA flight. You can complain re BA’s failure to ticket that sector and they may throw you a few Avios but that’s about it.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

The only valid complaint as see you having at the moment (but see my last point) against BA is about them not properly issuing the ticket to cover the KL AMS – LHR flight.

But yes that additional info does IMHO change the situation as KL will likely say “you didn’t have a proper ticket with us so we’re not paying duty of care”.

Sometime the additional info is essential from the get go (don’t get me started on people who write 20 paragraphs on how this was their wedding as a prelude to a single sentence “my flight was cancelled what can I get?” query without mentioning the airline and route!)

But who rebooked you on the the eventual AMS-LHR BA flight as that could better indicate who you could claim duty of care etc from.

[Mart16]

Thanks both.

@JDB – arrived the following day (due in approx 7pm, landed approx 8am, so 13hour delay.

@ba flyer ihg stayer – take the point, as I said it is an extremely messy situation and I didn’t want to overcomplicate and scare away anyone from helping me out ! But appreciate you have wrapped your head around it all fairly quickly, for which I appreciate.

BA rebooked us (silver line, I called as soon as flightradar updated that it was cancelled, agent very helpful although clearly didn’t actually do their job properly). When rebooking on the following morning flight, I received a call from a BA duty manager or similar explaining the error of not ticketing the second leg was human error. If that helps at all.

[JDB]

I would claim your Right to Care expenses from BA in the first instance although technically KL may be on the hook.

I would do this as it is simpler and you can point to the fact that all this flows from BA’s original cancellation and BA’s acknowledged failure to ticket the AMS-LHR (odd that wasn’t picked up by KL in VIE if they were checking you through to LHR) so their proposed rerouting wouldn’t have enabled you to get back to London, even if the flight hadn’t been cancelled. It’s worth a try as I think KLM will just try to swat you away.

[Lady London]

I would definitely have another go at compensation. Separate claim. I am somehow doubtful that weather affected your specific flight. And a bit suspicious that the cancellation reason wasn’t something like light loading,or weather problems elsewhere not in Vienna meaning BA chose much earlier to allocate aircraft to depart from other places in Europe and not to run the Vienna flight even tbough I’d suspect it was a long time since Vienna itself had weather problems as a departure point.

It’s up to the airline to prove weather problens at your departure airport, not you to prove. I’d suggest you find out what other flighta of other airlines departed around the same time on same or similar route.

I’d also take a guess the second leg seat wasn’t confirmed from AMS at the time you left Vienna so you were ticketed but not confirmed.

[JDB]

@LL in respect of the weather, it isn’t relevant what other flights were leaving from Vienna, the problem was in London. BA also won’t provide the proof – the law doesn’t say when they have to produce it, so they will only do so when required as part of a court/CEDR process and their word would usually be accepted in the case of ATC weather restrictions leading to mass cancellations. So that’s a dead end unless you want to take them to court or arbitration.

If you were correct re the pax being ticketed but not confirmed that’s worse, as without a confirmed reservation on the flight concerned there is no cancellation compensation or even Right to Care.