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We (2 adults, child, infant) are booked in less than two weeks time for LHR -(BA) -> HKG -(CX)> Small Asian City. The Cathay flight isn’t a code share, but it’s a single BA issued booking reference. When booked there was ample time for the connection. Booked via amex travel due to £200 credit and BAs booking system not handling different (BA/Cathay) policies for a child turning 2 during travel.
Both flights have moved resulting in the scheduled arrival and departure to HK being identical. There are no earlier BA flights into HK (there is a Cathay flight) and no later onward flights (no airline) until the next day.
AMEX bounced between Cathay and BA. The only offers are cancellation or moving us to the next day Cathay flight (with us booking accomodation in HK and applying to BA at their discretion for compensation afterwards).
Am I right to believe it we fly as scheduled and assuming we miss the connection they’ll have to book us onto the next days flight anyway, provide accomodation and pay us £2080 compensation?
And does anyone know how much fun we’re likely to have at the OneWorld desk in HK? With two infants in tow trying to work out if I should push to be moved to the earlier Cathay flight or just let it play out.
Thanks
If an auto rebooking isn’t just done in the meantime you will not get as far as HK, you would need to try and fix it at T5 and this is going to require phone calls, stress, time if the onward flights are full then you could be in a right pickle !
BA will want you to take their flight and overnight. AMEX as your TA will need to rebook you. I’ve never heard of BA not paying a hotel bill so this sounds the most straightforward way to proceed. You’ve been notified more than 14 days in advance so can’t see why you’d be owed compensation if you just didn’t take action in the meantime.
Some may say on here that you’ve got rights to a comparable reroute etc but the reality is BA won’t do it, you’d be looking at buying tickets and MCOL action.
A word of warning on the “free” BA seat – make sure it’s been ticketed properly. Mine was not and I nearly missed my flight home. The BA agent told me they travelled on an infant ticket attached to mine but the airport said that was incorrect, they still needed their own ticket number against the extra one way reservation.
Good luck!
When these things happen and you call the customer service people can not do much.
But after a few days or even a week or so all systems update and suddenly the issue is evident and your ticket goes back to a queue to be amended. That is when suddenly you are offered more options.
As you point out, if the flight offered is the next day you should get accommodation and food. Compensation for arriving to your destination late only happens if your flight is within 14 days.
OP says they have had less than 2 weeks’ notice but could clarify by giving the date of travel and the date they received the notification.
I’m assuming they were notified more than 2 weeks before travel but yes OP could confirm that
All we’d had until within two weeks of the flight was flight change emails stating the new (impossible) times.
After the first change (leaving a 20 minute connection) I called amex who were bounced about between BA and Cathay and ultimately at that point we weren’t really offered anything.
We received an email from AMEX yesterday asking us to contact them. They then contacted BA who offered to move us to the Cathay flight the following day and that we’d have to book our own accommodation and claim it back. I haven’t yet accepted this.
R.e. free seat we don’t have this / have paid the child fair – because Cathay require our daughter to have a paid seat neither BA or AMEX could book it on a single booking without that.
If an auto rebooking isn’t just done in the meantime you will not get as far as HK
So BA will flag the impossible connection and not allow us to board?
Who was saying that you’d have to pay for the accommodation, BA or Amex? Because I think BA would cover this.
From what you’ve posted above, you’ve had more than 14 days’ notice of the change so no compensation would be due. BA has no control over other airlines’ schedules, so I think the best you’re going to get out of this is to accept the flight the following day – inconvenient but this is always a risk with long-haul travel.
AMEX said we’d have to book/pay and reclaim at BAs discretion, which sounded like a quote from BA.
Does notification of a flight time change (with no indication the connection time was now below the minimum) really act as notice there is no other feasible routing without an overnight?
I would say so, as the notification emails usually invite you to look at rebooking options and/or accept any changes.
When you use a travel agent it is their responsibility to contact you and to make any rebooking arrangements (within the policy of the airline)
Sounds like they did a poor job of that but if it was +2 weeks before travel then the airline did their part and you’ll have to complain to Amex travel
Re: accommodation it comes under duty of care and someone will have to pay . I do not ever remember someone coming on here and complaining BA didn’t pay their expenses so I wouldn’t forsee any hassle here, keep your receipt and claim via their website after.
Otherwise it’s possible that Cathay Pacific would be liable (as the final carrier / cause of delay) – others on here will know better – but I’d try BA first !
Definitely try BA first as CX isn’t liable under UK261 in this instance, which might complicate things.
I thought that non-UK connecting flights were in scope if it was part of a journey out of the UK . There was a ruling on that pre Brexit
I’m with @SamG I think BA has an obligation to pay for hotel overnight under EC261 as adopted into UK law.
This is a single itinerary on a BA ticket. The point being the route is UK to Asian city via HK. The destination is the Asian city and not HK.
I would accept the offer of being accomdated on the Cathay flight the following day and enjoy dinner and the night in a hotel in HK at BA’s expense. I am pretty sure BA would just pay the cost of the hotel and food on submission of a claim via the BA complaints page
We’re all with @SamG – the point is that it’s likely to be easier to deal with BA than CX in respect of this. We’ve seen with airlines like QR that it’s very difficult to pin them down when it comes to UK261 claims.
Yes. Even if in the weeds of the detail it isn’t technically BA responsibility (not clear to me) , you flew on BA for one of the legs on a BA ticket they’d almost certainly just pay up for the expenses
Cathay are also difficult on these matters I believe
We need exact timeline when you were notified and by whom.
As per pre-Brexit rulings, the airline cannot rely on the travel agent notifying you and must be able to prove that you were notified more than two weeks before the flight. I’ve won a case against BA booked with Amex Travel because BA could not prove that they notified me more than 2 weeks before.
Regarding who is responsible for right to care/compensation it will be BA as the most significant carrier. However, if it comes to it you may put both airlines and let the court/CEDR decide who’s responsible.
We booked on 23rd Jan.
We were notified of a change via email to the outgoing HKG-Dest flight on 28th Feb which left a 15 minute connection. The email said “Please verify if this schedule change is suitable.”, “Major time change” and “Minimum connection time change” but there was nothing to state what the minimum connection was or that we were in breach of it.
I called AMEX who bounced between BA and Cathay multiple times before calling me back to say the only offer was to cancel the outbound. Otherwise they said schedules frequently change up to two weeks before departure so best to wait to see if it sorts itself out.
We received another email stating the LHR-> HKG flight was now 15 minutes later on 4th April (effectively leaving 0 minute connection, but again not mentioned anywhere in the email). This was just listed as a minor time change.
Once within 14 days I checked I hadn’t missed an update and called AMEX again. At no point before this had BA or AMEX suggested they wouldn’t be able to get us to our destination until the next calendar day.
Amex Travel are the ones in the wrong here, they should have been proactive in sorting out alternative arrangements within the rebooking guidelines of the airlines involved. They are your agent and responsible for all such matters. That is why it’s usually best not to involve at TA as as you’ve seen, most online agents are pretty useless at this stuff!
As I’ve said, the simple option here is going to be to have Amex travel confirm you onto the BA flight with the next available CX connection. Double check that you see ticket numbers against your flight in the BA app once they do this to ensure it is done correctly.
Then book a hotel and submit the receipt to BA after travel
Thanks all. I’ve booked the hotel and Amex have updated the flights.
We initially tried to book direct – BA (or at least two separate phone agents) seemed unable to book it at all because we needed to book my daughter as a child for the return Cathay flight but BAs booking system refused to do that because of her DOB had her under 2 on departure.
As well as the claim for the hotel I’m going to try putting in a claim for compensation – the emails we received gave zero indication we’d now need to overnight. As meta claims it seems Amex not notifying is properly does not remove BAs liability. We’re trading a day in a resort for a day at an airport hotel…
Airlines change flight times all the times, you need to check your booking when you receive notification to see how it’s going to affect you (though in this case it does sound like it’s Amex who have been remiss, so maybe a formal complaint in their direction is the way to go?)
I’ve had the times of at least 4 upcoming flights changed this year, including a change of terminal at LHR. This isn’t highlighted in any way by BA so I always go through any notification with a fine tooth comb to make sure it’s not going to upend my other travel arrangements!
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