My flights have been changed (but original flights are still operating!)

[yost]

I booked a holiday to Maldives in August through an online travel agent and we paid a bit more for some decent flights with BA (operated by Qatar Airways). Since then there have been several changes made, mostly nothing too bad, but the most recent one earlier this month was unacceptable to us as it meant we will have to wait at Male airport for 7 hours when we return. I checked online for better options before speaking with the travel agent and noticed that the original flights I booked in August are still operating, but the travel agent seems unwilling to explain why we were moved off these flights a couple of months ago (originally to a departing flight only a couple of hours later).

What rights, if any, do I have here? I am requesting some sort of refund as I paid extra for decent flights which I am no longer getting. We leave in 10 days and they insist there’s nothing they can do because there’s ‘no availability’ on the original flights we had been booked onto, and which had been confirmed. I was planning to take this up with my insurer and credit card company when we return.

[JDB]

Your post lacks detail, but having booked through an OTA, you don’t really have a lot of rights in respect of the changes you describe. I’m not sure that your insurers or credit card provider will accept responsibility for schedule changes, let alone compensate you.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

The concept of “decent flights” is rather nebulous and it’s not something your insurer or credit card company are likely to accept in relation to a claim.

Also these flights appear to be operated by Qatar and not BA so flights TO the UK aren’t covered by UK/EU261 for example so your rights for a rebooking / refund are limited.

One of the perils of booking via OTAs is that some of the less reputable ones simply won’t do the work when changes are made to get you rebooked onto other flights,

[yost]

Based on the first 2 replies, it looks like I’m unlikely to have any luck!

To add some more detail, the OTA is Destination2, and it certainly seems that they aren’t interested in putting any effort in to assist.

I booked in early August, and the return flights were MAL-DOH at 2005, with a 3 hour wait at DOH for a flight at 0150 arriving LHR 0620, which worked perfectly for us. As mentioned there were a few changes, and by October our planned return schedule was 2250 from MAL, with a 6 hour wait at DOH, and a flight DOH-LHR at 0740. So this was not as good, but not too bad, and at that time I assumed that the flights had changed because the original flights had been cancelled, so there was nothing I could do anyway.

Then earlier this month, we were moved to a flight departing MAL at 0145, but still connecting to the same flight from DOH at 0740. The issue we have is that the latest we can get returned to MAL airport is 1900, so we will be waiting there for 7 hours. At this point I checked online, and this is when I realised the original flights were still operating.

This is why I thought I might have some rights, because when I booked the holiday I agreed a certain (and higher) cost for the flights originally provided. As these flights are still operating, and I have been moved to worse flights, which I could have booked at a lower price in August, it seems unfair that I still have to pay the higher amount, but get worse flights. I could understand it more if the flights had been cancelled.

I do have an email with their original quote to me based on different flights with Sri Lankan airways, and I ended up paying nearly £600 more for the BA /QR flights. This is the only ‘evidence’ I have.

[NorthernLass]

Unfortunately, the amount you pay bears no relation to your consumer rights! You’re still bound by the airline’s Ts and Cs in terms of time changes.
I don’t know if there’s any point in contacting Qatar airways direct? They may not touch OTA bookings with a barge pole but with 2 direct redemption bookings I have made recently they were extremely helpful when contacted via in-app chat.

[AJA]

It won’t help contacting Qatar Airways. They won’t have any control over the tickets until 24 hours before.

Qatar will just tell you to contact the TA

You’re stuck since the travel agent is unwilling to do anything. When they say they see no availability it probably means their specific TA negotiated airline ticket allocation. They won’t be looking at what other ticket classes are available if booking directly with the airline.