Schedule change – is my flight now fully refundable?

[yonasl]

I discussed this in a different thread but wanted to split the conversation.

I have a MAD-JAPAN-MAD flight with JAL/IB for March 2024 (ticketed with JAL).

MAD-JAPAN has suffered a large change in schedule (+4hrs).

In can accept the changes or select different alternatives to still arrive at the planned time.

But is it correct to consider that if I don’t do anything I basically have a refundable ticket now as I could reject the changes and recover the money up to the last minute?

[NorthernLass]

I don’t think it’s officially a cancellation unless you have a new flight number. It will depend on the carrier’s Ts and Cs how big a time change they consider sufficient to let you get a full refund. I know someone mentioned being moved to an earlier flight comes under EU261 for this but I’m not sure about later.

If there are no “extraordinary circumstances” for the change, you should be eligible for delay compo, though who knows how difficult it would be to extract from either airline?!

[yonasl]

JAL takes me to a page where I can Accept or Reject the changes and it is +4hrs so it feels like it could play out that way.

I am basically wondering if I should go ahead with the delay but not accept until I get closer to the flight time …

[JDB]

@yonasi – in theory yes, but as a practical matter, definitely no. I think JAL (as per my reply your previous post on another thread) will treat this as a schedule change rather than a cancellation which is how EC261 considers it.

However, we have seen people leave bookings (with various airlines) to fester in this way, in the expectation they can deal with it much nearer the time only to find the airline doesn’t cooperate as expected. I would address the issue sooner to avoid problems down the line, particularly in this case where you don’t have recourse to ADR and I doubt you want to be in the position of buying new tickets in the hope of litigating to get the money back.

[yonasl]

Quick summary:
– On my MAD-LHR-HND itinerary for 2024 I got a message with a “schedule change” for the MAD-LHR leg
– This is simply a flight number change. The times and everything else have not changed

I now called JAL and on their end they can see “a new flight number” and “a new time”. They cannot see the previous time so have no idea this is the EXACT same flight.

The options I am given are:
– Accept this change
– Not accept and get full refund

So happy this trip has become fully refundable 🙂