To be really p****d off with British airways and my travel insurance

DH had this twice a couple of weeks ago. Lost out on train tickets North to South and then petrol and parking down South a second time.

If I got that text the first thing I’d do is look for the customer service number, call it, ask wtf is going on, and figure out my options via an actual human being.

Come on, be reasonable. Whether I was at Zandvoort or Imola or Silverstone: if a train company or airline or Uber told me it was taking me somewhere I didn’t book, pay or want to go, the absolute LAST thing I’d do is just go there without asking! Seriously. You have to take responsibility for your actions.

So you had plenty of time to get an uber from lhr to lgw and get your prebooked train then.Which BAwouldve reimbursed So you CHOSE to cough up for new train gickets from Heathrow. Your own fault

Your flight was cancelled for “operational reasons” 12 hours before departure. You are, therefore entitled to UK 261 compensation of £220 per passenger. (BA should have informed you of your right to claim at the time of the cancellation.)

Articles 5 and 7 of Assimilated Regulation EC261/2004

www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/contents

Same thing happened to my husband - if you accept a new flight after a cancellation, it is in their T&C that they won't cover getting you to your original destination.

Trying to work out what costs £250 from heathrow to the south west on an off peak day in standard class - lhr to penzance is £107 on the day price, if you had booked specific trains on an advanced would have been less. If you had to go via London anyway, you just needed 2 tickets to london and then get on original train (you can board anywhere along a valid journey) - and if you were going to the South West, normally would be covered by Paddington which would make your journey easier and if Waterloo only slightly more difficult as would need to use tube in London anyway, which is 2 tube lines/ change at Westminster.

They should maybe refund the cost of travel to London from LHR and unfortunately as you had by the sound of it an advanced ticket so no refund, you have lost out 5 hour delay on a bank holiday is not uncommon and only days before flights were cancelled due to high wind.

So you were told by an airline that the destination you booked and paid to go to was being changed to a different destination….and you just went there? Just got on the plane and went to the new place, didn’t speak to anyone or ask about logistics etc?

What if you’d parked your car at Gatwick?

I’m guessing they offered you a later flight to Gatwick, possibly even next day (with accommodation paid for) and you declined in favour of going to LHR? That’s kind of on you. Look at BA’s terms and conditions.

And yes, they’re shit. They’re basically a low-cost airline now which is embarrassing as they’re the flag carrier. I go out of my way to avoid BA in favour of almost anyone else.

I understand why you are annoyed but by mixing reimbursement of expenses (the extra £250) with a request for compensation (the original £250 travel costs which you are viewing as compensation for stress etc) you are giving BA an easy way to say no. Separate your cost into additional expenses and compensation and you are more likely to get them to cover the additional expenses. I doubt very much you'll get anything else.

They charge what people will pay (including you).

They should probably pay for your additional costs - but unwise to book inflexible train tickets when flights are often delayed. Heathrow and Gatwick not far apart and both same sort of time to get into central London and get on a mainline train.
They can't be expected to pay all or any costs for a plane load of people, (who could be going anywhere after landing at Heathrow).
No fun for you OP but I don't think I'd expect BA to pay you £500.

250£ from Heathrow to Gatwick. In what world do you live in? And where the hell were you going that advance train tickets cost £250 anyway? If its that far it mightve been better to fly into Manchester or Edinburgh

It's not like they'll have done it on a whim. It costs them a fortune so not something they take lightly. You're taking this way too personally. It's the risk you take to travel and most of the time everything works relatively smoothly.

@FatherConfesserTheGuesser You're right! I wasn't really thinking straight. They should make sure OP is not out of pocket in getting home from H'row, as that's what the original set of train tickets would have done.

The main point is that BA should be refunding the onward travel (as they cancelled the flight), not the travel insurers.

I'd say BA should pay for you to get home from H'row without any quibbling at all, and as a matter of good customer service should also refund your train tickets from Gatwick.

You do realise they are a business not a charity? Why should they refund both?

It isn't just one person, it is a plane load- refunds need to be proportionate.

Op you can't claim for both.

Absolutely not. It's not like it was originally going from Glasgow and suddenly was going from Paris. Heathrow and Gatwick aren't exactly massively far apart.