Flight cancelled- help!

[flighthelp]

8 hours behind UK, can't speak to airline until it opens in 4 hours. Flight cancelled, flight is 24 hours later, indirect and brings us back to the wrong airport. Anyone know what our rights are? There are flights with other airlines tomorrow, can we risk booking with them and getting a refund? Any experimenter or help appreciate, quite stressed.

..Agreed…my comment about the financial angle was only with regard to comp.

The airline/holiday company should cover expenses, hotel for delay etc.

As you say sometimes these cancellations happen and sometimes there is no way of getting people to destination without some sort of delay.

@WhatapityWapiti thank you, I've been told elsewhere due to 261/2004 (article 8) they are obligated to re-route us at the earliest opportunity even if a different carrier (they've offered us AA so far which I believe they codeshare with) is this true do you know? I'm wondering if I could ask that they book me on one of the flights I've found arriving sooner but on another airline.

When they open, speak to them and ask if they would be willing to put you on the earlier flight with the other airline. It’s complicated, but airlines are supposed to consider other airlines’ flights when fulfilling their requirement to get you home as close as possible to the time you booked.

They will probably say no though. What is going on at home that makes a 24 hour delay such a big issue?

Oh that’s funny, we cross-posted.

They might by law have to try A.N. Other carrier but sometimes there simply might not be umpteen hundred seats to be had with any other airline.

@WhatapityWapiti thank you, family member I'm travelling with needs to be home asap for caring responsibilities, not end of the world stuff but she's very upset and I'm just desperately trying to see if I can make it better.

You need to balance the impact of a 24 hour delay vs the stress, hassle and financial impact of arguing for months about reimbursement of expensive flights you went off and bought yourselves. It will not be straightforward to get the money back.

OTOH if you just take their later flight you can stick in a compensation claim afterwards and may get something (depending on reasons for cancellation).

You beat me to it but gave pretty much the same answer that I'd have given.

ETA - OP, when you can call BA, have some flight options (on BA, code share, and different airlines) that work for you ready to suggest.

Second the above..

I’d certainly be wary of going freelance and trying to organize anything with multiple, possibly tight connections.

Is it an option for that family member to travel back first? Trying to find one alternative seat will be easier than several

The exact same thing happened to us. Don’t book your own flights. Take the ones they’ve given you. Calling them will be a waste of time too. We booked a night in the airport hotel. When we got home submitted a claim for that, everything we’d spent on food and drink, the cancellation compensation and in our case downgrade compensation since we were booked in business class but had to fly home in economy. They paid out and didn’t query anything. It actually ended covering most of the cost of the original flights since we had a lap infant who hadn’t paid full fare but he did somehow get full compensation! We were THAT family who asked people to switch seats on the plane, since they sat my 5YO alone, but actually everyone was really nice about it and the single chap who’d been assigned a middle seat next to a lap infant was thrilled to take DD’s aisle seat 4 rows up LOL.

Oh and US connections are easy when it’s on the return leg because you don’t need to go back through security and they’ll check your bags through.

Good luck, home you get home soon with no more dramas.

I was recently delayed 12h on an AA flight (meant to leave Thu am, actually left Thu pm to become an overnight flight). They would have let me switch to any other available AA (or BA codeshare) flight but that was all. Or they would have let me cancel, refunded that part of the fare, and then i could have booked my own (I didn’t, as the fare was a sale one so would have cost me much more to buy another flight)

Post brexit, there was no automatic compensation for a more-than-x-hour delay and of course, I had no additional costs because there wasn’t an extra night of stay in the US.

appreciate this is pure anecdote and your situation is different, but I definitely would not assume you can book another flight and claim it back. It may be worth the family member cancelling her return as if she got, say, £500 back but had to spend £800 on a new flight, she might think that was bearable. But obviously adds up if you all try that!

@SheilaFentiman I have to correct this:

Post brexit, there was no automatic compensation for a more-than-x-hour delay.

The EU delay and cancellation compensation regime was carried across wholesale into UK law post Brexit. Absolutely nothing changed apart from the compensation amounts being re-denominated from EUR into their GBP equivalent. What is more, all the old EU case law has just been embedded into UK statute to make sure it cannot be overruled like other EU cases. This is important because Regulation EC261/2004 did not originally provide for cash compensation in the event of a delay, only a cancellation; delay compensation was added by a case called Sturgeon which extended the scope of the primary legislation. Sturgeon is now part of UK law.

However in the scenario that you describe above, you would never have been entitled to any compensation, pre or post-Brexit. Why? Because your flight was INTO the EU on a US airline.

The compensation rules apply to:

All flights out of the EU or UK on any airline
Flights into the EU or UK on EU or UK airlines only.

we had a lap infant who hadn’t paid full fare but he did somehow get full compensation!

Yes, that’s a correct application of the law because the compensation is fixed no matter how much has been paid for the ticket. The point is that the compensation was set to reflect a deemed monetary value of the stress and inconvenience caused by a delay. It assumes that there is no direct link between what you paid and how inconvenient you find the delay. Obviously a baby doesn’t really care but sometimes legislators have to allow slightly illogical results in order to be fair to everyone!

Third the above. BA will have chosen the option that's most palatable to them, which won't necessarily be the quickest, but unless you're happy to bear the cost or argue with them, possibly for an extended period, it might be easiest just to take what you're offered.

But for a comprehensive guide to your rights in this situation, have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-cancellation-compensation/

You may have to queue for a while but I have managed to get through to BA several times as we had a succession of cancelled flights last summer. They are unlikely to pay for your to fly back on another airline though.

If the reason for cancelling were due to 'operational issues' you can claim compensation but it took a while to get the claim through. I phones them to ask the reason and to have it confirmed so i could claim.

DH had to book a new flight with a different airline for the same day (FIL passed away whilst we were away so he had to get back asap) but he never got any compensation from BA for the new flight, just a refund for the alternative BA flight he decided not to take as he wanted to get back that day. The compensation just about covered the other flight but it took months to get sorted.

DD and I didn't get back to UK until 5 days later than originally planned.

Thanks for the explanation! Worked out pretty well for us in the end anyway as all the compensation wasn’t far off the total cost of the return flight. And we were able to book another holiday from that as it was £1000s. Silver linings and all that.

Thanks so much all, after a fraught night managed to get through to BA and they rebooked us onto an indirect virgin flight tomorrow morning so we get in about the time we were due to get in, albeit Heathrow rather than Gatwick! But we'll take that! Now to try to get some sleep!

Our BA flight was cancelled last year due to a “medical emergency”. They flew us out 24 hours later and we were not given a refund, although expenses were covered. That’s all the anecdotal information I have.

Oops, sorry your post only loaded after I hit post! #sorry

We had a flight cancelled on us although before we set off - they rebooked us to a diff airport etc effecting parking and so on - but once we got on the phone it was soon sorted

sorry shld have said it was a ba holiday as well flight and hotel combo

Depends on the airport and if you have to clear customs or anything, and if you have to collect luggage or if the luggage is transferred automatically. Not all airports do automatic transfer, some are self transfer. So check.

The Internet will also give you an indication for minimum transfer time needed for each airport.

We have had 45 minutes to several hours. The shortest one we did need to be very quick when walking!

If you buy an alternative flight you will not automatically be reimbursed. You can write a letter to the airline and ask for it as a gesture of goodwill but it is not guaranteed.

You need to phone customer services when open and they will offer you a free transfer, a flight voucher or a refund.

Sorry to hear this happened you - happened me recently and it’s unnecessary stress!

@WhatapityWapiti thank you for clarifying, really interesting.

OP, glad you have a solution