Codeshare, flight not cancelled but 'rescheduled' but not by the operator of the fli

Margaret_Coulbeck

My case has been ongoing for over a year now. In summary, booked with BA for a New York break flying Newcastle to London Heathrow and London Heathrow to JFK and return. However we were not told at time of booking that BA were using American Airlines for our JFK to London Heathrow flight (codeshare).
The night before we checked in for our flights and printed boarding cards.
A few hours before return flight was due I received a text from BA to say London Heathrow to Newcastle was cancelled. We had checked out of hotel and having lunch when text arrived, tried to ring BA but a 15 minute wait informed. I rang my husband in England and he tried to speak with BA but they wouldn't as he wasn't a passenger. He spoke with Hays Travel & Hayes and Jarvis who had a live BA system but no cancellations were recorded. My mobile would have drained and credit expired so went back early to hotel (cases were still there) We accessed the hotel computer which displayed a screen with 3 options, refund, accept new flights or seek alternative flights. It said Next Steps was to accept flights but the system wouldn't allow us and showed ERROR. As we had not / could not accept any changes we went to JFK to board the first leg. AA informed us BA had taken us off the flight. BA said it was the carrier that was responsible but this flight we had presented for with the appropriate documentation, however AA did not have any problems and the flight was still operational. BA cancelled it but will not accept any responsibility for a long delay in JFK. Is this classed as a rescheduling? (as the AA flight was still operational) or a cancellation. We were offered a different flight number. This wasn't even the next available flight but BA agreed to put us on an earlier flight. However the crew failed to turn up on time and we ended up as the last flight out of JFK that evening.

JPears

Did you actually book through BA, not a travel agent?
It would appear BA are totally responsible here, although you could argue AA also denied you boarding as you turned up for the appropriate check in without having been informed of any cancellation or otherwise of your first flight. BA (and to some extent AA) have royally cocked up here. What you shoul;d do, if you haven't already done so is read Vauban's superb and informative guide so you can get a jist of your "rights".
You will then, I suspect, need to send a letter of complaint to BA for:
1. Cancelling your flight at short notice (less than 14 days?) This is automatically due compensation under reg 261/2004, unless they rerouted you and you arrived at your intended destination no more 2-4 hours later than originally scheduled, or 1-2 hours ealier than originally scheduled. The time depends on wether you were given less than 14 days notice or less than 7 days notice. It would appear to be the later.
2. Effectively cancelling your first leg flight ticket without giving you any notice. for the same reasons as above -denied boarding effectively.
This is if you push the "single ticket" notion, in that you booked through the BA website and were issued a single ticket. Airlines have sucessfully and unsucessfully argued against this point so it is moot.
Given that either BA or AA cancelled your fisrt leg ticket (and why would AA do it unless it was effectively a single ticket and they wouldn't have known/cared about your second leg from Heathrow to Newcastle?) you have a stronger argument that it is a single ticket scenario.
3. If you treat it as 2 seperate tickets, then 1.) still applies against BA for your second leg and denied boarding under different US flight regulations, so potentially 2 compnesation claims. However this is a much trickier scenario.
The single ticket route is probably the strongest case. If you have not already done so, you will need to issue an NBA. Then take legal action. This maybe the only way you force BA to take responsibility.

Vauban

This is all very complicated. You need to try to get to the bottom of why BA cancelled your flight from NY to London: it doesn't really make sense, even if the Lon to Newcastle flight had been cancelled.

Part of the problem is that the EU Regulations don't cover non-EU airlines, flying out of non-EU airports: so AA's liability is largely non-existent (you could sue them for denied boarding, but under US legislation, and if BA cancelled your booking then you wouldn't have a case in any case).

I also wonder whether BA the Travel Agent is a different legal entity to BA the Airline? In which case, you can't sue the travel agent under EU Regulations either - though you could sue them for a breach of contract, arguably.

All of which is to say, this is quite complicated and you need a clearer explanation from BA about what went wrong. One thing you might do is to try and shame them on social media or - even better - by writing to one of the consumer journalists in a newspaper, who will make more progress than you could ever one your own!

One thing you could try is to claim for the cancellation of the LHR to NCL flight (assuming the cancellation wasn't caused by "extraordinary circumstances", and - as it was a journey all on one ticket - argue that the distance is over 3500km in total, and therefore you are owed 600 euros each. BA might argue that they (as the airline, not the travel agent) were not responsible for the delay in the NY to Lon leg, and therefore that your claim is only for the distance of the second leg - ie 250 euros each.

Regardless, you are going to need some persistence because this is a bit of a messy claim. Definitely try to get a newspaper interested is my advice!

JPears

Speaks a man of experiance