Flight cancelled and airline not giving option for new flight 18 May 2021 at 7:02PM in Flight Delay Compensation 5 replies 81 views

axil23

I booked a flight through BA which was operated by Finnair. Cut a long story short Finnair cancelled the flights and asked me to contact BA for rebooking. BA agreed to rebook me but only within 1 year of the purchase date of the ticket. I bought the ticket in Sep 20 for a flight in Dec 20. Since it's a trip to Lapland there is no point in going during the summer months so I asked them to rebook me for Nov or Dec 21 which they refused. I was advised elsewhere to send a letter before action and then take them to MCOL which I did. Now I have been advised that I should have been contacting Finnair and not BA. I paid the money to BA and every time I spoke with Finnair they said they have no control over the ticket so its BA that I need to speak with. 

Can anyone offer any guidance? 

Caz3121

ticket validity of 12 months is pretty normal. Likely taking a refund and rebooking when things are clearer would be the best option...there is no guarantee travel to Lapland will be doable in 2021

axil23

But EU261 article 8 states 
- re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final

destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to

availability of seats.

So this should mean that it's the law above airlines own rules? 

Sandtree

axil23 said:
I asked them to rebook me for Nov or Dec 21 which they refused. 

When was this conversation? On what grounds did they say they were refusing? 

If you check online now are there flights available via BA for when you want to go?

With BA you can only book 354 days in advance, don't know about FinnAir... is it possible you were simply too early for the flights to be available for 2021?

axil23

Spoken with them a few times over the last few months. Flights are showing on BA’s website. They always state the one year ticket validity and say they can’t help. If I cancel and rebook now the flights are 2.5 x the fare I paid. 

Westin

axil23 said:

But EU261 article 8 states 
- re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final

destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to

availability of seats.

So this should mean that it's the law above airlines own rules? 

Perhaps poor wording but I would not interpret that to be a year later.