Flight cancelled months in advance but no similar priced alternatives

united4ever

Planning a family trip to Japan at Xmas. Flights booked direct with BA for £850 about 6 weeks ago.

Got email to say the flight is cancelled. Seems like just one if the 3 flights cancelled from Manchester to Heathrow so the whole journey is cancelled. They asked us to call up to rearrange or we could get a full refund.

Trouble with refund is that flights are over 1k each now so as a family we are talking over £500 increase to get a refund and book elsewhere. Going to call BA soon to try to Redbook with them but I suspect they are going to say that I have to pay the price of tickets today and may ask for an extra £500 or more. 

Question is, how do I play the phone call with BA? Is there any way I can get them to honour their original price to put me on a very similar schedule. The flights are regular between all points so I don't see it like there is only one flight a day or less between these places. Especially the Manchester to Heathrow leg.

Brie

Were the other flights as cheap 6 weeks back?  I know when I'm looking to book flights there's a lot of variety on prices for the same destination - might be expensive at 8 am but cheap at 2 pm etc.

mr_stripey

BA canned my flights to Oslo a few months before we were due to fly. Just got an email out of the blue saying "we've cancelled your flights" and they refunded the money.

I immediately looked for alternatives and as you say, they were similar flights but much more expensive. 

When I checked back a couple of weeks later, everything had more or less settled down to similar prices. In fact the ones I rebooked were actually a little bit cheaper.

so it might pay to wait and see - but there's no guarantee of course.

eskbanker

united4ever said:

Planning a family trip to Japan at Xmas. Flights booked direct with BA for £850 about 6 weeks ago.

Got email to say the flight is cancelled. Seems like just one if the 3 flights cancelled from Manchester to Heathrow so the whole journey is cancelled. They asked us to call up to rearrange or we could get a full refund.

Trouble with refund is that flights are over 1k each now so as a family we are talking over £500 increase to get a refund and book elsewhere. Going to call BA soon to try to Redbook with them but I suspect they are going to say that I have to pay the price of tickets today and may ask for an extra £500 or more. 

Question is, how do I play the phone call with BA? Is there any way I can get them to honour their original price to put me on a very similar schedule. The flights are regular between all points so I don't see it like there is only one flight a day or less between these places. Especially the Manchester to Heathrow leg.

Article 8 of the UK/EU 261/2004 regulations is triggered by a cancellation and requires that the airline offers you a choice between a refund or rerouting, so they're obliged to rebook you at no extra cost if that's what you (understandably!) want.

onashoestring

As @eskbanker has said you are entitled to choose  between a refund or an alternative flight to your destination- ( this can even be with another airline if the original airline doesn’t have availability )

Before making the phone call - do some research and find an alternative flight that will meets your requirements -then when you phone BA tell them that you do not want a refund but you are requesting that they book you onto these alternative flights . If necessary quote the UK/EU 261 regulations.

Westin

Might an idea be to accept the LHR > HND > LHR routing and look at train/coach options between Manchester and LHR?  You would have to let BA know in advance if missing the MAN > LHR sector, don't just skip it on the day.

CKhalvashi

BA will likely be able to rebook you to fly from Heathrow, not Manchester.

I think Flybe are flying to LHR from MAN this winter, but a better alternative is likely to be by bus or train.

I've also noticed a lot of variation and the £10 flights to many places have long gone now, but it's still possible to pick up a sub-£50 return to most of Europe if you're not picky about dates and happy to book a few weeks out.

united4ever

Thanks all. Called up and they booked me onto Finnair flights for part of the journey (operated by JAL) via Helsinki. The times are fairly similar and no extra charge so it's worked out fine really. 

steve1500

This is the bible http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Re-routing Guidance (CAP2155).pdf

BA CC staff have virtually no knowledge about it

Para 33 on page 12 makes for interesting reading