BA flight change

rach2893

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice or fighting words that can hopefully make BA sort this out for me!

I paid £700+ for flights to Paris for my birthday, with the evening flight on the Monday back getting us to London for 8pm so plenty of time to get across town and get one of the last trains home. BA have cancelled the 8pm flight and put us on 10pm so no way we’ll make it and means we’ll have to pay to stay overnight in London. There is a 6pm flight so asked if they could move us to that instead and they are saying I’d have to pay the £200+ to change it even though it’s also within 2 hours of my original flight time and if I cancel they are only willing to refund me £150.

They’ve said I can pay to make the change now then take it up with customer services but typically find it harder to get money back after you’ve already paid it, see silly refund amount above!

Any advice on what to say to try and get this sorted without any additional cost would be greatly appreciated!

DullGreyGuy

Definitely cancelled and not rescheduled? When is the flight?

How many are you that flights to Paris are as much as £700+?

How much later will you land? You say take off is circa 2 hours later but it doesn't automatically follow the landing is 2 hours later.

Have to say these days, Eurostar is so much easier for getting to Paris than flying, though it depends how easy it is for you to get to KingsX -v- Heathrow

Caz3121

did you book with BA direct?

the last change I had was for under an hour (notified 3 months+ in advance), the email I received said


"We're really sorry that your upcoming flight to London Heathrow on XXX has been cancelled. To get your travel plans back on track, you can review your options below:

To help get your travel plans back on track, we've rebooked you onto the next available flight.

What do I need to do? Please let us know whether you'd like to travel on this flight by selecting 'accept' in Manage My Booking. You can review other available flights and also claim a refund here too." I logged into Manage my booking and changed to an earlier, rather than later, flight with no fee. Have you tried to sort this online?

rach2893

Yep, booked direct with BA for flights in May. There’s only 2 of us but they’re business flights as it’s a 30th treat and Eurostar was the same price at the time of booking (bank holiday weekend).

This is the wording they used:

The times of your upcoming flights have changed. We're sorry for any impact this may have on your travel plans.

What do I need to do?

If you're happy to travel at the new flight time, you don't need to do anything. 

If you've arranged your trip with a travel agency, please talk to them directly. 

If you'd like to book a different flight, please call us. 

I did also look at changing them myself through the online portal but again it wanted to charge me the additional £200+

eskbanker

rach2893 said:

This is the wording they used:

The times of your upcoming flights have changed. We're sorry for any impact this may have on your travel plans.

What do I need to do?

If you're happy to travel at the new flight time, you don't need to do anything.

Just to be clear, have they cancelled your flight and moved you onto another with a different flight number, or just made a schedule change for the same flight?

rach2893

The flight number is the same, flight time has changed by an hour & a half.

tightauldgit

When BA cancelled my flights last summer I was able to choose an alternative online as the one they automatically offered wasn't suitable. In your case though it looks like a rescheduling rather than a cancellation and I don't know if the same rules apply.

Caz3121

rach2893 said:

The flight number is the same, flight time has changed by an hour & a half.

I think that is part of the confusion, your initial post said they had cancelled the 8pm flight but it seems that they have rescheduled it (probably as part of the winter to summer timetable change) I think they operate differently for cancellations and reschedules
BA treat 2 hours as a significant change https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-changes/
not ideal but you can change your flight for free on the day of travel as long as there are seats on the earlier flight https://www.executivetraveller.com/how-to-change-to-an-earlier-british-airways-flight-at-no-cost

eskbanker

Caz3121 said:

rach2893 said:

The flight number is the same, flight time has changed by an hour & a half.

I think that is part of the confusion, your initial post said they had cancelled the 8pm flight but it seems that they have rescheduled it (probably as part of the winter to summer timetable change) I think they operate differently for cancellations and reschedules
BA treat 2 hours as a significant change https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-changes/
not ideal but you can change your flight for free on the day of travel as long as there are seats on the earlier flight https://www.executivetraveller.com/how-to-change-to-an-earlier-british-airways-flight-at-no-cost

Those links probably ought to be treated with caution, in that they were both published in 2019, given all that's happened since then!  I haven't found any definitive BA statement but it does look like it went back last summer to a flight still needing to be rescheduled by more than two hours to warrant a free change (having been loosened during Covid), but don't know if on-the-day flexibility is still an option, maybe more likely for Club Europe than cattle class?

If OP's flight time has only been moved by an hour and a half, it would seem unlikely that there's any claim against BA, or the right to a free change in advance if they're declining this with full sight of applicable fare conditions.

Caz3121

eskbanker said:

 but don't know if on-the-day flexibility is still an option, maybe more likely for Club Europe than cattle class?

Very much so...OP said they booked business and I did it last month on business ticket without issue
it is also available for economy tickets as long as not 'basic'  https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/travel-classes/economy/our-short-haul-fares

DullGreyGuy

tightauldgit said:

When BA cancelled my flights last summer I was able to choose an alternative online as the one they automatically offered wasn't suitable. In your case though it looks like a rescheduling rather than a cancellation and I don't know if the same rules apply.

It doesn't, reschedulings come down to what the airline themselves have determined as significant in their T&Cs... some it can require it to be over 12 hours difference before they do.

eskbanker said:

Caz3121 said:

rach2893 said:

The flight number is the same, flight time has changed by an hour & a half.

I think that is part of the confusion, your initial post said they had cancelled the 8pm flight but it seems that they have rescheduled it (probably as part of the winter to summer timetable change) I think they operate differently for cancellations and reschedules
BA treat 2 hours as a significant change https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-changes/
not ideal but you can change your flight for free on the day of travel as long as there are seats on the earlier flight https://www.executivetraveller.com/how-to-change-to-an-earlier-british-airways-flight-at-no-cost

Those links probably ought to be treated with caution, in that they were both published in 2019, given all that's happened since then!  I haven't found any definitive BA statement but it does look like it went back last summer to a flight still needing to be rescheduled by more than two hours to warrant a free change (having been loosened during Covid), but don't know if on-the-day flexibility is still an option, maybe more likely for Club Europe than cattle class?

If OP's flight time has only been moved by an hour and a half, it would seem unlikely that there's any claim against BA, or the right to a free change in advance if they're declining this with full sight of applicable fare conditions.

For some reason "significant change", which the T&Cs of carriage say is required to trigger the resolutions is not a defined term and scan reading I cannot spot any timescale given.

Looking at https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/standard-customer-guidelines?clickref=1101lwuICdT4&DM1_Channel=AFF&DM1_Campaign=UKI_GB_EN_PHG_ALWAYSON&DM1_Site=PHG&dclid=CKPC1aia1_wCFZrQ1QodsGUCcw#schedule which is a guide for travel agents booking BA flights etc it states it must be more than 120 minutes... if the OP has gone from exactly 8pm to exactly 10pm they are literally 1 second short of being a significant change.