BA, where do I start???

[Deleted User]

bagand96 said:

jerryjal said:

bagand96 said:

It's too late now, but for future reference:

When a flight is cancelled you are entitled to your choice of a refund or rerouting. The rerouting is not restricted to flights on the same airline. Most airlines will only offer you options on their own flights, but you are entitled to any flight, or transport of comparable conditions (ie same class) 

So if you'd managed to find tickets on another airline you could have requested BA book these for you. If they refused or couldn't, you could have booked them yourself and claim back the cost.

The fact you were stood at Heathrow, BA's hub, and no one could help you rebook other than phoning up the help line just about shows the state of that airline.

I hope you enjoy the trip once you finally make it! 

Even if only business class tickets were available?

No, I believe it is "comparable conditions" or similar in the regulations, so you wouldn't be entitled to an upgrade.

Like others I'm surprised there weren't other options to NYC on BA and their partners, or any other airline, even if indirect. May just have been a case of peak travel time and throw in a bit of disruption... 

I believe you can get a higher class and just pay the difference yourself though, e.g. economy to premium economy.

eskbanker

On the subject of rerouting in a higher class, the CAA says (rather vaguely):

The European Commission Interpretative Guidelines adequately cover the issue of re-routing passengers in a different class of cabin

and those EU guidelines state:

—	re-routing should be offered at no additional cost to the passenger, even where passengers are re-routed with another air carrier or on a different transport mode or in a higher class or at a higher fare than the one paid for the original service,

—	reasonable efforts are to be made to avoid additional connections,

—

when using another air carrier or an alternative mode of transport for the part of the journey not completed as planned, the total travel time should, if possible, be as reasonably close as possible to the scheduled travel time of the original journey in the same or higher class of carriage if necessary

so travelling in a higher class is envisaged as a legitimate resolution, in order to remain as close as possible to original timings.  Difficult to enforce this, but if, for the sake of argument, BA offered an economy flight the next day and OP was able to find a business class one the same day, the CAA would apparently expect BA to book the latter.

[Deleted User]

That's correct, if you can get a higher class flight but closer to the original dates, you are entitled to it. You can book it yourself and claim the cost back from the airline.

Where it gets really murky is if the other airline's classes are not the same. Say their economy seat is actually smaller, and the closest size to the one you booked is premium economy. Imagine you are particularly tall and need the leg room, which is why you chose the airline you did.

The general principle seems to be that you should get an equivalent or better flight, so it should be arguable that you are entitled to at least as much legroom even if that does require an upgrade when cheaper seats are available. I'm not aware of any examples of people trying it though.