BA cancelled 4th leg - have I messed up?

KittenChops

Would be grateful for advice please.

In April this year we (me & husband) booked BA flights to India for February 2024:

Outbound: Manchester -> Heathrow-> Mumbai

Inbound: Mumbai -> Heathrow -> Manchester

 

In July, BA notified me by email that the 4th leg (Heathrow -> Manchester) was cancelled.

 

When using the ‘manage my booking’ link, the only option appeared to be to change the 3rd leg (Mumbai -> Heathrow) to an earlier flight in order to be booked on an earlier flight for the 4th leg (Heathrow -> Manchester)

 

BA appear to offer 3 flights a day for the 3rd leg (Mumbai -> Heathrow); at (approximate times) 1am, 8am or 1pm.  We specifically chose the 1pm flight over the other two options as we didn’t want to be hanging about on the last day waiting to go the airport in the middle of the night.

 

I used the chat function on the BA website twice, and then called BA to discuss what our options were.  Apparently, the only options were to book onto an earlier flight from Mumbai (as above, not something we wanted to do) or cancel the 4th leg (Heathrow -> Manchester).  So I went with the latter.

 

However, since then I’ve been reading up (mostly on this forum - thank you!) and I think there should have been a third option as BA are obligated to get us back to Manchester.

 

Is this right, and if it is right, have I messed up by agreeing to just cancel the 4th leg?

 

Quote from the first live chat:

“ you have an option to change both the flight or just cancel MAN to LHR and request for refund”

(ETA date of travel)

DullGreyGuy

It's not clear what outcome you want? It seems they did offer an alternative flight but you didn't want it.

It also sounds as if the cancellation happened more than 14 days from the flight date?

KittenChops

Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes, way more than 14 days before travel (have just edited my OP to add that the flights are booked for Feb 2024)
Because it was more than 14 days before travel, I thought that I had less options.

My preference would be to keep the 3 flights, make our own way back home & ask BA to reimburse our expenses for that leg - is that completely unrealistic?

DullGreyGuy

How much is the refund for the last leg that you've already received? How much is your "make your own way back" going to cost you? Given you are subbing a BA flight for say EasyJet it would seem likely you'd be better off with the current arrangement. 

Your statutory rights are generally to cancel the lot for a full refund or get rerouted and so your current situation is outside of those, which is perfectly fine as long as both parties are happy with that. The legislation itself isn't very detailed, it says a rerouting to the destination at the earliest opportunity or at a later date at the customers convenieince in similar conditions subject to seats.  

The CAA guidance says normally rerouting is by the same airline but you may have the right to have them book you on another airline if significantly sooner (well that's not your problem, you want later) or onto other suitable means of transport. Doesn't clarify the "may" and neither does the legislation.

Have you already booked your alternative method back?

KittenChops

DullGreyGuy said:

How much is the refund for the last leg that you've already received? How much is your "make your own way back" going to cost you? Given you are subbing a BA flight for say EasyJet it would seem likely you'd be better off with the current arrangement. 

Your statutory rights are generally to cancel the lot for a full refund or get rerouted and so your current situation is outside of those, which is perfectly fine as long as both parties are happy with that. The legislation itself isn't very detailed, it says a rerouting to the destination at the earliest opportunity or at a later date at the customers convenieince in similar conditions subject to seats.  

The CAA guidance says normally rerouting is by the same airline but you may have the right to have them book you on another airline if significantly sooner (well that's not your problem, you want later) or onto other suitable means of transport. Doesn't clarify the "may" and neither does the legislation.

Have you already booked your alternative method back?

Thanks again for replying.
No refund as yet - I was told that wouldn't happen until after the return leg.
There are no alternative direct flights with any airline, have checked for Birmingham as well as Manchester.

At the same time I was informed via email about the 4th leg being cancelled, I was also informed about a change to the 1st leg (something like a 5/10 minute change to the times & a different flight number I think).  I was told on the second live chat that if I didn't make a decision about the 4th leg, we then wouldn't be booked on the 1st leg (because of the change), so I did feel a bit pressured to ensure that we still had leg 1 on our itinerary.

Me: "so are we booked on flight from MAN-LHR ?"
BA: "No , it will be booked at the time when you confirm changes for return flight too"

DullGreyGuy

If the earliest opportunity isn't suitable for you then you can ask for a later return... have you asked them what the next return would look like?  Looking at a random Feb 2024 date there are 7 flights a day form LHR to MAN so unless you were booked on the last one of the day or you are a small army of people then just a later flight with a layover in LHR should be ok no? Or shift the whole flight back 24hrs if that doesn't impact with work etc

youth_leader

So sorry you are having to juggle all this. 

If the worst came to the worst, I would stay at Heathrow.  For convenience I've just stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn at Terminals 2/3 the night before my flight to Singapore.  Very expensive but easy to get to Terminal 5 for your journey home.

silvercar

BA don’t fly to Birmingham, presumably flying to Newcastle would be as painful as taking the train or coach from Heathrow to Manchester. EasyJet don’t use Heathrow, so they aren’t an option. Your only other option would be to change planes somewhere in Europe instead of Heathrow. 

Hoenir

KittenChops said:

I used the chat function on the BA website twice, and then called BA to discuss what our options were.  Apparently, the only options were to book onto an earlier flight from Mumbai (as above, not something we wanted to do) or cancel the 4th leg (Heathrow -> Manchester).  So I went with the latter.

 

Is this a matter of timing at Heathrow to effect the transfer? What are the scheduled flight times? 

mdann52

silvercar said:

Your only other option would be to change planes somewhere in Europe instead of Heathrow. 

Or land in Heathrow and catch a cross-London train - likely lizzy line to Farringdon and then Thameslink to Gatwick