Flight cancellation - can't get refund from BA

jimbolad007

BA cancelled a flight which is not until May. The airline has booked an evening flight to replace the original morning flight. I asked Expedia for a refund (it was booked via Expedia) and they rang BA who said it was non-refundable. I had tried to get a refund from Expedia on 3 previous attempts, for each attempt I was told someone would come back to me within 72 hours, but no one did. As I was desperate to get a refund, I went to the BA website myself and clicked on 'Manage my booking' which according to BA is the reason they will now not refund me as they have said I tried to change my booking. This is what BA advise you do anyway in these circumstances to see what options you have. Even on their website I was not able to do any changes to my flight as the message on the BA site said I would have to go through my operator i.e. Expedia. 

TELLIT01

You need to check the precise T&C of the original booking.  What was the time of the original flight and what was the revised time.  Many airlines say that a change of less than 'x' hours is not a major change and there is no entitlement to a refund.

eskbanker

jimbolad007 said:

BA cancelled a flight which is not until May. The airline has booked an evening flight to replace the original morning flight.

TELLIT01 said:

You need to check the precise T&C of the original booking.  What was the time of the original flight and what was the revised time.  Many airlines say that a change of less than 'x' hours is not a major change and there is no entitlement to a refund.

If it's a rescheduling of a flight (i.e. retaining the same flight number) then yes, refund rights will depend on its scale, but if it's actually a cancellation (i.e. there's no longer a flight of that number operating and a different flight is offered as an alternative) then the airline is obliged to offer the passenger the choice between a rebooking or a refund under article 8 of the UK261 regulations.

AlexMac

a bit late now but I wonder if it would have been better if you had booked direct via an intermediary?

I’ve had two recent BA delays; a simple cancellation (probably due to cabin crew shortages at the tail end of Covid) so I got the statutory component of £200quid odd plus a flight two days later (ironically the delay was not a problem for me)…

and another time when due to bad weather  when we and another few passengers got bounced off a flight from London City to Malaga as the pilot wanted to lighten the load in high winds. 

We got given a pre loaded card with the 200 odd Euros compo, a taxi to Heathrow and a flight to Malaga via Barcelona, so ( after a nice tapas lunch at Barcelona airport) we arrived 8 hours late… which was no big deal 

but seamless customer service each time!  Good old BA. Try contacting them online?