Cancelled flight

Troughton

I purchased a flight several months ago with TAP (Air Portugal) which was a return flight from London to Lisbon. Two days before my flight was due to leave (5th Oct) TAP sent me an email to say they were cancelling my flight, and that they had now booked me on another flight leaving much later on the same day. I had to decline the rescheduled flight as it would have meant me arriving too late into Lisbon for the purposes I needed to be there for. I therefore had to book another flight (Ryanair) which ended up costing me cir£300 more than my original TAP flight. TAP have since refunded me the cost of my originally booked flight with them but I feel incredibly hard-done by given the additional cost I had to incur. What are my options in trying to recoup this additional cost?  

eskbanker

The regulations oblige the airline to offer you the choice between a refund or a rerouting (at their cost) - if their proposed alternative doesn't work for you you can challenge them to come up with something better, but if you accept a refund and then make your own arrangements, it'll be difficult to reclaim the fare difference.

The CAA offers guidance on rerouting, but suggest that an airline offering a replacement on the same route and the same day will generally be considered acceptable, so that would probably influence the prospect of being able to convince the airline that they should pick up the extra cost - what were the timings of the original and offered replacement flights and the Ryanair one?

Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004

However, the airline may (separately) be liable to pay you fixed-tariff compensation, if the cause of the cancellation wasn't extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, so if you know, or can find out, the reason for the cancellation, that might offer a more productive route....

Troughton

eskbanker said:

The regulations oblige the airline to offer you the choice between a refund or a rerouting (at their cost) - if their proposed alternative doesn't work for you you can challenge them to come up with something better, but if you accept a refund and then make your own arrangements, it'll be difficult to reclaim the fare difference.

The CAA offers guidance on rerouting, but suggest that an airline offering a replacement on the same route and the same day will generally be considered acceptable, so that would probably influence the prospect of being able to convince the airline that they should pick up the extra cost - what were the timings of the original and offered replacement flights and the Ryanair one?

Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004

However, the airline may (separately) be liable to pay you fixed-tariff compensation, if the cause of the cancellation wasn't extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, so if you know, or can find out, the reason for the cancellation, that might offer a more productive route....

Thanks for your response. Original flight was for 10.30am. Their replacement flight was for 16.30pm which would have meant me missing the cut off to collect my race number (I was going there for the Lisbon marathon). I have doubt that my pursuing the path you suggest in your first paragraph would have worked in time. I had literally less than 48 hours to get an alternative and TAP are not responsive - getting hold of customer service is almost impossible. I wondered whether reaching out to the likes of the EU Aviation Authority would be worthwhile. Just seems grossly unfair to label this as voluntary cancellation 

Jumblebumble

eskbanker said:

The regulations oblige the airline to offer you the choice between a refund or a rerouting (at their cost) - if their proposed alternative doesn't work for you you can challenge them to come up with something better, but if you accept a refund and then make your own arrangements, it'll be difficult to reclaim the fare difference.

The CAA offers guidance on rerouting, but suggest that an airline offering a replacement on the same route and the same day will generally be considered acceptable, so that would probably influence the prospect of being able to convince the airline that they should pick up the extra cost - what were the timings of the original and offered replacement flights and the Ryanair one?

Re-routing in accordance with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 261/2004

However, the airline may (separately) be liable to pay you fixed-tariff compensation, if the cause of the cancellation wasn't extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, so if you know, or can find out, the reason for the cancellation, that might offer a more productive route....

It would be fair to say that once a refund is accepted then the Airline are 100% never going to reimburse the costs of an alternative carrier.
EU261 as you say is a different kettle of fish

eskbanker

Troughton said:

Original flight was for 10.30am. Their replacement flight was for 16.30pm which would have meant me missing the cut off to collect my race number (I was going there for the Lisbon marathon). I have doubt that my pursuing the path you suggest in your first paragraph would have worked in time. I had literally less than 48 hours to get an alternative and TAP are not responsive - getting hold of customer service is almost impossible.

Sure, I'm not saying that it would have been easy to persuade them to offer you something better (or even to get in touch at all), but just that the regulations place all the responsibility on the airline to rebook, and there's no provision for passengers to take matters into their own hands and seek reimbursement, so you're immediately on the back foot if trying to claim retrospectively without having given the airline a chance to resolve the issue (of getting you there before your deadline).

Troughton said:
I wondered whether reaching out to the likes of the EU Aviation Authority would be worthwhile.

I'm not aware of the existence of such a body with any responsibilities for consumer matters?  The escalation path is normally airline first, then ADR (or national aviation authority if no ADR participation), and finally courts.

Troughton said:
Just seems grossly unfair to label this as voluntary cancellation 

Is anyone applying that label?  From the airline's perspective, they've fulfilled their obligations under article 8, i.e. they've offered you the choice between rerouting or a refund, and you've chosen one of those options.

williscreg said:

Since TAP canceled your flight within 14 days of departure, you may be eligible for additional compensation under EU261 regulations, which protect passengers traveling from or within the EU. This regulation states that airlines must provide compensation if they cancel a flight close to the departure date, and if the new flight offered by them is not a reasonable alternative

It's not quite as simple as that - the reason for the cancellation is relevant, so it's not a given that compensation must be paid.  The issue of whether their offered flight was reasonable is likely to be pivotal - the regulatory obligation is to reroute 'at the earliest opportunity' but the CAA interpretation linked above emphasises that this doesn't necessarily mean that a replacement flight six hours later would be considered unreasonable.

Jumblebumble said:

It would be fair to say that once a refund is accepted then the Airline are 100% never going to reimburse the costs of an alternative carrier.
EU261 as you say is a different kettle of fish

I didn't say that EU261 is a different kettle of fish!  EU261 (or its UK equivalent, which would also cover a UK to EU flight) incorporates both the cancellation compensation (article 7) and rerouting/refund (article 8) obligations, so it's the same kettle, but just a different part of it....

Jumblebumble

eskbanker said:

Troughton said:

Original flight was for 10.30am. Their replacement flight was for 16.30pm which would have meant me missing the cut off to collect my race number (I was going there for the Lisbon marathon). I have doubt that my pursuing the path you suggest in your first paragraph would have worked in time. I had literally less than 48 hours to get an alternative and TAP are not responsive - getting hold of customer service is almost impossible.

Sure, I'm not saying that it would have been easy to persuade them to offer you something better (or even to get in touch at all), but just that the regulations place all the responsibility on the airline to rebook, and there's no provision for passengers to take matters into their own hands and seek reimbursement, so you're immediately on the back foot if trying to claim retrospectively without having given the airline a chance to resolve the issue (of getting you there before your deadline).

Troughton said:
I wondered whether reaching out to the likes of the EU Aviation Authority would be worthwhile.

I'm not aware of the existence of such a body with any responsibilities for consumer matters?  The escalation path is normally airline first, then ADR (or national aviation authority if no ADR participation), and finally courts.

Troughton said:
Just seems grossly unfair to label this as voluntary cancellation 

Is anyone applying that label?  From the airline's perspective, they've fulfilled their obligations under article 8, i.e. they've offered you the choice between rerouting or a refund, and you've chosen one of those options.

williscreg said:

Since TAP canceled your flight within 14 days of departure, you may be eligible for additional compensation under EU261 regulations, which protect passengers traveling from or within the EU. This regulation states that airlines must provide compensation if they cancel a flight close to the departure date, and if the new flight offered by them is not a reasonable alternative

It's not quite as simple as that - the reason for the cancellation is relevant, so it's not a given that compensation must be paid.  The issue of whether their offered flight was reasonable is likely to be pivotal - the regulatory obligation is to reroute 'at the earliest opportunity' but the CAA interpretation linked above emphasises that this doesn't necessarily mean that a replacement flight six hours later would be considered unreasonable.

Jumblebumble said:

It would be fair to say that once a refund is accepted then the Airline are 100% never going to reimburse the costs of an alternative carrier.
EU261 as you say is a different kettle of fish

I didn't say that EU261 is a different kettle of fish!  EU261 (or its UK equivalent, which would also cover a UK to EU flight) incorporates both the cancellation compensation (article 7) and rerouting/refund (article 8) obligations, so it's the same kettle, but just a different part of it....

Agreed
I meant the fixed compensation element has no dependency on the rerouting/refund element