BA changed destination instead of cancelling flight - compensation options?

jimi_man

schmuel said:

Is it really beyond the wit of man to ask passengers whether they'd rather go to Birmingham and get a coach, or take a different flight the next day..? It's a pretty straight-forward choice. We'd already all been delayed by 3 hours, and about to be even more inconvenienced by being flown to a different city! 

Obviously I get that it's more complicated (and certainly more expensive) for the airline, but it's a much better way to treat their customers. And there are about 30 flights a day from Rome to London, think we'd have been pretty unlucky not to get on one (I did check the BA ones and they had seats).

As I've said though, my main gripe (when I first posted) was my assumption that BA knew we weren't actually going to be able to land at LHR before boarding but chose not to tell us before we all got on the plane - that felt dishonest and disrespectful. I now think though that that assumption was maybe wrong (thanks so some of the insight shared on this thread).

To be quite blunt it's not anything to do with the passengers. The airline are contracted to get you to your destination on that flight as that's what you booked. So that's what they do as a first option. If that can't be done (and it could in your case) then they'll look at alternative options. But they won't and shouldn't start giving people options.

As detailed above it takes time do what you suggest and removing all the luggage is a nightmare. BA planes to LHR T5 use containers for luggage rather than manual loading so the whole container needs to be removed and realistically if half the plane opts to stay the night then all of the containers would need to be removed, unloaded, sorted, distributed then repacked, loaded back into the containers and reloaded on the aircraft. A long time. 

saajan_12

jimi_man said:

schmuel said:

Is it really beyond the wit of man to ask passengers whether they'd rather go to Birmingham and get a coach, or take a different flight the next day..? It's a pretty straight-forward choice. We'd already all been delayed by 3 hours, and about to be even more inconvenienced by being flown to a different city! 

Obviously I get that it's more complicated (and certainly more expensive) for the airline, but it's a much better way to treat their customers. And there are about 30 flights a day from Rome to London, think we'd have been pretty unlucky not to get on one (I did check the BA ones and they had seats).

As I've said though, my main gripe (when I first posted) was my assumption that BA knew we weren't actually going to be able to land at LHR before boarding but chose not to tell us before we all got on the plane - that felt dishonest and disrespectful. I now think though that that assumption was maybe wrong (thanks so some of the insight shared on this thread).

To be quite blunt it's not anything to do with the passengers. The airline are contracted to get you to your destination on that flight as that's what you booked. So that's what they do as a first option. If that can't be done (and it could in your case) then they'll look at alternative options. But they won't and shouldn't start giving people options.

As detailed above it takes time do what you suggest and removing all the luggage is a nightmare. BA planes to LHR T5 use containers for luggage rather than manual loading so the whole container needs to be removed and realistically if half the plane opts to stay the night then all of the containers would need to be removed, unloaded, sorted, distributed then repacked, loaded back into the containers and reloaded on the aircraft. A long time. 

Well they couldn't in a reasonable fashion in OP's case. They got the passengers to Birmingham, not the original destination, followed by a drive through the night, ie with disruption every few hours. Surely if the rerouting decision was only confirmed once in the air then a more reasonable decision would have been either accommodation in Birmingham and coach in the morning. 

If it was a flight from Australia and they could instead put all the passengers in a daisy chain of 2-3 hour hops Aus > Singapore > Thailand > India > Dubai > Lebanon > Greece > Germany > UK over a period of 3 days, is that also reasonable? 

eskbanker

saajan_12 said:

jimi_man said:

schmuel said:

Is it really beyond the wit of man to ask passengers whether they'd rather go to Birmingham and get a coach, or take a different flight the next day..? It's a pretty straight-forward choice. We'd already all been delayed by 3 hours, and about to be even more inconvenienced by being flown to a different city! 

Obviously I get that it's more complicated (and certainly more expensive) for the airline, but it's a much better way to treat their customers. And there are about 30 flights a day from Rome to London, think we'd have been pretty unlucky not to get on one (I did check the BA ones and they had seats).

As I've said though, my main gripe (when I first posted) was my assumption that BA knew we weren't actually going to be able to land at LHR before boarding but chose not to tell us before we all got on the plane - that felt dishonest and disrespectful. I now think though that that assumption was maybe wrong (thanks so some of the insight shared on this thread).

To be quite blunt it's not anything to do with the passengers. The airline are contracted to get you to your destination on that flight as that's what you booked. So that's what they do as a first option. If that can't be done (and it could in your case) then they'll look at alternative options. But they won't and shouldn't start giving people options.

As detailed above it takes time do what you suggest and removing all the luggage is a nightmare. BA planes to LHR T5 use containers for luggage rather than manual loading so the whole container needs to be removed and realistically if half the plane opts to stay the night then all of the containers would need to be removed, unloaded, sorted, distributed then repacked, loaded back into the containers and reloaded on the aircraft. A long time. 

Well they couldn't in a reasonable fashion in OP's case. They got the passengers to Birmingham, not the original destination, followed by a drive through the night, ie with disruption every few hours. Surely if the rerouting decision was only confirmed once in the air then a more reasonable decision would have been either accommodation in Birmingham and coach in the morning.

Why would that have been more reasonable?  Perhaps it may have suited some, but others would have preferred to have pushed on, so the fundamental point remains, i.e. that an airline can't be expected to put it to a vote or give choices, and simply has to get passengers to their final destination at the earliest opportunity once the journey has started.

Ayr_Rage

Once BA knew the aircraft was fit to fly it was always going to be headed back to the UK if the crew still had sufficient duty hours remaining.

You will never know as to what was filed in the flight plan, LHR or BHX, I know a man who does, however he's not going to tell me so I can post it here.

Getting their hardware back for the first rotation the following day is their primary concern and all the standby staff needed to reposition the aircraft and crew it the next morning are only a phone call and taxi ride away once it's on UK soil.

As all the passengers were checked in and baggage loaded, they were along for the ride.

silvercar

schmuel said:

Is it really beyond the wit of man to ask passengers whether they'd rather go to Birmingham and get a coach, or take a different flight the next day..? It's a pretty straight-forward choice. We'd already all been delayed by 3 hours, and about to be even more inconvenienced by being flown to a different city! 

Obviously I get that it's more complicated (and certainly more expensive) for the airline, but it's a much better way to treat their customers. And there are about 30 flights a day from Rome to London, think we'd have been pretty unlucky not to get on one (I did check the BA ones and they had seats).

As I've said though, my main gripe (when I first posted) was my assumption that BA knew we weren't actually going to be able to land at LHR before boarding but chose not to tell us before we all got on the plane - that felt dishonest and disrespectful. I now think though that that assumption was maybe wrong (thanks so some of the insight shared on this thread).

The airline obligation is to get you back to LHR. There is no way on earth they are consulting passengers on their choices. The plane is flying, everyone is on board, it’s taking off. 

Once you start offering passengers choices that delays everyone else, including crew hours. Add to that’s the plane needing to be back in the UK and you can see why choices are not offered. I can see it’s not ideal, but flights do get diverted and delayed and choosing to fly is a risk you take of that happening to you at some point.

if people were given the choice not to fly, there is no saying when BA would have had room to get you home. For others the priority would be to get home at any time. Some people would have had work the next day.

jimi_man

saajan_12 said:

jimi_man said:

schmuel said:

Is it really beyond the wit of man to ask passengers whether they'd rather go to Birmingham and get a coach, or take a different flight the next day..? It's a pretty straight-forward choice. We'd already all been delayed by 3 hours, and about to be even more inconvenienced by being flown to a different city! 

Obviously I get that it's more complicated (and certainly more expensive) for the airline, but it's a much better way to treat their customers. And there are about 30 flights a day from Rome to London, think we'd have been pretty unlucky not to get on one (I did check the BA ones and they had seats).

As I've said though, my main gripe (when I first posted) was my assumption that BA knew we weren't actually going to be able to land at LHR before boarding but chose not to tell us before we all got on the plane - that felt dishonest and disrespectful. I now think though that that assumption was maybe wrong (thanks so some of the insight shared on this thread).

To be quite blunt it's not anything to do with the passengers. The airline are contracted to get you to your destination on that flight as that's what you booked. So that's what they do as a first option. If that can't be done (and it could in your case) then they'll look at alternative options. But they won't and shouldn't start giving people options.

As detailed above it takes time do what you suggest and removing all the luggage is a nightmare. BA planes to LHR T5 use containers for luggage rather than manual loading so the whole container needs to be removed and realistically if half the plane opts to stay the night then all of the containers would need to be removed, unloaded, sorted, distributed then repacked, loaded back into the containers and reloaded on the aircraft. A long time. 

Well they couldn't in a reasonable fashion in OP's case. They got the passengers to Birmingham, not the original destination, followed by a drive through the night, ie with disruption every few hours. Surely if the rerouting decision was only confirmed once in the air then a more reasonable decision would have been either accommodation in Birmingham and coach in the morning. 

That's a more unreasonable decision since it's delaying them even longer to their final destination. BA are trying to get them to the final destination as quickly as possible.