[ChrisC]

BA will tell you a maximum of £200 but that’s their own policy. In the regulation there isn’t a maximum.

There is an expectation that you act reasonably. It’s reasonable to try and stay at your current hotel or similar but not to upgrade yourself to a better hotel.

There is little point in trying to contact BA because they will tell yiu £200 ans to book it yourself and claim after.

You can also claim back for reasonable meals (no booze though)

[ChrisC]

Ok so BA are for the domestic positioning flights and a separately booked Sri Lankan Airlines flights via Explore for the main trip.

So for the Sri Lankan Airlines trip you’re under their and the Explore policies.

For the BA positioning flights the return LHR-EDI has been cancelled so that allows you to refund the whole ticket. Or to allow you to reschedule it. You would get that back as cash (I’ve had flights and holidays refunded all in cash even when part paid with an e-voucher)

For the EDI-LHR I think you have up to an hour before departure to cancel otherwise you’ll likely be recorded as a no show and lose the rest of the booking which makes getting a refund more complicated.

Obviously you won’t want to wait until that point as hopefully you’ll know the situation in Sri Lanka in good time.

In the meantime don’t go into the BA booking unless you absolutely have to as even accidentally accepting the rebooked flight would mean you lose the right to a refund /rebooking unless there is a further change.

[ChrisC]

You may just need to re add the booking back into your BAEC account to reconnect it.

[ChrisC]

The short answer is no.

The longer answer involves the fact you apparently booked after 7th June when BWC for new bookings ended.

The only way to get a free refund would be if any of the flights get cancelled or there is a schedule change of more than (I think) 2 hours but it could be 4

[ChrisC]

gary w wrote:

It was 2 hours which would have been fine in lounge (a drink or 3) but now almost 4 hours each leg. Had it with BA. Every flight I book is changed before I go!

Sorry but 4 hours isn’t that long and allowing for the LHR connections process and boarding close time will be less than 3 hours and even on your original timings would have been closer to an hour of lounge time.

But I – and others – may simply have different tolerance to schedule changes than you which is fine as we are all different .

[ChrisC]

@NorthernLass my last couple of arrivals (other than the LHR CP) have involved the staff offering the breakfast as the first rather than the last option of welcome benefit.

One was a HI and the other a Kimpton.

[ChrisC]

Aston100 wrote:

Wow, reading that LL article it sounds like these suite upgrade vouchers are going to cause a lot of headache.
No lounge access either.

Also, if you need to call no earlier than fourteen days before your stay, surely there is a risk that appropriate suites might have sold out? By which time you are pretty much stuck with your hotel as alternatives may have sold out or gone up in price.

A caveat in that I’ve not read that article.

Surely you’re booking the hotel because you want to stay there in a room you’re happy to be in and not because of the chance of an upgrade?

These vouchers are still offering a “free” upgrade so are still availability dependent. Perhaps upgrade availability will be better 14 days in advance then on the day of arrival?

And not all hotels have lounge / club access anyway and an upgrade doesn’t get you lounge access anyway. I’ll relate a recent experience at the LHR T4 CP separately

[ChrisC]

Seems like there are two separate bookings involved so perhaps @freckles can confirm

The first appears to be the directly booked BA positioning flights in which case if either leg is cancelled you can have a refund or be rebooked for other flights that day or other dates. If you choose refund than it will be all cash.

The second is the one made via Explore on an unnamed airline so hard to comment on that and their refund policies.

With the BA flight you can basically wait until the day of departure to be rebooked but perhaps the need to be certain on what you are doing shouldn’t wait until then!

[ChrisC]

It depends on the fare code of your ticket and that is what is allowing you to select seats on this particular flight.

If you don’t have a ticket in the right fare bucket (or status) then you’ll be paying unless it’s within 24 hours if the flight.

[ChrisC]

Since you don’t appear to be the direct beneficiary of the purchase then I don’t think s75 applies.

[ChrisC]

It doesn’t work like that.

Instead of one seat to sell they’d then have two and no guarantee they’d sell either of them.

[ChrisC]

Just be aware to have a rail card on you when you check in.

I’ve not been asked for it yet but want to be prepared in case they do.

I also use mine for the novel concept of buying train tickets.

[ChrisC]

Don’t remember if it was Marriott or not but someone reported that after a hotel found the room empty after a couple of days they cancelled the rest of the reservation.

So you might get away with it for a couple or days if you popped into the room you wouldn’t get away with 15.

[ChrisC]

Aston try via the rail card web page as the link to IHG does change.

Or just add the code to the “corporate code” box in the search engine – 786996886.

[ChrisC]

Whilst that website is a mine of info it’s not something to use when pricing up a TP run as those fares are not made from add the cost of DUB to LHR and then LHR to XXX and return. They have their own construction.

I managed a £1.95 per TP via a £1250 BA holiday (flights plus one night in an LHR hotel) trip DUB-LHR-JFK-SFO and return for 640 TPs

I did it because I like flying for lower fares rather than to get a particular status level. Plus I have the time and inclination to do it and don’t have a partner to placate or kids to consider.

If you can do a TP run as part of your travel plans anyway then do it that way but I personally wouldn’t do one just for the TPs. I could have an added an extra 80 to my above trip by changing JFK-SFO for LAX and adding LAX-SFO but even I have my limits!

I may have to do a TP run in October to make sure I get a GUF voucher but the £200 ish cost would be financially worth it but I think that would be just about my limit in spending for a status / benefit.

[ChrisC]

You can use the Schiphol website to monitor the arriving and departing gates (which is what matters) for your two flights and then use the airport map to plan your way between them.

But as mentioned it’s a very easy airport to navigate especially as you won’t need to re clear security or under go immigration.

It really is as easy as walking from one gate to another.

[ChrisC]

It may not have made anything from you on this flight but you’ve paid for in other ways from other flights you’ve bought where you’ve earned avios.

If you have an AMEX card that gives you avios for your spend then AMEX have paid IAG Loyalty (the IAG entity that runs the avios side) for those avios so there is cash in the system.

Ditto any other non BA avios earning opportunity you may have benefitted from those avios will have been bought by the company giving you them.

And of course if you’ve bought avios then that’s part of the pot that eventually makes its way between BA and IAG loyalty.

[ChrisC]

The 300 mile rule is BA policy and not part of the EU/UK261 regulation so it’s not something you can insist upon.

BAs obligation is to get you from HKG to LHR.

They appear from the app to selling F on HKG-LHR on the 17th.

Whilst not ideal surely it’s an option to consider if you wish to remain in F?

Note – I hadn’t considered the current entry restrictions which of course need to be considered.

[ChrisC]

Google flights multi trip option.

[ChrisC]

€20 euro bar credit voucher at the De Witt today.

Could have been two but I think one of those was normal diamond offering. On,y saw the second in the room card sleeve when I got to the room.

[ChrisC]

If they aren’t selling F the likely hood is they’ve sold all the tickets they are prepared to sell.

Looking at a seat map is a very poor indication of how busy a flight will be because not everyone selects a seat at the moment of booking.

[ChrisC]

Don’t think there will be a general sale for quite some time with their being less capacity but strong demand they don’t need to encourage bookings.

That’s not to say there won’t be specific reductions on some routes but those aren’t necessarily advertised.

[ChrisC]

EZ said a few years ago it added £2 or €2 to the fare to cover it’s EU261 liabilities.

But in the scheme of things the number of flights that actually require any sort of payment – whether compo or duty of care – is in the 2% of all flights range.

One of the things behind the regulation was to encourage airlines not to cancel flights unless there was an absolute need to because the cost would outweigh any savings so the costs are a part of doing business.

But that was based on the original wording of the regulation. It’s been the courts that have increased the costs by saying compo is due for delays (original regulation only stated duty of care) and restricting the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ exemptions far more than legislatoes wanted. Problem is getting the legislators to approve the proposed rewrite of regulation to bring it back to the original intent.

[ChrisC]

StillintheSun wrote:

@ChrisC
The law is clear; the airline owes a customer important duties even if the cancellation is made beyond 14 days (must offer passenger a choice of re-route earliest opportunity, re-route at passenger’s convenience or refund). BA has chosen to systematically disregard their duties and put out disingenuous press releases.

Is the law that clear though?

I’ve read the reports on both here and flyer talk and elsewhere of people who were assured they had a slam dunk case at MCOL coming back to say they had lost despite their case being the same as another that won.

By piddling I meant cases like I’ve seen such as going to MCOL because TPs hadn’t been posted or they didn’t get a meal in CE or their request for a refund wasn’t paid within days of asking for it. But I think you knew that’s what I meant.

And you’ll see from my numerous posts that where people do appear to have a good case that I do provide advice on how to send a letter before action etc.

[ChrisC]

roger wrote:

I thought it was for flight departing before 1PM the next day but this says for flight departing before 10 AM the next day for LHR!

That’s the change!