[Anonymous]

[ANDREWYOUNG1]

What is the situation where an airline moves your departure airport – can you expect ground transport?

I have a return booking LCY-BCN in July but received an email yesterday saying that the flight had been cancelled and had been moved to the LGW departure at the same time. The problem is that the flight is at 7:30 am and I live a 10 minute taxi ride from LCY so the short journey and the 30 min check-in time makes an early flight feasible. Clearly to make a 7:30 flight from LGW I’d have to leave home at dawn – so can I expect BA to cover the cost of a taxi – even taking the train to LGW I’d be out of pocket. There are later flights from both LGW and LHR which I might be inclined to change to but obviously this impacts on my time in Barcelona.

All in all a very disappointing situation, if you book a CE flight with BA you expect them to fulfil it – it’s all very Ryanair behaviour to just change the schedule like this. Compounded by that, the customer service representative I spoke to on the phone, didn’t apologise once for the obvious inconvenience and informed me that Customer Relations only speak to customers about complaints after travel!

[LuganoPirate]

Andrew, I’m afraid you’ll probably have to fork out for a cab yourself. I had a similar situation with BA where they moved the flight to Linate from Malapensa. I even had my non-refundable bus ticket paid for.

The most you’ll get I think is a free change of date/flight or full refund for a cancellation. I don’t know about timings but you could then perhaps think of rebooking with KLM, AF or Swiss who all fly to BCN though it will add to the traveling time.

[JordanD]

Andrew – I think that as BA has given you more than two weeks notice (I believe that’s the required time, but others can correct if I’m wrong), they have discharged their duty of care obligations to inform you. Your options in this case are the traditional refund or carry on options.

You should ask BA if they would be able to offer your a free change of date/flight time, and I would hope that they agree to your request.

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

JordanD is correct, if this change was done within 2 weeks then they have to compensate/endorse to another carrier etc etc. As you are travelling in July it is a case of accept what is offered or a full refund. … neither of which really helps passengers out, but that is the way things are – it’s not just BA before you bad mouth them, this is what all carriers follow. As a gesture though, if the flight went a day each side then a FOC change should be honoured, but do not expect any additional nights accommodation in BCN to be covered.

[FormerlyDoS]

Andrew

Write to BA and say

“You have re-routed me from London City to London Gatwick Aiport. Under article 5 (Cancellation) of EU261/2004, I have the right to assistance. Under Article 8 (Right to Reimbursment or Re-Routing) states “When, in the case where a town, city or region is served
by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a
flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking
was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of trans-
ferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that
for which the booking was made, or to another close-by desti-
nation agreed with the passenger”

I propose that you will pay for a taxi between my address and Gatwick Airport, in both directions.

They will probably not agree to this, but you may get a return rail fare.

Good luck.

[ANDREWYOUNG1]

Thanks for your advice all of you – much appreciated. As I suspected, as they gave me adequate warning they’re not liable to cover any out of pocket expenses but just to rebook me or refund me. I did expect a slightly more of a smpathetic ear from BA when I spoke to them, perhaps I just got a poor representative as they’re normally pretty good.

[ANDREWYOUNG1]

Ah just seen your further reply DoS – thanks very much for this – I’ll give this a go then. On the surface it doesn’t seem much of a change, same time flight, same “city”, though in reality LCY is miles from LGW and with an early morning flight it does make more of a difference. Thanks again and hopefully I can get them to cover at least the train fare as you suggest.

[Papillion53]

I know this is off topic but I just have to say ….

Good morning FDoS! 😉 :-))

And on topic, nearly every one of our BA flights booked for later this year have had a time change, thankfully, none of them causes any inconvenience apart from one which offers me somewhat less time for Canucklad’s favourite activity at airports – shopping I mean!

AndrewYoung1 – I personally would book a car service and then no hassle if train is late, not running, packed, dirty etc. etc. Then at least you can catnap on the way to LGW and arrive there not feeling like you need another shower! And if MrsAY1 is travelling with you, I would definitely book the car!

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