Changing airports in London ? Help please

[Grandma Cruising]

The op has already told us that it is an all BA ticket. Also, by the costings quoted to her by her TA, the tickets are basically non-changeable without an enormous financial surcharge

 

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You’re right, I missed that post! Yes, you’re probably right about the tickets being non-changeable.

 

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

Just a note about the travel time. Firstly, today is Friday, when traffic is significantly lighter than normal. Secondly, the traffic today has no bearing on what the traffic may be on any other day.

 

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You’re right that every day can be different. I agree that this is way too tight a timetable. I would want at least 6 hours between flights to be comfortable with it.

 

 

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[1stItaly]

Everyone on here hopes you make it. Make sure you let us know how you get on. Have a great holiday.

 

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Thank you so much for your good wishes! I will try to come back and let everyone who was so kind to give information know how it went. P.S. Spoke to British Airways last night and they say 4 hours is fine. Another thing someone asked about - All flights are BA.

[1stItaly]

Thank you so much for your good wishes! I did speak to British Airways last night and they state that 4 hours is ok. All tickets are through BA. I will try to come back and let everyone know how it all worked out!

[Grandma Cruising]

That being the case, of anything goes wrong and you don’t make the flight to Barcelona, then its BA’s responsibility to get you there, even if they have to pay for a flight with a different carrier.

 

 

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[wowzz]

That being the case, of anything goes wrong and you don’t make the flight to Barcelona, then its BA’s responsibility to get you there, even if they have to pay for a flight with a different carrier.

 

 

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I think that fact is well established. However, it is entirely possible that there will be no empty seats available on the day in question (she is travelling at a peak time), so there is no guarantee that she will get to BCN on the same day. As to BA booking seats on another carrier, yes, but not necessarily on the same day - and again there is no guarantee of availability.

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

True, but there are a lot of carriers who fly from Gatwick to Barcelona, and a lot of flights every day, so they would be very unlucky if there were not a couple of seats on a flight.

 

 

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[FlyerTalker]

True, but there are a lot of carriers who fly from Gatwick to Barcelona, and a lot of flights every day, so they would be very unlucky if there were not a couple of seats on a flight.

 

I would very much appreciate you showing me where the BA Contract of Carriage states that BA is obligated to buy a ticket on a competing carrier. Especially on carriers where there is no interline agreement.

[wowzz]

True, but there are a lot of carriers who fly from Gatwick to Barcelona, and a lot of flights every day, so they would be very unlucky if there were not a couple of seats on a flight.

 

 

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Not sure that BA will automatically buy seats on, say, easyjet. Perhaps you can supply details.

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

As far as I understand it by EU law European carriers have a duty to get you where your ticket says you’re going if you are delayed. If BA say 4 hours is long enough and you don’t make it, then they have a responsibility to get you there by whatever means - see this series of web pages https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Resolving-travel-problems/Delays-cancellations/Your-rights/Your-rights-when-you-fly/

 

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

Just to add to this, if BA insist that you go on their next day flight, then I think the same EU regulations say they have to put you in a hotel and pay for meals.

 

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

Just had a look at BA timetable. Today they have 8 flights from Gatwick to Barcelona, with 5 after 14:00, so it seems likely that if the booked flight is missed, BA will be able to find seats on another later flight.

 

 

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[waterbug123]

That being the case, of anything goes wrong and you don’t make the flight to Barcelona, then its BA’s responsibility to get you there, even if they have to pay for a flight with a different carrier.

 

Of course they have to get you there... as soon as they can. And in Europe they may owe you compensation if the delay exceeds a certain length of time. But buying a ticket on another carrier is not a requirement that I'm aware of.

 

 

As far as I understand it by EU law European carriers have a duty to get you where your ticket says you’re going if you are delayed. If BA say 4 hours is long enough and you don’t make it, then they have a responsibility to get you there by whatever means - see this series of web pages https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Resolving-travel-problems/Delays-cancellations/Your-rights/Your-rights-when-you-fly/

 

I see nothing in there that says BA is obligated to buy you a ticket on another airline.

[Grandma Cruising]

You’re right, but I have read quite a lot about this and heard articles on the radio.I have heard that if a carrier cannot get you there on their own flights, they must pay for a flight with another carrier. This little Quora Q & A sets out what I believe to be the case. They are supposed to put you on the next available flights, no matter what airline it’s with. https://www.quora.com/What-do-I-do-if-I-miss-my-next-scheduled-flight-due-to-delay-in-previous-flight

In this case, as BA have so many flights each day to Barcelona from Gatwick, the next available flight could well be a BA flight.

 

 

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[wowzz]

Can I also strongly suggest that the OP makes a note of certain timings. eg Time flight arrived, time of arrival at immigration, time of departure from immigration, time of arrival of luggage, time of departure from the terminal.

This will prove to BA, in the unlucky event of missing the flight from LGW, that the OP was not responsible [eg had not been having a detour to a local pub!!].

[FlyerTalker]

You’re right, but I have read quite a lot about this and heard articles on the radio.I have heard that if a carrier cannot get you there on their own flights, they must pay for a flight with another carrier. This little Quora Q & A sets out what I believe to be the case. They are supposed to put you on the next available flights, no matter what airline it’s with. https://www.quora.com/What-do-I-do-if-I-miss-my-next-scheduled-flight-due-to-delay-in-previous-flight

In this case, as BA have so many flights each day to Barcelona from Gatwick, the next available flight could well be a BA flight.

 

I poured through the official pages and could not find this supposed requirement. How about helping out the OP and others by giving us the source reference so they have ammunition if delayed? I doubt if quoting a Quora discussion will carry much weight. Especially when the "answers" there were collections of personal anecdotes which even contradicted each other.

 

Thank you.

[1stItaly]

Thank you for all your good insight, and the great idea about noting time of landing, immigration, etc. I had not thought of that.

[Grandma Cruising]

I poured through the official pages and could not find this supposed requirement. How about helping out the OP and others by giving us the source reference so they have ammunition if delayed? I doubt if quoting a Quora discussion will carry much weight. Especially when the "answers" there were collections of personal anecdotes which even contradicted each other.

 

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

As I said I have nothing in writing other than then Civil Aviation Authority pages for which I have already provided a link. In that it says that “Your airline must get you to your destination”. If they have no tickets available on their flights, then they would have to use other carriers to get you there.

 

 

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[Globaliser]

BA flight arrives at 06:40. Flight out of LGW leaves at 11:20.

I think there's too much caution being expressed on this thread. I would not have booked this myself, and I would have advised against it if you'd asked beforehand. But that's a 4:40 connection against a 3:00 Minimum Connection Time, so in all probability you will be absolutely fine. Just don't dawdle.

 

I would very much appreciate you showing me where the BA Contract of Carriage states that BA is obligated to buy a ticket on a competing carrier. Especially on carriers where there is no interline agreement.

I poured through the official pages and could not find this supposed requirement. How about helping out the OP and others by giving us the source reference so they have ammunition if delayed?

I think that there is now CJEU case law about this on Regulation 261/2004.

 

In any event, after the OP's 1120 LGW-BCN flight, there is another BA-operated flight at 1915. In addition, BA puts its code onto Vueling flights at 1440, 1625, 2100 and 2140. If the OP has a routine delay and misses their booked flight, I think it's almost inconceivable that the OP won't get to BCN on the same day. If the delay is substantial by the time of arrival at LHR (more than about 1½ hours, thus reducing the connection time to MCT or below), then I agree that they should ask at LHR whether they can be rebooked onto an LHR-BCN (there are flights at 0935, 1050, 1420, 1640 and 1915, with a Vueling at 2045). There is the complication that the bags will probably be being delivered to the carousel at LHR, so it may be too late to avoid having to claim them at LHR and re-check them, but at least there will be no inter-airport transfer involved if BA is prepared to rebook onto a LHR-BCN.

[waterbug123]

As I said I have nothing in writing other than then Civil Aviation Authority pages for which I have already provided a link. In that it says that “Your airline must get you to your destination”. If they have no tickets available on their flights, then they would have to use other carriers to get you there.

 

But there is a big difference between "get you to your destination" and "get you to your destination at a particular time." Just because a ticket on another airline might get you there sooner doesn't mean your airline is required to buy that ticket for you if they have a seat later on or even the next day. They may have to compensate you if you are delayed by a given amount of time, but they may not be required to buy you a brand new ticket on another airline. Unless there is some indisputable verbiage that says they must do exactly that. ???

[wowzz]

I have to say that ' Host Grandma Cruising' is merely reporting anecdotal "information" rather than any actual facts. As Waterbug says, BA will put the op on the next flight with available seats, but that is not necessarily the same day.

 

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[FlyerTalker]

I have to say that ' Host Grandma Cruising' is merely reporting anecdotal "information" rather than any actual facts. As Waterbug says, BA will put the op on the next flight with available seats, but that is not necessarily the same day.

 

Or might be reading more into what's actually being stated on those official webpages.

 

But let's not be too hasty in judging a host, lest who knows what.....

[Grandma Cruising]

As I said, if they don’t put the passenger on a flight that day ( which I think is likely given the number of available flights), then they have to pay for a hotel and meals.

 

 

 

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[waterbug123]

As I said, if they don’t put the passenger on a flight that day ( which I think is likely given the number of available flights), then they have to pay for a hotel and meals.

 

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But you also said several times they would have to buy you a ticket on another airline. That is where the the confusion and/or misunderstanding is coming from.

 

 

Hotels and meals would be one form of compensation; the fact that they might need to compensate you in some way has been mentioned and is not being disputed.

[waterbug123]

Or might be reading more into what's actually being stated on those official webpages.

 

 

Kind of the way some read the so-called "guarantees" on cruise air websites and read into it that cruise lines guarantee to get you to the ship on time for departure....even though doing so might mean that, in theory, they would have to conjure a flight up out of thin air, and operate it in the middle of a hurricane when the airport is closed! ;)