Duty of Care claim - change of connecting flight dates?
Hi all.
My parents have a booking, with all flights under one booking reference. From a domestic UK airport to Heathrow, then onto Europe. Also has a return to it but not applicable here. Itinerary was supposed to be leaving Domestic airport early on a Saturday, connecting to an afternoon flight the same day onto Europe.
Around one month before the flight, BA emailed them to say their flight to Europe from Heathrow had been canceled. They were moved to the only other flight that day from Heathrow to the destination. The problem being this flight departs before the domestic flight even arrived at Heathrow. This domestic flight is the first one available of the Saturday.
It's impossible for them now to make the itinerary on the same day. My parents contacted BA, and discussed flying out on an evening flight on the Friday now from the UK airport into Heathrow to make the early flight on the Saturday to Europe. This obviously will mean night stopping at Heathrow.
BA refused to organise or pay for a hotel. My parents have booked the Sofitel as it's the only one within walking distance of T5. I also know anecdotally that BA have put people into the Sofitel before when their delay has caused a missed connection requiring an overnight.
Seeing as BA have canceled the flight and it is impossible for them to complete the itinerary as sold, but can with an overnight stay, I understand that under UK261 they should be entitled to the hotel, plus meals, to be covered by BA as part of their duty of care. I totally get that there's no *compensation* due. BA seem very uninterested to have sorted this, and the plan is to put in a claim post travel.
Am I in the right here? Should BA be covering the hotel? In the legislation there's no time limit around duty of care unlike the compensation element. I've stuck it into AI (yes I know I know) and it seems to think BA should be paying out.
Would love to hear thoughts or real examples of similar and how you got on!