I am due to travel to South Africa in September on a holiday booked by an agent. The airline is BA (not my choice) so I have to go via LHR from MAN. This week I have been informed that BA has cancelled many domestic flights, leaving me with 7 hour transfers in LHR in both directions. As I am disabled and use a wheelchair, I will find this long wait very uncomfortable. I have not been ticketed at this stage.

Under law, is BA expected to do anything for me, or can they make such changes with no consequences. Nothing has been offered at this stage. There is a much better flight with Lufthansa via Frankfurt, but the agent tells me they are not contracted with Lufthansa, but I have found that agents often either don't know or don't make an effort with regulations.

Does the agent know you are in a wheelchair ?

With LHs recent issues I’m not sure they are a good bet. At a minimum I think you would entitled to be comped passes to BAs club each direction.
However, perhaps a routing on AF is a possibility. Good luck,:

How is BA on the hook for this if you haven’t been ticketed?

alpine1989 wrote:

How is BA on the hook for this if you haven’t been ticketed?

OP said she is ticketed.
"I am due to travel to South Africa in September on a holiday BOOKED by an agent"

bob75013 wrote:

alpine1989 wrote:

How is BA on the hook for this if you haven’t been ticketed?

OP said she is ticketed.
"I am due to travel to South Africa in September on a holiday BOOKED by an agent"

OP said: I have not been ticketed at this stage.

Tan Flyr wrote:

With LHs recent issues I’m not sure they are a good bet. At a minimum I think you would entitled to be comped passes to BAs club each direction.
However, perhaps a routing on AF is a possibility. Good luck,:

Why would BA comp a club pass? Can you imagine if they did this for all passengers in similar circumstances? There would be no more room in the clubs.

There is a lot missing from your story.

If you have not been ticketed yet, as you said, you therefore have not bought your ticket and are not entitled to any sort of compensation. Airlines change schedules all the time. I would say you're in a better position now if you haven't bought anything yet because you're not stuck with the long layover and can weigh your options.

Who is "the agent"? Are you required to work with a specific travel agency or vendor for some reason? Have you tried speaking with someone else from the firm? All of this about "not contracted with Lufthansa" needs more context.

While I am not unsympathetic to your situation and totally understand why you would not want those long layovers, there's only so much help or advice people on this forum can give without knowing all the specifics of your situation, which you may not want to share online.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Does the agent know you are in a wheelchair ?

They do, and so does the airline.

UALFAson wrote:

There is a lot missing from your story.

If you have not been ticketed yet, as you said, you therefore have not bought your ticket and are not entitled to any sort of compensation. Airlines change schedules all the time. I would say you're in a better position now if you haven't bought anything yet because you're not stuck with the long layover and can weigh your options.

Who is "the agent"? Are you required to work with a specific travel agency or vendor for some reason? Have you tried speaking with someone else from the firm? All of this about "not contracted with Lufthansa" needs more context.

While I am not unsympathetic to your situation and totally understand why you would not want those long layovers, there's only so much help or advice people on this forum can give without knowing all the specifics of your situation, which you may not want to share online.

I have bought and paid for the trip in full. The trip includes flights, hotels and all transportation from landing to departing. I have even selected seats on the two long haul sectors of the journey. I am not looking for financial delay compensation, but exploring if I can either be re-routed, or compensated for expenses incurred during the layover such as use of a lounge or meals if I have no other choice but to use the new domestic flights. I used the specific agent in question because it had the best travel plans of all the options I researched, was relatively local to me, and was not charging the usual supplement routinely added to flights from the UK that don't go from London, many of which are unwarranted, but agents often assume that we are used to this practice and won't question it.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/in ... assistance

Contact Special assist.

alpine1989 wrote:

bob75013 wrote:

alpine1989 wrote:

How is BA on the hook for this if you haven’t been ticketed?

OP said she is ticketed.
"I am due to travel to South Africa in September on a holiday BOOKED by an agent"

OP said: I have not been ticketed at this stage.

I'm confused with this as well. Are we talking about being booked and confirmed but not in possession of an actual psychical ticket?

PeterLanky wrote:

I have bought and paid for the trip in full.

Thanks for the clarification. If you have already bought and paid for your ticket, I am not sure there is much you can do. I don't know what the consumer protection laws are in the U.K. Here in the U.S., if a flight segment is cancelled, you are entitled to a refund (as opposed to a credit), but it doesn't sound like that would help you anyway if you chose BA for the price.

They are not going to provide you compensation for services incurred during your layover, such as lounge access, food, WiFi, etc. I agree with the above poster that your best/only bet is to contact BA's special services or disability services desk and see what kind of accommodations they can make for you at LHR. Good luck!

PeterLanky wrote:

I am due to travel to South Africa in September on a holiday booked by an agent. The airline is BA (not my choice) so I have to go via LHR from MAN. This week I have been informed that BA has cancelled many domestic flights, leaving me with 7 hour transfers in LHR in both directions. As I am disabled and use a wheelchair, I will find this long wait very uncomfortable.

It is bit complicated. In my opinion, but thats only my opinion, you have signed a contract with the agent/tour operator for a holiday with flights on BA. The "agent" is booking flights on yours behalf with BA, 3rd parties. So I would contact the travel agent, pointing out, that the booked flights have a massive schedule change which you will not accept at all. Part of the signed agreement/contract are flights to SA - so you should kindly ask for getting rebooked to an alternative option.