Flying British Airways on Saturday 15th February? Guidelines due to Storm Dennis

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British Airways has put in place rebooking guidelines for anyone travelling on a short-haul BA flight on Saturday 15th February.

As this is the first day of half-term, this is likely to impact quite a few readers.

BA is currently planning for potential cuts to its short-haul flying schedule due to Storm Dennis. These cuts will not be known until Friday. Cancellations are mandated by the airports and the only flexibility available to BA is which services to cancel.

British Airways storm dennis guidelines

If you are due to travel on Saturday, you can rebook now onto an alternative flight tomorrow (Friday) or between Sunday and Wednesday.

There is a gamble to take here. Your flight could operate as planned on Saturday. However, if you wait until it is cancelled, you will be further down the queue to be rebooked. Due to the half term holidays, it could be a couple of days before seats can be found.

Heathrow passengers are more likely to see cancellations than Gatwick passengers, as Gatwick has more flexibility in its timetable should aircraft need to be given more time to land or take off. However, rebooking is available to anyone flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or City on Saturday on a short haul route.

Here is a screenshot of the information from the BA travel trade website – click to enlarge:

British Airways will not be contacting you directly unless a firm decision is taken tomorrow to cancel your flight. The information above is not publicly available via ba.com.

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British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Alex M says:

13 Feb13 February 18:14

OT to kick-off: is anyone willing to refer me to Monese?
- Shoestring says:
  
  13 Feb13 February 18:16
  
  probably everybody except me (I’m too shy) as they get £15-25
  
  but I believe the correct thing is to pay your HFP sub
  - Shoestring says:
    
    13 Feb13 February 18:17
    
    If you don’t already have a Monese account, you can use my refer-a-friend code of ROBE820. You will receive a £5 credit plus a further £15 when you’ve spent £500 on your card. (I think that is how it works – it doesn’t actually tell me anywhere what you get!)
    - Alex M says:
      
      13 Feb13 February 18:25
      
      Thanks Harry. In my defense I did try to find Rob’s link (for about 3 seconds).
Eli says:

13 Feb13 February 18:21

Probably BA really upset how it’s a Virgin day at HFP so they had to push something
Optimus Prime says:

13 Feb13 February 18:29

Guess you have to wait for the cancellation email if you’re going to need an extra hotel night because you’re abroad?
- stevenhp1987 says:
  
  13 Feb13 February 21:03
  
  No duty of care applies because you’re voluntarily changing flights.
  
  If you want duty of care compensation then you need to wait for your flight to actually be cancelled. It’s a gamble…
  
  This move, which looks like a nice gesture, is just to lower their compensation requirements.
  
  Can’t blame them.
  - Optimus Prime says:
    
    13 Feb13 February 22:20
    
    Understood, thanks for confirming.
JamesLHR says:

13 Feb13 February 18:43

For anyone interested, this is the process under which flights are cancelled, it is not necessarily BA’s fault, although as the major carrier, disruption results in aircraft and crews out of place, so some of the cancellations are based upon this and made by BA!

https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Airportinfolink_LHR_localrule4.pdf
- Shoestring says:
  
  13 Feb13 February 18:46
  
  whenever that procedure is invoked, BA is 100% in the clear ie no EC261 compo
  
  because they are complying with Heathrow request
  
  duty of care still applies
  - Charlieface says:
    
    13 Feb13 February 20:58
    
    I know airlines got away with ughs argument, but arguably they didn’t have to cancel YOUR flight, they could have cancelled another.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      13 Feb13 February 21:14
      
      my sympathies lie with BA here
      
      yes, I know you could claim variously
    - Doug M says:
      
      13 Feb13 February 21:37
      
      My problem with this, if you’re suggesting what I think, then flights may be cancelled on the basis of least EU261 liability.
      The problem is the % capacity that LHR operates at. But then most of us I think would prefer that to the loss loads of services on no problem days to avoid cancellations on problem days.
    - Marcw says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 06:47
      
      If you go to court, let me know. I’ve had similar thoughts (why did they cancel this flight and not my neighboring flight?) – but I’m pretty sure any judge would argue that’s it’s BA responsibility to cancel the flights they wish (least operational impact, comercial reasons,…)
      - Rhys says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 08:24
        
        Yes, very, very unlikely you’ll get any compensation given that the matter truly is out of BA’s hands. I wouldn’t even bother.
PUP says:

13 Feb13 February 19:39

Rob – Many thanks for the heads up!
I decided to change from the early morning Sat LHR – OSL to the last one tomorrow. Thought it wasn’t worth ruining a skiing holiday for the cost of a cheap airport hotel.
4 Emergency Exit seats now free if anyone is still on that flight!
tony says:

13 Feb13 February 21:17

There’s no 300 mile change of route concession on this – was that the same last weekend???
Alan says:

13 Feb13 February 22:28

End of half term in Scotland, so I’m off on holiday 😉
Derek Scott says:

14 Feb14 February 07:49

Please bear in mind that you will have many readers who are not in England who don’t hand Half Term next week. Lots of areas outwith have their Half Term this week
- riku2 says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:44
  
  I think Rob has pointed out many times that most of the readers are in financial institutions in the south east of England, so the “half term” does apply to them. They won’t notice these comments though since he’s also pointed out that the majority of readers don’t write comments.
  I’m writing as somebody who doesn’t live in the UK and doesn’t have kids so the continual mention of English school holidays is something I’ve learned to immediately ignore.