Virgin Australia flights to Doha

[henrus]

Irrelevant for VA flights and ticket stock.

This is the VA one:

https://www.virginaustralia.com/content/dam/vaa/documents/agency-hub/policies/Virgin-Australia-Commercial-Policy-Qatar-Disruption-Doha.pdf

 

[FlyingFiona]

This is the VA one:

https://www.virginaustralia.com/content/dam/vaa/documents/agency-hub/policies/Virgin-Australia-Commercial-Policy-Qatar-Disruption-Doha.pdf

This relates to flights interrupted by the war, not their rescheduling of VA7 & VA8.

Mel_Traveller pointed out that the new times are a significant enough delay from the original booked time as to invoke the cancellation policy of UK261. I can't see where in that policy it defines a delay of X hours equates to a cancellation. I suspect it's going to be a fight to ring VA and ask them to shift my earlier connecting flight at their expense, so I'd like to be able to point to exactly where their obligation is detailed in UK261.

Edit to add: According to this table, the VA flight would not be covered under UK261. So...guess it's a no go, @MEL_Traveller ? EC 261 compensation rights: guide to EU Regulation 261/2004 | AirHelp

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They notified me today, in that they just reissued my ticket with the new times. I'd like to get my facts in a row before I call Virgin to get them to put me on an earlier flight out of EDI. Could you point me to where I'd find confirmation that a 18-20 hours delay would equate to a cancellation?

This is complex.

As the ticket originates in the UK, and is a single ticket, it is protected by UK261.

The difficulty is potentially going to be in the enforcement of this against VA. Especially if you have to deal with their call centre who likely won’t understand, and won’t escalate.

The available commentary suggests that long ‘delays’ entitle you to re-routing, or a refund of fare, where these are notified more than 14 days prior to departure (which is your case).

However the construction of this reasoning is not simple. The decision in Sturgeon - paragraphs 35 and 36 - confirms that in cases where a flight has been rolled over to a completely new scheduled time, that will be treated as a cancellation - as opposed to the original flight still operating but with a delay.

In your case the original timed VA flight is no longer operating… it has been scheduled much later. This amounts to a cancellation.

The European court has also held that EU (and UK) 261 will apply to connecting flights, even if the connecting flight is on a non-EU carrier. But the carrier responsible is that connecting carrier is in your case VA.

I doubt VA is used to handling these sorts of cases, and getting to speak to the right person at VA can be impossible.

Not sure you’ll be able to get QR to change the flight out of EDI, but VA should be responsible to change your flight to an earlier one out of DOH. Which would
likely be to another QR operated service, at a better connecting time.

I would give VA a call and ask what your options are, mentioning UK261, single ticket, and departure from the UK if necessary (they might be willing to come up with a solution before you get in to all of that..l including their contract of carriage which has been linked above).

 

[FlyingFiona]

Thanks, @MEL_Traveller. Always appreciate your shared extensive knowledge! Will report back.