Airline changed flight

Are these flights on the same ticket (all purchased from the airline as one itinerary)?
If so, you often have the right to rebook if there is a significant change. They send an email that gives you the option to ‘accept changes’ or ‘change/rebook’, usually. We have done this a couple of times when an airline’s change made a connection too tight or impossible and we were able to change our itinerary without penalty. I think it would be worth a phone call to ask. Before you make the call, research a possible solution that you can request. And

I have no information on how long it would take to transfer btw Gatwick and Heathrow, but 3 hrs and 40 minutes would make me uncomfortable.

But if you booked as separate tickets, it’s up to you to find a solution on your own.

Yes they were all booked on the same ticket. Thanks

Wow, that is ridiculous. That is an uncomfortably tight window, I would not accept that.

I have sworn off British Airways, will never again fly with them.

Good luck.

3h40m is really tight for a change of airports but BA considers the minimum connection time for a change from Heathrow to Gatwick to be 3.5 hours so it is a legal connection. BA wouldn’t sell the ticket if they thought it was impossible. You can use the egates at Heathrow for immigration so barring any technical malfunction, you should get through quickly. Security queues are usually quicker at Gatwick than at Heathrow. It is doable if your flight lands on time, but it might be stressful

I would look to see if there are later flights to Catania that day. BA will put you on the next available flight if you miss the connection, but that could be the following day. Available is the key here. If the next flight is sold out, it will be a later flight. If the delay is their fault, you are also eligible for UK261 compensation.
https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/legal/flight-cancellation-compensation

I would phone.…and not give up trying…. to get a live human to resolve this and get your flight changed back to be convenient for you, not them.
Don’t give up until you can get hold of a supervisor or manager to actually speak to.
Be persistent and stay polite.
If the first person you talk to can’t or won’t help, give it an hour or so and call back to get someone different.
I have had a few flights changed over the years, one of which changed me to a 25 minute connection in Amsterdam in 2022!! and one just this year which had me leaving Florence at 06:30 instead of 10:00.
I stayed persistent and got them resolved.
My phrase that I have used is:
“Please get your manager for me, I’m retired and have all day to hold on here until you can fix this for me.”
Sometimes it is the huge computer systems that are rearranging your flights, not humans, and once you can speak to a live agent it can all be fixed.
Let us know what happens.
Wishing you luck.

thanks for the link. my husband has checked the other flights for Catania and that is the last one that goes out on the day in question. The next one isn't until later the next day and then puts us in Catania at 2130 (930pm). Ugh, it's such a fiasco right now. I appreciate the input.

SJ thank you for the guidance. I'll pass it on to my husband. He bought the tickets so he's been the one dealing with them. He's the calmer one out of our two personalities and is able to reason with people better than I most of the time.

"“Please get your manager for me, I’m retired and have all day to hold on here until you can fix this for me.”"

Well, I snorted coffee out of my nose on that one! That is perfect and I'm going to save it for future use! THANK YOU!

If there's no flight later in the original day, could they change it so that you go out a day earlier than originally planned? It might involve an extra hotel night but if the timing is less of a nail-biter....?
I feel for you; let us know how it turns out?

If BA made a significant change you should be entitled to a refund. Take the cash and start over. Or at least make that your initial negotiating position and see if that makes them find a solution.

You didn't mention where you're flying from, so hard to opine on other options.

markcw We're currently set to fly out of Vancouver Canada. I think that's what I'm going to advise my husband on.

I hope you can correct this. And I agree with all of the good advice offered by SJ. Often just redialing and getting a new agent brings results. I try also to be sympathetic, (these guys probably get chewed out hourly) and explain that I fully understand that if they aren’t authorized to make such a change to please connect me to someone who can. No arguments usually. And yes to announcing my retirement status and daily agenda…nothing but this phone call! Patience pays…most of the time. Again, best of luck.
Polite behavior and a cheerful countenance may often succeed better than facts or rules. My two cents.

3 hours 40 minutes is a very tight timescale. The two airports are 40 miles apart and between them is the M25 the busiest stretch of road in Europe. If there are no problems you should be able to get between them in an hour but it can very easily take very much longer.

I can't imagine that BA would have another flight to Catania on the day either. Where are you flying in from, as there might be an option to change to fly into Gatwick? These changes are usually done automatically by computer and there can be more sensible choices available. Could you change your plans to travel a day later?

The best way to get between the two airports would be by a pre-arranged car. Should be a bit cheaper than a taxi from the rank and they will meet you at the exit. Blackberry Cars, Parker Cars and Just Airports are all well regarded.

OMG, this is the best - “Please get your manager for me, I’m retired and have all day to hold on here until you can fix this for me.”

Have you tried posting this on the FlyerTalk British Airways forum? I use them frequently for specific questions and many of them are based in the UK so they are familiar with the scenario of traveling between airports. Personally, we’ve had more time delays with flights that land on time but don’t have a gate as opposed to getting through immigrations.

Johnew52 - We're currently set to fly out of Vancouver Canada. You're correct in your assumption of there not being another flight to Catania. If we missed it we'd have to stay overnight, not a horrible outcome, but pretty inconvenient. Thank you for the info on the cars.

Patty - Thank you for the info on the BA forum. I'll look into that.

SJ, Please have that printed on a tee shirt!

3h40m is really tight for a change of airports but BA considers the minimum connection time for a change from Heathrow to Gatwick to be 3.5 hours so it is a legal connection.

But 3 hours and 40 minutes is longer than 3 and a half hours (3 hours and 30 minutes).

If BA indeed says itself that 3.5 hours is the minimum, they have broken it themselves, and you should be free to ask them for a different routing.

BA only offers one flight a day to Catania; I checked.

We did that Heathrow to Gatwick transfer to reach Venice from Seattle on our honeymoon 22 years ago. We were flying business class on miles, our first time flying abroad together, and my first time on British Airways. We used the National Express bus for the transfer and it went just fine. According to the Heathrow website, the journey time for that bus is 70 minutes. But if you would be more comfortable with a taxi, do that. As long as your incoming flight is reasonable on time, you should be fine. The good news is that security at Gatwick is usually easier and faster than security at Heathrow.

We have stayed with British Airways and flown to Europe with them at least 12 times since then. There have been a few minor glitches since the pandemic, but all airlines are struggling a bit right now. I have read on FlyerTalk that BA is juggling the Gatwick schedules, particularly with the long-haul flights.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2153667-ba-mainline-ba-euroflyer-gatwick-long-haul-short-haul-winter-2024-2025-a-5.html

I have had no trouble reaching BA Customer Service on the phone the past 2 years (in 2021 it was difficult, with hold times up to 60 minutes, when they would cut you off. That does not happen any more).

The trick is working through the phone menu so you get an actual booking agent. They have always been professional and patient, providing exactly what I asked—-or in one case, making suggestions to a better solution to my request. There should be no need to demand to speak to a supervisor. They truly want to help you, so give them a chance to do their job.

But with only one flight a day into Catania, and that one from Gatwick, there is only so much they can do if you do not care to chance the airport transfer. One option would be to fly into Palermo instead—-that flight departs from Heathrow. But there may be only one flight a day, and it departs in the morning, so you would still need an overnight at Heathrow (not a bad option if that works out for you; the Sofitel in T5 is quite nice). Or you could fly to Naples and make your way to Sicily by ferry, but that is time-consuming.

The other option is a different long-haul flight, if there is one that flies into Gatwick. Looks like they may still have flights from New York. But that would require an extra plane change, and I doubt you want that.

You are entitled to a refund if this schedule change is simply unacceptable. But check and see what your options are with other airlines, and the cost, before you request that.

Good luck, and I hope you arrive at an acceptable solution.

Kim—- a minimum connect time is exactly that—- a minimum. That is the allowed interval of time between the scheduled arrival time of the first plane and the scheduled departure time of the second, so that passengers have ample time. It is not an estimate of how long it actually takes to make the transfer. The actual interval can be MORE than the minimum like here. It just can’t be less.

Here they have 10 minutes more than the minimum, so it is a legal connection.

But they are still entitled to cancel for a refund if they want, because the flights are different from what they booked. Whether that is a good idea or not depends on what else they can find.

Use Google Flights to see what other options there are. I tried this (Vancouver to Catania) on a random date and there were many options involving Lufthansa and Air Canada. There may be other possibilities as well. If something looks better than the BA option, I believe you could cancel with them (because of the major change) and re-book with another airline. I think it would be a nightmare to transfer between airports after a long international flight.

Lola - Thank you for that feedback. I've traveled internationally before, but nothing like this. That's good to know about the Gatwick security.

My take on airline call centers is, there are several scattered all over the globe. Depending on the time you call "British Airways" you might get someone in the UK, or in Romania, or in Africa, or in Asia. Rudimentary English language skills seem to be all that is required now.

And if you ask to speak to a manager, well there is probably only one, and only sometimes, and they might not have any more knowledge or power than the front line phone drone. Ah well. This is why sometimes it's worth the effort and expense to use a travel agent since they are supposed to fight the good fight for you.

The above post is apparently addressing airline call centers in general, not specifically British Airways. I have read complaints about such issues, particularly with Lufthansa and Condor, but not BA.

My experience with BA over the past 10 years has been that if I need to change a booking, and I work through the phone menu with the right choices, I always get an agent with a British (or Scottish or Irish, etc.) accent who is knowledgeable and capable of handling my request to my complete satisfaction. Every time. That is when I call the BA number for US customers during their open hours (which end at 8 pm Eastern Time).

On the few occasions when I have a different kind of request, such as when I needed a new reservations to be ticketed ASAP, I might be connected to a very polite person with an Indian accent. This is apparently the India call center, and the people are very nice and as helpful as they can be, but they don’t have the power to make actual booking changes. One woman was so patient and helpful I sent a email to her supervisor to compliment her.

As I said, all airlines have been struggling to recover from covid, and some are doing better than others. BA is faced with scheduling and other challenges at both Heathrow and Gatwick. I don’t understand the reasons—-could be personnel issues, landing permits and fees, or something else. Part of it is that the airlines and airports were not anticipating the huge demand for travel post-covid. We have learned from the last 2 years of travel, with 4 trips to Italy in that time, that we need to bring an extra dose of patience, and flexibility. There were canceled flights (actually only one that affected us), schedule changes, and delays. Many were the fault of the airport, not BA—-such as our most recent trip when it took nearly 90 minutes to get through airside security at Heathrow, due to a scanner that shut down because people were not properly removing their 3-1-1 liquid bags from their luggage. Or so we were told.

As Renee said, you have the option of completely cancelling your existing flights
for a full refund since BA mucked the schedule (it's worth noting that airlines do
this once or twice a year, and all previously booked flight schedules are subject
to change).

Usually you have a decent amount of time to accept or reject the change, but I'd
read the fine print to make sure BA doesn't default you into their change before
you have time to consider the alternatives.

You might be able to get BA to give you a night in London to insure you make the
connection the next day, but that is iffy since the connect time is legal. If you did
this you'd be on the hook for hotel, but a night in London....

Check the Catania airport website to see where incoming flights come from; that
will tell you what other connection options may exist (Google Flights should do that
also, but this is another way to check).

shoeflyer - We actually have a 22hr layover in London on our return trip. It's part of the reason we chose this flight, that and it was cheap on Google flights. We're currently considering leaving a day earlier and just staying over night in London so we know we can make the flight out of Gatwick,

carolynann1 - if you are able to come out a day earlier then that would be an excellent solution and one which should be easy to negotiate with BA. You should have plenty of time to take an overnight in central London rather than out at Gatwick, which should allow for a nice stopover. A hotel near Farringdon station would be very convenient, being central and with a direct Elizabeth Line train from Heathrow and a Thameslink train on to Gatwick.

Lola - as well as the possible reasons you give for pressure on flights BA has a current specific issue with delays on work on Rolls Royce engines in their planes. This has caused a number of flights to be cancelled and most notably flights to Dallas and Miami have been cut for several months.

BA are also having problems with their A380’s, with several in the fleet out of service on any given day. There used to be an A380 serving YVR (we flew home on one in 2018) but that flight (BA86) is currently an A350. And that changes to a 777 by next May. BA 86 is the flight that requires a change from Heathrow to Gatwick for the Catania flight.

I am curious what flight they were originally booked on that flew into Gatwick, as I do not see any BA flights into that airport from Vancouver. BA does offer a route with American Airlines, and Iberia, going Vancouver—-Dallas—-Madrid—-Catania, but those 2-stop flights take 22 to 26 hours.

In any case, it sounds like they are now settled on taking the overseas flight the previous day, with an overnight in London. That will make the whole thing much easier, especially if they choose a hotel near the Thameslink train to Gatwick. Farringdon, as suggested, or Blackfriars would both work—-either is a nice area for a quick visit. Farringdon has the advantage of being on the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow, so easy access. Blackfriars has the advantage (from my point of view) of being close to the river, which we like.

Lola - The original flight we were on was completely cancelled by BA, which is why you can't see it anywhere. My thought is that there were not enough bodies in the seats so they cancelled it. But a good point was made about the engine & plane size being allowed to land at certain airports. I really appreciate everyone's input.

Thank you. I changed my search strategy; and found it—-BA 2278 from YVR to LGW. Last flight was Sept. 29. The flight departed Vancouver in mid-Afternoon and usually arrived at Gatwick around 9 am the following day, giving you plenty of time to catch the flight to Catania. They were using a 777, but who knows why they canceled that route altogether.

It sounds like you have made the decision to change to a flight to London the previous day. I believe that is a good choice and the best way to start a nice holiday, especially one with a celebratory purpose. We often include a 1- or 2-night overnight in London on our way to Switzerland or Italy, to make the long journey easier. Plus we really like London, even for a short visit. And this way we can switch airports (we like LCY).

If you would like recommendations for a hotel close to the Thameslink stations, I am sure people here can offer some. If you would like to be close to the river near Blackfriars station, I can recommend a studio apartment at Locke at Broken Wharf, an “aparthotel”. They have several options with a nice view of the Thames and the Millennium Bridge, which is lovely when lit up at night.

https://www.lockeliving.com/en/london/locke-at-broken-wharf?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAABe5rtogjbLMAsiyE8GFNUQtsR8uo&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjLSO7urXiQMVCi-tBh0yEwdREAAYASAAEgJosfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.

I see they are offering a Black Friday special of 30% off to members—-a nice deal, but only good for stays through April 30. Still, you will get 10% off if you join their “club”. It is free, so worth doing if you are interested.