Heathrow outage

Due to fly soon to LA with booking using Select Vouchers. Hopefully the outage will be resolved but has got me wondering.

If our flights are rescheduled a few days later, we can no longer go due to work and miss our arrangements we had planned for LA by arriving late. Normally can claim a refund, so would they refund the select vouchers but with new expiry dates? these were due to expire in June this year?

Would we still be entitled to compensation under delayed/cancelled flights even though this is a reward flight booking.

Thanks

Cannot answer on the vouchers. Most likely given circumstance, they would be flexible on expiry to some extent.

Unlikely you will get the EU compensation due to the outage as it is out of the airline’s hands as it will most likely be considered under “Unexpected situation and strikes”
Website says “ Compensation will not be offered if the cause of cancellation or delay is beyond VA control”.

However - For any other cancellation due to operational reasons (not including: political instability, weather, strikes, security risk, unexpected situations), yes even as Reward flight customers you can claim the Compensation.
I did last year when BOS-LHR cancelled the day before. Was awarded 520gbp per passenger.

However; they might cover the accommodation, meals and refreshments (BUT if you accept a refund then they will not cover this).

But things why travel insurance is very important.

Thanks

Presumably travel insurance would cover accomodation/show tickets/car hire etc if outside any cancellation window

Thanks

Presumably travel insurance would cover accomodation/show tickets/car hire etc if outside any cancellation window

Yes the TI should cover (all depending on your coverage of course).

This is going to be a mess sorting out all those diverted flights, displaced crew/passengers and aircraft out of position over the next few days. Even when LHR reopens, I suspect the knock-on effects will be felt over the weekend.

Good luck to anyone due to travel in/out of LHR today or over the next few days.

Website says “ Compensation will not be offered if the cause of cancellation or delay is beyond VA control”.

It depends how soon "soon" is, but if someone were bumped off a flight in, say, a week's time due to ongoing repercussions of today's outage, wouldn't that arguably become VA's fault? Future passengers may be at the mercy of the airline's decisions to resolve today's problem, but their reservations in the future aren't directly affected by today's problems - those of today's passengers are. Maybe I'm being very optimistic

Website says “ Compensation will not be offered if the cause of cancellation or delay is beyond VA control”.

It depends how soon "soon" is, but if someone were bumped off a flight in, say, a week's time due to ongoing repercussions of today's outage, wouldn't that arguably become VA's fault? Future passengers may be at the mercy of the airline's decisions to resolve today's problem, but their reservations in the future aren't directly affected by today's problems - those of today's passengers are. Maybe I'm being very optimistic

I think they would still deny compensation on the grounds of that the original problem was outside of their hands. But I have to admit, it’s always great getting compensation.
When I got mine last year I was pleasantly surprised it was 520GBP per person.
My direct flight should have arrived at BOS at 16.15pm.
My new routing LHR-JFK on VS3 and then JFK-BOS, I arrived at BOS at 16.00pm.
I suspect it was because instead of departing at 13pm local time, it was 8.20am.