If a flight was postponed, does the passenger have to pay to extend the ticket?

Question

My friend's flight was postponed to a yet unknown date due to a fault in the plane. He has a round trip, he has 2 stops before he reaches his destination. He was planning on staying there for 3 weeks.

However, his ticket back here is still 3 weeks from the original date. Does he have the right to extend his ticket date for free? Or does he have to pay to extend his departure date to come back?

For example, he was supposed to depart on 31 July but, it got postponed to 3 August, and he was supposed to come back 3 weeks after his departure. So does he have the right to return on 25/8 with no extra charges, or does he have to pay to postpone his ticket, which was originally 21 August?

Answer 1

Considering the airline in question is British Airways, you should be able to change any other flights if they are in the same booking.

If you are booked to travel on a flight that is cancelled, you can either:

Rebook onto another British Airways flight at a later date at no extra charge and subject to availability OR

Cancel your booking and claim a refund to the original form of payment

If your booking also includes any other BA flights that are not cancelled you will be able to change these flights at the same time.

Source : http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/help-in-disruption/rebooking-options

The question remains if you get the same class while rescheduling because if you don't then you will have to pay DOF (Difference of Fare) charges.

This is an airline specific question, such conditions are subject to airline policy and they are the best place to contact for information. If your flight wasn't BA then this won't be applicable.

Answer 2

This entirely depends on the fare rules. If a flight is delayed due to a preventable condition (such as a mechanical fault in your case), then the airline should compensate you for the delay and book you on the next available flight for free.

How they compensate, and to what level - this depends on the airline, and sometimes on the itinerary; and sometimes even on which class of travel you are flying.

In addition to the compensation, airlines offer to ignore or reduce fees for rebooking, or any penalties for cancellation of the ticket if there is a preventable delay.

The airline's liability is to take you to your destination; that's all. In other words, the liability is limited to each leg of the flight - there are normally two legs to a round trip flight (the departure leg, and the return leg).

In simple terms - what this means is that your delay when arriving at your destination, does not entitle to you any compensations on the return flight; in other words - if your inbound flight was delayed and you took the flight, it does not entitle you to any compensation or reduction in fees when scheduling the return leg of the flight.