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I booked a return ticket Stockholm (ARN) - Amman (AMM) - Aquaba (AQJ) and AQJ-AMM-ARN with Royal Jordanian Airlines. They emailed me that the first leg, ARN-AMM, has been cancelled.

EC261 rules clearly apply here, as the flight departs from the EU. As I understand, I am entitled to reimbursement or "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity". (No compensation as they notified me more than 14 days in advance.)

I asked to be rebooked with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul (ARN-IST-AQJ) departing the same day as originally booked. They don't want to do that, because that flight is expensive (only a few semi-flexible fares are left), and are instead trying to rebook me on BA via London (ARN-LHR-AMM-AQJ). That's much cheaper for them as only the ARN-LHR leg is on BA and the rest on RJ.

Their routing does get me to my destination (AQJ) at the originally scheduled time, but:

  • involves more flying - I have to depart earlier, and spend an extra 70 minutes on a plane compared to the TK option
  • involves an extra stop
  • gets me to Amman at 00:05 instead of 22:00 in the original booking, so even that layover, although originally planned, becomes more inconvenient

Do I have any right to insist on the shorter, more convenient, more expensive TK itinerary or can they rebook me on whatever is cheapest for them?

I'm aware that I can book flights myself and claim reimbursement for them later, but that seems very risky, as Royal Jordanian is obviously not headquartered in the EU. Even if I go to a court in Sweden, can it even force the airline to pay?

EM0
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1 Answers1

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Royal Jordanian is in the Oneworld alliance, while Turkish is in the competing Star Alliance, so it will be quite difficult to convince RJ to endorse (pay for your ticket) on Turkish. This also explains why they want to send you via London on British Airways, because BA is a fellow Oneworld member.

More generally, if an airline changes your flights unilaterally, your choices are to accept the alternative or get a full refund and book somewhere else. You can always try to negotiate, but without frequent flyer status or an expensive business class ticket that gets you access to priority hotlines, you're unlikely to get very far.

lambshaanxy
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