Globaliser

It's impossible to answer that question, because I don't know what your personal stress tolerance levels are. The scheduled arrival time at Terminal 5 is 1045. If you're not going to check a bag for your flight, your hardest deadline at T5 is to scan in before 1215 at the entry to security. (That's automated; if you miss that by even one second, you'll be automatically offloaded from the flight.) So you have 90 minutes there, if you can get to Southampton coach station in time to board the National Express coach.

Is this for Saturday 3 June 2023? If so, it's doable. Are you planning to fly to Amsterdam on BA438? If so, the answer to your second question is basically no - there's little difference between destinations in BA's check-in processes at Terminal 5.

The only other thing that occurs to me is the possibility that your ticket has been sold by Delta but the flight is actually operated by a different airline that operates at a different terminal. So it's worth checking whether you have a non-Delta operating airline - your booking documents should tell you this if it's the case.

And to make it easy, go to https://ns.nl/en for information about trains from Rotterdam Centraal to Leiden Centraal, and to https://keukenhof.nl/en/ov for information about the Keukenhof Express bus from Leiden Centraal to Keukenhof. (You will see the second of those links in gnome12's post in that other thread.)

For the first task, Wikipedia is truly excellent, although you then have to go elsewhere for detailed information on schedules. For the second, it is still hard to beat matrix.itasoftware.com (or oldmatrix.itasoftware.com for those who prefer that interface).

But maybe the DL agent can immediately see that the passenger is a card holder and therefore exempt from the fee, if the card has been used to pay for the ticket/ That might be a possible explanation for what the OP was asking about, which was why they are sometimes asked for sight of the card and sometimes not, even though Comfort+ in itself does not include a free checked bag on intra-US itineraries.

On what itineraries? Delta's website says: For travelers in a Main Cabin or Delta Comfort+® seat on a flight within the United States, without a Delta SkyMiles® American Express Card, Medallion Status or Active Military exceptions: $30 USD For your first standard checked bag under 50 lbs. (23 kg), each way +1 Free Carry-On Bag and 1 Personal Item $40 USD For your second standard checked bag under 50 lbs. (23 kg), each way

This is normally not the case with trains in the UK. Typically, there is at most one modest step up from platform to train. Even for wheelchair users, trains are easily accessible with the aid of a small portable ramp that station staff will help with. There's an illustration below to give you an idea of the size of the step. However, if even that would be a problem, then I agree that a car would be the only feasible solution left.

If you are referring to what I have posted, I can back it up with pointers to long FlyerTalk threads on the detail of 261/2004, compiled over many years by people in Europe who have daily experience of the way that the non-compensation aspects of 261/2004 work. A good place to start is the 2023 edition of the 261/2004 thread on the FlyerTalk British Airways board: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2106171-2023-ba-compensation-thread-your-guide-regulation-ec261-uk261.html - there are currently 592 posts on that thread, and we are only one quarter of the way through this year. Of course, if the OP doesn't want to push to see whether those legal rights will secure something better than has been offered, then that's their prerogative.

Unrest? What unrest?

It very much depends on where in Germany your family are. That could make a very big difference to the answer to your question. Other things that you need to think about are: How are you going to get from Basel to your family? Where does the cruise start from, and how and by what route are you going to get there? Unless you look at the entire end-to-end journey (from home back to home), any advice - even about your one single question - is likely to be incomplete.

The Amsterdam start point for that express bus is Europaplein, so a visitor is likely still to have to get themselves there from central Amsterdam. I think that you can get from Rotterdam Centraal to Leiden Centraal by train in about half an hour, so it's probably not much less convenient than starting in Amsterdam. The OP would want to weigh that up against the hassle of staying in different hotels in different cities if it's caused only by visiting Keukenhof, plus the ease of flying to Rotterdam airport (if that's a possibility) as opposed to Amsterdam.

So this establishes that the operating airline for 261/2004 purposes is SN, but also that SN could argue that there has been no cancellation as there has only been a (significant) schedule change. Personally, I would therefore be citing 261/2004 to push for a re-route onto: SN6524 ATH-BRU 1600-1820 SN7059 BRU-MUC 2045-2200 on the basis that these are both "SN flights" for fare rules purposes even though they are both operated by other airlines (A3 and LH respectively). An alternative would be to take a 24-hour delay and fly at the originally-booked times a day later. However, in this situation you're rather less likely to get any joy asking for a re-route onto another airline's non-stop flight. So you may want to seriously re-evaluate whether you really want to spend 6 or 7 hours making a journey that's actually only a 2½-hour flight, even though you could probably have spent less money on the non-stop flight if you'd booked it at the outset.

There's no doubt that the OP can cancel for a refund. The possible problem (the OP hasn't said) is that a cash ticket for a non-stop flight will be around €300 per person. That's quite a lot of money to pay out of one's own pocket to replace an award ticket on a non-stop flight (if that is what the OP originally had). So it may not be a good solution. The operating airline can't comply with its obligations by offering re-routing on an earlier flight that isn't suitable for the passenger. A later flight would be fine, because by definition the passenger should already have been at the airport. But that doesn't apply to an earlier flight. So the offer that's been made wouldn't discharge any 261/2004 obligation to re-route. And remember that it's the passenger's option whether to accept re-routing or reimbursement, not the airline's choice as to what to offer.

I don't see why. The words of limitation that you've quoted only appear in Article 5(1)(c), which concerns the right to "compensation ... in accordance with Article 7". But compensation under Article 5(1)(c) and Article 7 is not what the OP really needs. As I've already said, 261/2004 concerns more than compensation (which IMHO is a distracting sideshow from what 261/2004 is really about). Article 5 also gives you rights under Article 5(1)(a) and Article 5(1)(b). Article 5(1)(a) invokes Article 8 assistance rights, which are - at the passenger's choice - reimbursement, re-routing ASAP, or re-routing at a later date subject to availability. (Something here is probably what the OP needs.) Article 5(1)(b) invokes Article 9 duty of care rights. Importantly, neither Article 5(1)(a) nor Article 5(1)(b) contain any words limiting these rights to cancellations with less than 14 days' notice. That's not necessarily correct, for the reasons above. In particular, the OP can't have an earlier flight foisted upon them, although they shouldn't reject a reasonable later flight. The main unknown fact is that we don't know who the original operating airline was (nor have we actually had the original itinerary confirmed). That's the airline with the primary responsibility under 261/2004. And because the ticket wasn't issued by the operating airline, the OP may need to push to get better satisfaction than the usual non-261/2004 brush-off.

But why should they, if they originally booked ATH-MUC non-stop, and if they have the legal right to be rebooked onto another ATH-MUC non-stop that suits their timing? If they have a legal right, it overrides any airline rules like "there has to be award availability". It arguably even overrides whether there is any availability at all on alternative flights (although that's not an argument that I'd be keen to push, unlike where the government requires the airline to carry someone even if the airline must bump commercial passengers). At present, it's about €300 per person to buy another ticket on a non-stop. Strictly, any obligation to rebook falls on the operating carrier. And at the moment we don't know which airline that was or what the original routing was.

Congestion. It isn't a recent policy - it may have been two decades now? It's the same reason why there's a drop-off charge at the terminals and why picking up in the drop-off zones is prohibited. There has long been talk of a charge for vehicles simply to enter the airport, but that hasn't (yet) been implemented. Given that you are on such an early flight the next morning, if you try to do the journeys to/from the hotel by bus you will get almost no sleep that night. In your shoes, I would be ignoring the free room at that HIX (it's not compulsory for you to use it, whether it's free or paid for) and either taking up Island2Dweller's idea of the HGI at T2 or alternatively booking a room at the Sofitel at T5. Subject to cost, the latter would probably be preferable because of the 2-hour time change from Athens to London.

But 261/2004 is about more than compensation. Indeed, compensation is arguably the least important thing in all of its protections. One of the protections is the right to rebooking. That's why it may be worth pushing. But I think that it's important to know what the original itinerary was.

Did you actually try going to your hotel? Or had your own hotel told you that its check-in desk closed at 0200?

Isn't everything else cheaper than Viator? After all, AIUI Viator doesn't run any tours - all it does is buy space on tours that other people run, and sell that space on at a markup.

It would probably also be worth doing this for the entertainment value. I'd love to see the driver's face when they notice a group of two dozen people plus luggage all intending to get on to a late night bus. There's a more serious question: Has the OP worked out what they're going to do to get back to Heathrow in the morning? They'll need to know whether they're heading for Terminal 3 (if the flight to Chicago is operated by American Airlines) or Terminal 5 (if it's BA again), and to plan the journey. If they're going to get the bus again, they'll need to know which bus stop to go to as (according to Google Maps) routes 4 and 7 will depart from different stops. Plus they'll need to check the timetable, especially if it's an early flight.

Yes, you are - and the flight number is BA633. It is also sold by American Airlines as AA6849, but the prime flight number is British Airways'. I'm pretty sure that you're heading for the "Holiday Inn Express London - Heathrow Terminal 5", at 5 London Rd, Slough SL3 8QB. However, you may want to be aware that there is also a "Holiday Inn Express Slough" at Mill Street, Slough SL2 5DD, so that there's no confusion on the day. The postcodes will completely disambiguate this, especially if you end up in an Uber and the driver is using a satnav. (BTW, "Slough" rhymes with plough/plow.) The applicable timetable for First Berkshire's number 7 bus (wef 2 April 2023) is here. (Note that this is not a Transport for London bus, and will not be a red "London bus".) As gumshoe958 says, the last buses depart from Terminal 5 at 2210, 2310 and 0010. The first will be too early for you, given that you're a 2155 arrival, but one of the last two should work. (It should take you closer to one hour than two to get out of the airport.) Google Maps says that the bus stop you want is on Sutton Lane at Sutton Place here, just after the bus turns right at the hotel. Have you asked the hotel whether it can organise cars to pick you up from the airport? It may have an arrangement with a local minicab company in Slough. Transport to/from Heathrow airport will be a frequent need for its guests.

What was your original itinerary? Assuming that you were originally on a non-stop flight, I would regard this as unacceptable. It's almost faster to walk to Munich.

On this basis, I've had another look at Athens-Munich on Saturday 3 June. The Star Alliance flights are: LH1757 0600-0735 A3802 0835-1015 LH1751 1255-1430 LH1753 1525-1700 LH1755 1925-2100 There is no 1100 flight. But there is still a flight pretty close to 1500. So I'm a bit confused as to what's going on here. In addition, I'm not sure that you do have to accept what LH (or A3) chooses to open up as award space if the problem is caused by that airline's cancellation. You should try pushing on the basis that you have rights under Article 5(1)(a) and Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation 261/2004 to be rebooked onto an alternative flight that day, even if there is no award space. Although you could choose to take a flight that's earlier than the originally scheduled time, by definition you would have no problem getting to a later flight (so either LH1753 or LH1755).

It sounds implausible to me. Assuming you are flying to San Francisco, and that you mean 3 June 2023, it wasn't hard to find these alternatives: LH1751 Athens to Munich 1255-1430 (also sold as UA9527) LH458 Munich to San Francisco 1620-1900 (also sold as UA8883) LH1279 Athens to Frankfurt 1400-1605 (also sold as UA 9312) UA927 Frankfurt to San Francisco 1730-2000 (also sold as LH9126) You may have to push to secure either of these, because space is tight. But as you are an involuntary rebooking because one of your original flights was cancelled, it is worth pushing. I think that Regulation 261/2004 may have some part to play here, but I'm not an expert in how that works when a flight is cancelled a long time in advance.