England. Keep hitting deadends when trying to claim a refund for Qatar cancelling my flight
So I booked a flight through booking.com (in January) from New Delhi to London Gatwick which was due to depart on 13/3/26 however, Qatar Airways cancelled my flight on 10/3/26 (because of the conflict in the Middle East)
They only offered a refund and did NOT offer a reroute - which I thought was a legal requirement as per UK261.
So I requested a refund via an email to booking.com on 11/3. I sent over the documents they requested and then I did not hear back from them so sent a follow up email on the 30/3 which was ignored. I have tried going directly through Qatar Airways but they do not have a contact number and can’t find my booking on their system because it was through an agency. After multiple attempts of calling booking.com I finally got through to an agent who told me there’s no record of my emails (despite the fact they replied to my first email asking for documents) and hung up on me mid-call saying he couldn’t hear me.
I really can not be bothered to wait around for them to get back to me via email and refuse to call again after the service I received. Therefore, I’m left with no alternative but to take them to small claims court.
My question is, can I claim the cost of the self-funded reroute flight under UK261 as Qatar did not offer this? And is this the best way to go about finally getting my money back?