wheatbeer

Hi,

I am due to fly on Friday with BA at 13:50 but partner is not well at the moment so we may need to cancel or change the date of ours flights. We don't have flexible tickets but we can change the date for £60 or cancel and get the taxes back (better than nothing I suppose).

I am just wondering if this will be possible to do within 24 hours of departure i.e. can we do it Friday morning?

Thanks!

BA6501

Yes, as I suppose this is not an Avios ticket.

wheatbeer

Thanks that's great. Yes it is not an Avios ticket.

Clareym

Worth calling and seeing if they will be willing to change / cancel without charge (depending on the type and seriousness of illness)

scottishpoet

it is often £60+any difference in fare. if you just want to move a couple of days you may find the fare class you booked is no longer available so the change costs may be significantly more than £60

with a suitable doctor note you maybe be able to change dates for free

Takiteasy

... or get the travel insurance to cover the cost

scottishpoet

if you are now too ill to fly in two days its unlikely an insurer will offer a policy at a reasonable price.

Globaliser

I think that the most important thing is to make sure that you have done it before check-in closes for the flight, ie one hour before departure. I believe that technically that is the point at which you lose the right to change the ticket.

In any event, if you have to do it, do explain to the agent what the problem is. For a genuine problem, you may well find that BA will be rather more helpful than you might expect.But it's possible that the OP may already have travel insurance in place?

scottishpoet

certainly possible, but then a discussion with the insurer about their options based on their level of cover rather than a thread on an internet forum would be the best course of action

golfmad

How about a discussion with the insurer based on a suggestion in a thread on an internet forum.

Globaliser

A family member had a similar problem with an O class long-haul ticket earlier this year. Discussing it with BA rather than her travel insurer meant that she was able simply to rebook for free after she was once again well enough to travel. It's possible that the OP was sensibly trying to see what the options might be if discussing it with BA in parallel with thinking about what travel insurance could be able to do (which in these circumstances is simply to pay out money after the event).

wheatbeer

Thanks for everyone's help, appreciate it.

In the end we changed the dates. We found some dates in June where the flights cost less than we paid so we only paid the £60 change fee. We also got back 20p each as the taxes had gone down woohoo .

We tried calling BA to see if they would be willing to waiver the fee but they said if we wanted to go the 'medical route' then they would need documentation from the doctor. The only doctors appointment available was 1:30pm tomorrow so we wouldn't have done it in time.

We also looked into the travel insurance but it has a £50 excess each so we thought it easier to just pay the £60 to change dates.

Fortunately our hotel and car hire was cancellable so we didn't lose out there.

Thanks again all!

heartface

I need to change an R class ticket from TYO-LHR to HKG-LHR but I class is available from HK and is much cheaper than the corresponding R fare.

Is it possible to switch from an R to an I fare?

My Tokyo flight is scheduled to depart in the next 24 hours, so need to get this sorted today.

To answer the original OP, changes can be made up until the local scheduled departure time of the flight for non-avios bookings.

Globaliser

As always, this depends on the exact fare rules of your ticket - but we can't work that out from what you've said. For a start, are you on a TYO-LHR-TYO ticket or a LHR-TYO-LHR ticket?

Looking at a random LHR-TYO-LHR R class fare now, it contains this:-and this:-for both changes before departure and changes after departure. If they apply to your ticket, then you may be out of luck under one provision or the other.