snuffi

Hello
I just spent some time trying to UuA a WTP leg to CW. The price on BA.com was £53.10 + 24,000 avios (LHR-MCT, BA79 overnight). I progressed through all the screens to the payment screen and got the usual “we are finalising changes” and “safekey” screens, followed by an error screen which says there is a problem and to call a BA office. Fine. An agent started to process the change, availability all fine, except when it came to payment she wanted £106.10. I know it is only £53 but I’ve asked that she send it up to fares to query what is up as I can’t have online showing one thing which then falls over and directs you to phone and instead doubles your cash cost.

When I breakdown the £53.10 online piece, £0.10 is additional taxes, and £53.00 is BA surcharges, I assume YQ. The £0.10 strikes me as suspicious of course, but I have screenprints. No idea what BA will do here, if they will let me have it for £53 or whether they will thank me for weeding out an error and charge me £106!

Anyone have an inkling (beyond usual IT gremlins) what could be the issue?
£106 is less attractive as I could have booked that leg in CW in the first instance for £297 more. There is a POUG on there at the moment for £493!!
Thanks
S

mikeyfly

Doing a dummy booking for MCT return in March - in WT+ the taxes, fees & carrier charges are £416.87

When one leg is booked in J and the other in WT+ the taxes, fees & carrier charges = £469.87 - so the uplift in cash should be £53.00 only

corporate-wage-slave

This isn't unusual, though it's sometimes the case that BA.com gets the calculation wrong (as in, too high), particularly with DIF (dual inventory fares). Sending it off for manual recalculation is the best answer, but it's always best to do your own calculation first, so you know whether the result is in the right ballpark.

Small changes in taxes are often due to exchange rate differences, so (e.g.) Oman has a security tax quotes in Rials, and whenever you make a change you have to use the exchange rate of the day as a fresh calculation.

These three threads are useful in this area:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...surcharge.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-yq-twice.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...n-upgrade.html

snuffi

Thanks mikeyfly, I had not thought of doing that. I wonder if HUACA may be the approach here?

And CWS, thanks also, those threads do seem to indicate that £53 is the correct amount. I note that they date from 2014 and that back then the Avios to UuA for that length route was 10,000, whereas today it is 24,000!

I know that Avios redemptions became more costly in terms of Avios a while back, but that's a huge increase - to the extent that I wonder if the call centre were attempting to UuA both the outbound and inbound! I'd almost be tempted to say that what happened but I tested BA.com and to do both legs was 48,000!

Globaliser

This will probably be caused by an exchange rate difference since your original ticket issue; usually, it's one of the TFC lines that's priced in a foreign currency which now translates to £0.10 more than it did then. As the ticket must be reissued on doing a UuA, the current GBP value of that TFC line must now be paid - hence the £0.10 extra.As for the difference between £53.10 and £106.10, seeing as you know that £53.00 is the extra YQ surcharge for CW over WT+, Occam's Razor suggests that she may have quoted you the round-trip figure for the YQ uplift.

corporate-wage-slave

If it has gone to Fares for manual calculation you best wait for that to come back. If you look in the second link in my previous post, you will see the back story that applies here in terms of what a telephone agent may be able to do on spec.

snuffi

That is the conclusion that I was [slowly] forming, but I think that this must be a system glitch at her end rather than a mistake, I would imagine that the call centre has little ability to pick and choose fare elements and are just following the screens as I was.

missdimeaner

Had precisely this problem £53 expected but online quote was £500+ .
First phone call got a complete 'yes you need to pay £500, second call ended up being +£33.
In this case HUACA was the correct thing to do

LondonAndy

I tried to "book and upgrade" a WT+ fare to CW for MCT. As the cost of the fare element (not the taxes etc.) increased dramatically from a WT+ booking, which was in the sale, to a CW booking, which wasn't, I simply didn't bother making the booking in the end.

BA's loss.......

snuffi

I think this is an IT issue to do with dual inventory fares. When you try and do this is then bases the original fare on the standard "T" fare rather than the dual inventory. I think you can call up and have the agents do it based on the lower starting fare.

I had the amusing option on this MCT ticket of booking a cash CW fare at £1000, or a WTP fare at £1000 + all the Avios! In the end I was short of time, booked the cash WTP fare with the idea (silly me!) of UuA once it was booked!

Globaliser

In all seriousness, in case anyone else is finding this distinction of interest, I suspect that if you had booked the cash CW fare it would have been no changes, no refunds. In contrast, your WT+ ticket UuAd to CW would retain the fairly generous semi-flex WT+ conditions and the fairly flexible conditions of the UuA.

Geordie405

I have found on the couple of occasions I have tried to do this on the phone that BA couldn't price the DIF and it was only available online. The agent could only see the standard T class fare.

Globaliser

How recently was this? AIUI, there has been a change to T class DIFs that's meant that call centres can now see them.

Geordie405

Oh that's good news if they can now see them! It was more than a few weeks ago for sure, so my perspective could well be outdated.

snuffi

BA called back a few minutes ago, and have performed the UuA for the expected £53. I have also saved myself 5p as the FX rate moved in my favour between this morning and now - very pleasing.

The agent I spoke to did not know anything about why it was now £53 and not £106, just that it was! She could still see £106.05 on her screen but had a note from some higher authority to process for £53.05. I attempted to talk about 2x YQ but was on a losing wicket so just paid and moved on.

I think this must be a computer issue on their side, whether related to DIF or this particular upgrade on this particular route I don't know. I also don't know why it did not work online.

Once again thanks for all the helpful advice on here - query with fare dept was the correct procedure to follow and the turnaround was pretty speedy. I did not in the event HUACA; from what I heard just now I think I would have got the same wrong answer. I wonder how many people actually pay double?