Originally Posted by
Dorsetboy
So the wife and I are in the middle of an 8 week trip from UK to NZ/Oz. My sister succumbs to cancer(a non insurable) and we need to get home quickly.
Call BAEC from NZ and manage to get our F semi flex tickets from Sydney moved to this Saturday. I know there is a 200 pounds charge to change each ticket, but the call centre operator says the above sentence. Im thinking we are going to have enough on our plate without doing that when we get home, so we decline the offer. I thought it was generous at the time. But then cancelling our other arrangements I find that Hertz, Sofitel, Rydges and Crowne Plaza all refund our prepayments without a peep and in full(gold stars to all).
So I think was it so generous? Anyone have any experience on this? Is it a bit insensitive, or is this standard airline practice?
Sorry to hear of your loss.
Offering to waive charges to people in an honestly unfortunate situation like yourself is extremely generous. It is the people who exploit the genourosity dishonourably when they know proof will not be requested, who are the people you should have the beef with as it is they who have made it bad for all. And I speculate that the dishonest probably outnumber the honest as "opportunity news" travels.
When you use the other organisations that do not insist on proof they will have added that extra overhead that they pay to settle dishonest requests onto their charges they made to you and to all other customers and that strikes me as being very unfair and somewhat daft.
Asking for proof is the fairest and most intelligent approach imho and most honest people faced with this offer would find it a lovely thing for BA to offer to do for a relatively small and prudent inconvenience.
