Originally Posted by
Often1
Forget about PNR's, bookings and the like. All that matters are "tickets".
OP had two tickets and BA required him to pay a change fee to change his BA ticket. I presume because OP has not provided any further information that the fee was in accordance with the fare rules for the ticket which OP chose to purchase.
Yes, I had 2 tickets, and yes, making my changes (and paying the relevant fees) were under the BA rules. I made 'choice' to make this purchase having been incorrectly advised by MH staff that they couldn't help me, when it later transpired that they could (and that they did for another passenger who was in the same situation as me).
The other passenger apparently purchased something else. We have no idea and apparently OP has no idea and never will. Without that information, we may only infer that the other passenger either purchased some kind of flexible ticket or that the agent who handled the change made an error in his favor.
The other passenger had 2 tickets. He made 1 booking for 1 ticket directly with Malaysia Airlines. He made another booking for another ticket directly with British Airways. This is exactly the same situation I was in.
Malaysia Airlines staff from some sort of team that dealt with disruptions (I can't remember the proper title for the team that she said - it was along the lines of 'disruption team') took that passenger's BA ticket number - which was completely unrelated to his other MH ticket number - and made changes to it free of charge. She very clearly explained that she could have and would have done the same for me.
When I asked why the staff in the Gate Room told me they couldn't help in this way she informed me that only staff from her team would be trained that it was possible to do this... I remarked that perhaps any staff involved in telling passengers that their flights were delayed by 12+hrs might want to have been trained to help passengers with the issues this causes.
Whatever the circumstance, it does not appear that OP's onward situation was handled poorly. The fact that he arrived in the morning from KUL and departed in the evening to his destination should not have prevented him from booking a single ticket.
Sorry, I've already explained this - my trips were totally separate, not linked in any way other than the arrival / departure date being the same and the arrival/departure airport being the same. They were booked at different times (months apart) and for different purposes... How on earth do you think I could have booked a single ticket for this??