Originally Posted by
FFMilesJunkie
Hope the wise people here on Flyertalk have some sage advice. I was trying to redeem my first GUF2 last week and thought everything was all set when I saw my booking online. I selected my seats (1A&B on the 747!) I made reservations for hotels and friends booked flights to join us on holiday. However this morning I receive a call from the Travel Agent that BA is now refusing to ticket the reservation because the fare expired while they were going through the process of getting my GUF2 redeemed.
I have been watching the J fares on this route for quite some time and over the past couple of years, there have been fare sales for around $2,000 for business class (GUF to FIRST). I finally received my Google fare alert that the price dropped to about $2,300 on the route so I contacted the Travel Agency and booked the flights (there was not Z available for both transatlantic flights so had to use a TA). I received a call this morning that there was a delay in ticketing and now the fare has doubled to $4,000. (route is IAD-BLQ in October)
So, now my GUF2 is gone out of my account and I don't know what my options are. The Travel Agency tried to find alternative routes but nothing coming up. I can book WTP and upgrade to CLUB, but the fare ends up being higher that the CLUB fare I got last week (after taxes, etc). Finding good ex-USA fares is tough and if this is what I have to look forward to, then using GUFs from the US is going to be near impossible unless I find a route that has a couple Z class awards and I can book immediately online.
OP I am sorry for the stress. I know how it feels to have planned a trip and all the details worked out especially with your friends. All that hard work and now your tickets won't ticket.
I would first start off by asking the Travel Agent to pull the ticket history on their GDS reservation system. Ask them when was your payment posted? When was your ticket ticketed? Was there a change in the schedule. A travel agent is the middleman and BA will not talk with you as this is a conflict of interest.
This is the reason why I book all airline tickets directly with the airline. Travel Agents don't generally get any incentive for booking tickets. Unless its a consolidator airfare or you got a really good rate elsewhere I would not go with Orbitz, Expedia or the Travel Agent down the road.
In your instance there are more steps involved than you just going online and purchasing the ticket. If there is a problem the Travel Agent gets an e- mail. How do we know that the e-mail goes to an unmonitored e-mail address?
I like to book directly and then look at the reservation a few times a week just in case of a problem. When I book a ticket I will go onto the website of the airline and plug in my PNR# a few hours after and hope that its ticketed. Airlines have 72 hours to ticket the reservation and if the payment is not approved then your reservation will cancel and a good airline would contact your travel agent to resubmit the payment or if you were the one who booked the reservation the airline would call and ask you to call them back to resubmit payment within 24 hours or your ticket is subject to cancellation.
As for redeeming your first GUF2 that would give me all the more reason to book directly with British Airways as I would want to be sure I am booked in the proper fare code. Travel agents may have different fare codes and BA could restrict the fare codes or third party bookings from any upgrades. Even if it costs me $200 more to book directly I would.
Lets say your outbound flight is delayed or you need to change the itinerary even if the airline owns the reservation its still better to have it booked directly with the airline.
Please keep us posted. I hope you have learned your lesson that any ticket using miles or upgrade certificates should be purchased directly through the reservation department or mileage department where you can ask questions such as does fare such and such work to use the GUF2. Travel agents are not expected to know every single rule about being eligible for upgrades mileage accural. While a good Travel Agent reads through the Fare Rules most are too lazy to do so.
Whenever I book a ticket online I will read through the fare rules and if I have any questions call up the airline directly to have them decipher the fare rules. I don't mind paying the phone booking fee especially if its on a premium ticket so that I can be sure I am getting the right ticket and if the wrong ticket was issued or the airline had a problem or the agent did not follow the proper booking procedure at least I have a paper trail and can get it fixed.
The airline does have a paper trail from Travel Agents but its just easier to book directly as for the most part the fares are exactly the same . Sometimes package holidays airfare are booked in such a low fare code that they cannot be upgraded etc.
To me I would much rather book everything separate. I have found that unless I am taking a tour it best to book the airfare separate, hotel separate and car separate because then I can control every aspect of my vacation and if I need to cancel the hotel the airfare is not affected as the cost can go up if you unbundle or change any aspect of a package.
Other FTers can weigh in but this is my 2 cents. Again please keep us posted and we can try to help you.