Originally Posted by
giorginho
My point was (pretty much exactly like you described it) that this award space could (or should) have been available during the time it was reserved by (in this instance) you, instead of it opening up last-minute, but OK, I was aiming at providing some food for thought for everyone here, since I've been reading quite a few comments and in every thread possible about cancelled award tickets that it becomes apparent that many people cancel a considerable amount of tickets, just because they can, which they booked just because they could (hence the "harsh judgement"). It can take some (myself included) even years of accumulating miles to reach the amount required for that dream trip, if it takes years to find suitable availability then that's more like "years lost".
Disclaimer: This doesn't go out to people cancelling flights for the reasons described in this specific topic (or similar).
In 2014, BA scrapped the award cancellation fee waiver for Gold members of their FFP. Up until then, Golds could hold as many bookings as they liked (subject to having enough miles to book them, of course!), cancelling them for no fee (the standard fee for cancelling awards was raised from £25/€25 to £35/€42,50 at the same time, so Golds instantly became liable to the increased fee, with no warning). Apparently a small subset of cretins abused this generosity.
You should plough through the thread where this post is taken from:
.... which you will. Same as happens now. Cancellation fee is actually £25 or the taxes, whichever is lower.
The Gold fee, allegedly, is due to excessive abuse by some Golds who book (for example) five sets of flights for a weekend away and then decide on Thursday night where to go, cancelling the rest but depriving others of those seats.
Doesn't explain the increased fee, of course!