Arrived home and thank you corporate-wage-slave!
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Rebooking to another IATA airline is only for cancellations within 24 hours, it has to be the same departure and arrival point. Rebooking on Joint Business AIrlines does not require the 24 hour deadline. Keep trying. In particular try and to come up with an AA, IB, AY schedule that is BOS-GVA, which seems plausible and suggest it to the agent. Refunding and rebooking yourself may be pragmatically the easiest way.
Hi All, we are finally home settling into the 10-day Swiss quarantine for arrival from the US. I thought to write a quick summary of this rebook experience here.
- Flew GVA-LHR-BOS in WT/WT+ on 12 Dec with no issues and super light loads on both legs.
- Original return was booked BOS-LHR-GVA in WT+/WT leaving 21:30 on 23 Dec.
- On Sunday, 20 Dec, countries started banning flights from the UK. When Switzerland did it, I called BA within the hour on the UK line (US line was repeatedly hanging up due to high volumes). They couldn't do anything as the LHR-GVA leg was still on for 24 Dec.
- On Monday, 21 Dec, the LHR-GVA leg was canceled. Both UK and US lines were not taking calls for hours due to high volumes. Corporate-wage-slave offered the Czech call center, but it was already too late in the day. After many hours, finally got through on the UK line. The agent wasn't very cooperative and offered rebooking for 31 Dec on same itinerary only. I proposed JFK-MAD-GVA on Iberia, but she said she could not "see" this. She was only able to rebook within 300 miles of destination, not origin. Even a question to a supervisor could not override this. When asked how much would we get as a refund, she went on hold and the call disconnected. This was just before the UK line stopped working for the evening (strange for a global airline but anyway). Twitter on BA didn't respond at all, even now a few days later.
- Still on Monday, 21 Dec, as I was getting frustrated with BA, I looked for alternatives myself. Earlier in the day, I saw AF/KL/LH at $400 per person one way. At this point, flights outside oneworld on AF/LH/KL were at $1,400 per person, but I did find a $563 fare on AA for LGA-DFW-FRA-GVA (last leg on LX) leaving on 23 Dec. Hoping to use AA credit from earlier in the year, I called the AA elite line. AA could not use the credit as the original flight was originating in GVA and was denominated in CHF, while this flight would be in USD. Nevertheless, the agent booked this for all 3 of us with cash.
- On Tuesday, 22 Dec, I tried calling BA to ask for a refund. US and UK call centers were still not taking calls, which was crazy for anyone travelling on same day and in need of help urgently? After trying the UK line, but with the option for making a new booking, I got an agent pretty quickly. Trying not to be cheeky and asking straight for a refund, I started with looking for a rebooking following a cancelation. The agent told me right away that I should give her alternative airports or routes, and she was able to book JFK-MAD-GVA on Iberia for the same day, 22 Dec. One small hick-up was that she only had 2 seats in premium economy, so 1 person was left in economy.
- Later in the day, AA was OK to cancel and refund the AA itinerary, as it was within 24 hours of initial booking (though not 2 days or more from the travel date). The refund still has not come through on the card, which makes me a bit nervous.
- In the evening, we made the 4h drive down to JFK. At check-in, it seemed most pax were Spaniards with very few connecting. IB agents did not want to honor the original premium economy for the last pax, and only offered a paid upgrade to prem economy for $185. Yet we wouldn't even be seated together -- this was important to us as we were 1 child, 1 pregnant lady and myself. We did not take the upgrade - my wife preferred for all to move back to economy, if the load was as light as on our LHR-BOS flight a week before.
- At boarding, IB were strict about boarding in groups, and didn't board premium economy until I was physically on board back in economy. When my wife and kid boarded eventually, they texted that the seat net to them in premium economy was available. Loads were 70-80%, and there were at least 4 available seats in premium economy, the one next to my wife included.
- After take off, she asked a flight attendant to bring me up, then the purser apparently spent some time reviewing the booking on his iPad. Next, he came over to me, and moved me up. He was very apologetic and said that the ground staff should have moved me and made a mistake.
Big thanks to
corporate-wage-slave for helping out and filling up the void on BA call centers being blocked. I do feel for all people that are stuck right now and am very grateful we made it fine to our destination.
Last edited by yminev; Dec 24, 2020 at 5:27 am