Bit of a rant here. Recently got downgraded from GGL (having been on there since its inception) as I have been on a years gardening leave. Imagine I will be travelling at my previous rate of c. 3-4000 tps per annum from next month. But no complaints on the downgrade: I did hope they would give me an ex gratia extension but 'twas not to be.

Anyway...On 25 June I booked a tkt EWR-LHR//LGW-JFK out in J, back in W.

At that time I needed to fly from the New York area home to the UK. I knew I also needed to return but was unsure of the return date. So I booked a WT+ return leg that was flexible and put in a spurious date of 11 September for the return leg, knowing that it would need to change.

On 6 July, having flown the outbound EWR-LHR leg and to check the return leg was indeed flexible, I went on the BA iphone App and changed the return leg date to 1 October which went through, as expected, without any charge. No change fee, no fare difference.

Around a fortnight ago I learned the date I needed to rebook my ticket to which is this coming Thursday when I have a dinner in Minneapolis. Hence, I phoned the Gold call centre (I was routed to the Cape Town one) and spoke to a lady there. Goodness how I miss the GGL line... I explained that I needed to leave London on 14th Sept and be in Minneapolis in time for dinner. It was a long call and we explored re-routing the ticket to DEN or PHX or DFW or ATL or ORD or other places all of which had good onward OneWorld connections to MSP (which JFK does not). Anyway, all of the options we explored did not work. To ORD for example the relevant flight is Air Belgium operated and has no WT+ cabin. Several of the other routes did not have the right booking class in WT+ available. In the end, the agent confirmed that if I changed to LHR-JFK on 14/9 this would remain a free change under the terms of the ticket provided that the correct booking class was available. I asked if it was available on the BA117 and she said it was. I specifically asked about the BA117 as this arrives in NYC early enough to connect onto the only afternoon AA flight from NYC to MSP which leaves La Guardia at 13.30.

Anyway, the agent told me this was rebooked and I went ahead and used my wife's Avios to book the connecting AA leg from LGA-MSP.

All was fine until Saturday when I looked at the BA app and it told me advance information was required for my flight on Thursday. So I went online and filled this section of the booking out in 'manage my booking'.

When I completed this, it took me back to the 'My bookings' screen and the BA117 on Sep 14 had disappeared.

So I phoned BA and the agent said that in the notes it said that I had failed to call back to confirm the booking. He was happy to reinstate it but as only W class now remained, there was now a change fee of £2000 whereas previously there had been none. I told him that I had been told by the agent in Cape Town that the rebooking had been made and that I had not been asked to call back in to reconfirm. He said that the only way to get my flight reinstated was to get Cape Town to listen to the call record and they would then reinstate the flight if things are indeed as I say. In the meantime he said he would hold the seat in W for me. He was unable to confirm when the Cape Town office would look at listening to the call.

I phoned BA on Sunday for an update and was told that Cape Town had not yet picked up the query. I phoned again on Monday and was told the same. The agent (who gave me his name) said that still nothing has been done in Cape Town but promised to call me proactively this morning. He did not call. I phoned again today at lunchtime and spent 95 mins on the phone with BA. Cape Town are yet to pick up the query. The consistent message from BA is 'we understand that if what you say is correct, it is our fault and we should reinstate your booking on Thursdays flight. But we cannot do that until Cape Town listen to the call you had with them and confirm what you say and we don't know when that will be.' The agent conceded that Cape Town may not deal with this before my flight leaves!

Every time I call they try to get me to pay for the ticket to be reinstated. Previously they have been quoting £2,000 but on today's call they offered me Club for £1,400 as a better booking class is available there.

So I am at my wits end. I had a booking on a flight which leaves on Thursday: I now do not. BA concede that it may well be their mistake but refuse to do anything about it and hide behind the excuse of Cape Town. Grrrrrrrr

Glad I got that off my chest...



So as of now, I am anticipating flying in WT+ to JFK on Thursday and connecting on to LGA for the flight on my Avios booking which gets me to Minneapolis in time for dinner that evening. However, I do not have my seat confirmed contrary to what I was told by the lady in Cape Town. Clearly I would not have booked the onwards Avios connection if the outbound transatlantic flight was not confirmed!