The husband gave his wife poor advice to allow as little time as possible, which for me is telling. Contributed to their own downfall even if BA were in the wrong - and that's not clear since the OP had booked a holiday booking with 5 nights stay in SA. If you deliberately leave it til last minute then mistakes are more likely and less likely to be resolved. Also discretion is less likely to be used. A situations is rarely benefitted by backing it into a corner.