Attempting to modify three BA flights on their website, I have decided to accept it as an escape game-type challenge rather than the frustration of not getting a clear, quick, reliable, straight forward booking exercise. All these flights are LHR-Europe-LHR, in "semi-flexible Business", i.e. no change fee but fare difference to be paid in case of booking change.

What I expected: log in to my account >> see all my flights >> picke the one that I want to change >> get an overview of how much I need to pay for various options on the new desired day >> pick it, pay it >> receive an email with a new ticket. That should take 2-3 minutes.

What I got:

• Logging in, trying to see all my flights: "You currently have no flights" (when in reality I have 8 open bookings) >> enter booking code of one >> asked for BA login again >> flights come up
• Pick flight 1 >> "We experience a technical problem, try again" >> basically I'll have to find 30 minutes of my day today to have them change it over the phone
• Pick flight 2 >> "We experience a technical problem, try again" >> add another 20 minutes to get the second flight changed (assuming I do it on the same call, i.e. no 10 minute wait time)
• Pick flight 3, the zenith of Kafkaesque absurdity, the moment when you start believing that even computers have a soul and a mind that can be messed up by smoking something probably illegal:
  Pick flight, enter new date of travel >> flights come up, with somehting like this:

Good, I want the 10:15, expecting to pay GBP 65. I click on it, but then get a new smorgasboard of fares, looking like this:





As they are all wildly different, I presume they have different T&C, but those can't be shown. I will just trust and enter uncharted territory, I feel like the Indiana Jones of BA fares. Except: where is my 65GBP fare??

So I click on the 57 GBP fare, assuming that the previous screen showed something wrong and that I can get for 57 GBP what the previous screen told me would cost 65 GBP.

Then, it gets really wacky: the confirmation screen then shows a different flight than the one I had picked!! Instead of the 10:15 departure to LHR, I am on the 10:10 to LCY. Not what I wanted.



I go back to check, and then understand: the fares shown after selecting th 10:15 flight in fact shows the fares for ALL flights that day, not just the fares for the flight just selected. Depending on which fare you pick, you end up on a different flight than you had picked. Interesting! A French middle ages labyrinth designer would have found this tickling and fascinating.

Now that I get it, I go back to pick the 65 GBP underneath the flight that I need. That fare is conveniently visible after clicking through all the fares for all the other flights that I have specifically expressed not to want to be taking.

The confirmation screen comes up, I am indeed on the flight I selected - but instead of GBP 65 the fare difference is now GBP 120.



I am sure there are many explanations that are as absurdly lunatic as the website's behaviour. For entertainment I would like to hear them. And maybe someone even has a serious explanation.

My more urgent question is: how can I fix that? I neither have the time to call the call centre even longer than I need to (I am typing this while I am waiting for someone to pick up the call for flights #1 and #2), and most of all I do not trust them at all!