Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Yes, because if you are in scope for FCOD then the ticket by definition must be under Airport Control. MMB should work, but an agent can operate it if necessary.
Thank you, just as I thought.
Somewhat unexpectedly, MMB did appear to work the day prior, offering rebooking against a fee - though I did not try and proceed to payment, so it might still have failed at some point along the way. It absolutely did not work after midnight and referred me to my TA for any changes.
Rocking up at T5 check-in first thing at T-120, the friendly BA representative seemed blissfully unaware of FCOD/SDC. I tried my best to politely steer him, but he kept on insisting on a change fee plus fare difference due to my 'restricted fare' - I obviously wasn't on full-fare Y
-, offering ex-LCY options in addition to the LHR ones. There was no getting around a substantial upcharge, even after consulting with ticketing. With the T-60 cut-off for my original flight fast approaching, I decided to make a strategic retreat and try my luck with Expedia via webchat. Free change to a late afternoon flight was available, though the chat agent kept being put on hold by BA himself. After a good 30 minutes of being thanked for my patience in 5 minute intervals, I was eventually advised to check in for my original flight as BA were unable to complete the rebooking in time.
Just as I handed over my passport to check in once again (same agent as before, incidentally), I received a text saying it had gone through after all and to please wait another five to ten minutes for the change to be finalised.
Not the end of the world, but a mild annoyance in the sense of a wasted early morning at T5 and the last available window seat having just been snatched up as I was finally able to check in for my new flight. Two avoidable points of failure in my view - one being MMB not letting me do the change myself, and the second, an insufficiently trained check-in agent as well as whatever back-office he spoke to not picking up on the issue.
In hindsight, I do wonder if there are some magic words I might have uttered. Sadly Expedia were unable to display the actual fare rules ("We have not received information regarding the rules or restrictions for this flight."), so that didn't help. I am aware I can be a bit long-winded, though I did keep it brief and to the point in my interactions with the agent. Both '(free) same-day change' and 'free change on day' as well as variations thereof were greeted with the same blank stare; admittedly I did stop short of trying the Ess-Dee-Cee/Eff-Cod initialism/acronym.