bk2142

Hi,

I've booked the first leg online using my 241 premium plus companion voucher at 355 days. I called last night to add the return leg as return flight was now 355 days out - first CSA said not possible, but called back and another advisor booked the return leg. Job done - I thought ...

Early hours this morning I have received a voicemail from the same advisor requesting I call back regarding the "pricing of my booking". I had been charged the same amount of taxes for each leg and Avios redeemed was as expected - so not sure what the issue is.

I called back this morning to find out and a different CSA looked into the details and said the issue was with the date of the return leg. They said the return flight is more than 12 months from the date my outbound ticket was issued which I was told is not allowed. I.e. the return flight has to be within 10 days of the outbound one given I booked at 355 days out. They suggested I book a return leg within the 12 months and then once I have made the outbound flight I can change the return flight (if there is availability). This seemed bonkers so I asked them not to amend my booking and to arrange for the original CSA to call me back (I am awaiting this call).

I'm assuming this must be wrong otherwise it would be almost impossible to travel for longer than 10 days when booking 355 days in advance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated for when I get the call back, with regards to what I can say in order to explain that what I am trying to do is possible.

Thanks!

HoneymoonFlyer

From experience I’m sure you were told a load of rubbish. As you say if that were true you would never be able to book an outbound and subsequent return more than 10 days apart when booking T-355 days out, as many FTers do.

I’m sure someone more expert than I will be along to confirm the above and arm you with anything you should say when you get the call back.

bk2142

Thank you that's reassuring to hear. I've followed all of the super helpful tips on here so hoping I hadn't unwittingly messed up.

I'm hoping the 12 months from ticket issue date is a red herring and it'll be something simpler. Will report back once I've had the call back.

zebranz

3b) Ticket validity period

3b1) Unless it says differently on the ticket, in these conditions of carriage, or in any tariffs which apply, a ticket is valid for travel for:

• one year from the date it is issued or
• one year from the date you first travelled using the ticket, as long as your first flight took place within a year of the ticket being issued.

3b2) If you are prevented from travelling within the validity period of a ticket because we could not confirm your reservation at the time you asked for it, we will:

• extend the validity period of the ticket or
• give you a voluntary fare refund.

louie-m

I've often wondered how booking at T-355 and then adding a return (10+) days later squares with the ticket validity T&Cs but obviously many, many people have done it without an issue. I included myself in that, having flown outbound and inbound 2-4-1 flights 11+ months apart, probably 23 months after booking the outbound.

I hope you get it resolved. One possible solution if not could be (if you have the Avios) to book the return separately so it would be on a separate booking and then phone BA to get half of the Avios refunded. I've not done this myself but it's often suggested as an alternative to having to ring at midnight to secure the returns on popular routes.

HoneymoonFlyer

So pretty clear cut then, as bk2142 will be travelling outbound within a year of ticket first issued and returning within a year of the first flight, the ticket must be valid.

Seems baffling that call centre staff would dispute this, unless I’m missing something?

HoneymoonFlyer

Delete duplicate

louie-m

The way I read the second point of 3b1, it is referring to "travelled" and "took place" ie past tense so post outbound travel. Which is why the CSA "suggested I book a return leg within the 12 months and then once I have made the outbound flight I can change the return flight (if there is availability)".

Would like to be wrong though....

DeathSlam

So what we are saying is that we should really change

• one year from the date you first travelled using the ticket, as long as your first flight took place within a year of the ticket being issued.

to

• one year from the date you first travel using the ticket, as long as your first flight takes place within a year of the ticket being issued.

I suspect this is just an error in the wording because it was intended to stop people perpetually extending a ticket, not to stop people booking a future ticket that had a return within a year of the outbound leg.
If they are going to start applying the rule like this it will make all my avios completely useless. When you could actually get availability for the outbound and return at the time of booking this wording never came into play, now you can't it breaks what little value rewards still have.

omk298

Fairly sure I remember this coming up a few years ago, but it then went away again and I've not seen any reports of it recently until this one.

​​​​Hopefully it will get resolved sensibly.

bk2142

Good news, return ticket was issued yesterday. I hadn’t received a call back so phoned today to confirm no issue. All was fine, so honeymoon flights bagged, much to my relief.

I did ask what the issue was but they didn’t have an explanation. Bit of unnecessary stress but got the right outcome in the end. Thanks to those who posted, it was reassuring to know I wasn’t going completely mad.

DeathSlam

Great. And Welcome to FT. Usually one of the forum ambassadors would have greated you properly, but you'll have to make do with me for now

You gave us kittens but then took them away again, so all is well.
A kitten shared is a kitten halved and all that...

bk2142

Aha thank you! And yes apologies about the fright!