ghu018

I called BA to request a change for an eVoucher ticket that includes travel on Aer Lingus. The ticket conditions say there are no change fees. I'm changing to the same flight numbers on different dates.

I'm seeing the exact same pricing for the new flights when I search on BA.com, but BA is charging $284.40 to make the change:

I pointed out that the new itinerary is offered on BA.com for the same price as the old one, and they tried to tell me that the additional $250 is a "fare difference" that is being charged because it's a change to an existing ticket. I pointed out that this is still a "change fee" whether they call it that or not. They disagreed and suggested filing a complaint, which I'm sure they'll get to promptly

This seems like a clear case of BA violating their own T&Cs. Has anyone seen this before and/or had any luck challenging it? I'm thinking I should just file a dispute with Amex after the trip.

nufnuf77

fare difference is very different from a change fee. fare difference means the underlying price of ticket is different on flight you chose.

imagine this scenario:

you book a ticket for january 2025 in very cheap business class which is fully flexible (no change fee). you decide that you want to travel in business class tomorrow on flight which is super busy (only selling 1 seat in business class left). even though your ticket has no change fee, there is going to be a big fare difference, as you are moving to a much busier flight. You cant expect every single flight for full year to have same price right...

NickB

Are you saying that the itinerary with the changed flight is available for the same price as the price at which you bought the original ticket?

If so, I do not quite understand how there could be a €250 fare difference.

If there is a fare difference, however, they are correct. A 'change fee' is not the same thing as a fare difference. When you change a ticket, you have to pay the fare difference and the change fee (plus potential additional service fees depending on the channel used). 'No change fee' does not cover fare differences.

1Aturnleft

Deleted

PETER01

Nothing to add really to the 3 very informative and well explained posts above other than to say welcome to Flyertalk and the BA Board ghu018.

ghu018

Yes. It was exactly the same price when I called them to request the change. I just checked again and now it's $9.30 more expensive.

The booking agent I spoke with today told me the pricing shown on BA.com is for a new ticket, and they are entitled to charge a higher fare simply because I'm changing an existing ticket, and this is not considered a "change fee".

(Thank you, PETER01!)

1Aturnleft

They're also charging you a channel fee to make the change over the phone. You're best advised to carry any changes online yourself in manage my booking to save yourself that particular admin fee.

Quote:Fare Details: USD 250.00 + Tax/Fee/Charge USD 9.40 + Change Fee USD 0.00 + Channel Fee USD 25.00 = USD 284.40


USD 250.00 is the fare difference applicable to changing your current reservation from the current date/flight to the new date/flight. Taxes also have to be recalculated.... another USD9.40 to pay at todays conversions.

ghu018

I know, but it wouldn't allow me to make changes online. Phone was my only option. In the past when this has happened, they haven't charged the channel fee. Believe me, I don't call BA for anything unless I have no choice.

No, I'm saying that there is (was) no difference in the cost of the two itineraries. Zero. BA has added $250 to the total price of the new itinerary as quoted online. I'm aware that if the new itinerary was $250 more expensive than the old one, I would have to pay a difference of $250.

DeltaFlyingProf

I have noticed recently that if I call the GGL line to make an itinerary that I can find online, the price quoted on the phone has been higher than online. One of the agent said that I must have found a web fare and they cannot access it. So far, at the end of the day, I just sticked with doing it online.
But I am curious, are there BA "web-only-fares"?

If they do exist, maybe it explains the problem for the OP?

lhrsfo

This sounds like something to take to the DoT if the OP is from the US and that is the ticketing country.

EuropeanPete

Welcome to the forum! Can I check that you’ve verified this on 3-4 different calls (ideally in a different time of the day so you get routed through a different country), with each person giving the same fare and a similarly obtuse explanation?

My only query is that I can’t believe BA training its agents consistently enough to always give the same explanation of the logic with something like this, and that some diversity might lead to further clues.

rmontelbon

Was the additional charge precisely $250?

orbitmic

Could it be that they are pricing in your market /pos as opposed to the website which defaults to the pos of the first point of origin?

id dig my original etix and check the fare.

id write down the fare for the desired new itinerary online.

id then call again and ask what fare they see. If it’s the same as you see omline, I’d ask where does the fare difference come from given your initial fare was x. If they quote a higher fare than the one I see I’d ask why can’t they access that fare.

i have occasionally had similar issue in the past and typically it was the agent not booking in the right way and thus not getting the cheapest fare for the new itinerary.

Schultzois

I’m guessing here that the “changed” ticket is being priced into a higher fare category than the original, even though the original is still available for new sales, but not available for changes. I’ve had this happen especially with LX/LH where they want to reprice from A to F even though they are still selling A but not offering it for exchanges. Not a very First Class experience.

If it happens that the airline itself has made even a small change to the itinerary, then the OP could try using that to their advantage, as inventory restrictions go away in that case. This is eventually what prevailed on my LH ticket, though even the agent said she shouldn’t be doing it but would anyway.


Even though I understand (but don’t agree with) this practice of imposing different inventory onto changes than for new bookings, the worst is that carriers who practice this basically make it impossible to know which dates you can change to. I have my ExperFlyer account and am well versed in pricing up new tickets, but once you want to change a flight instead of just by a new one, their answer about availability is basically “it’s a secret.”


As a brief aside… When I first saw the thread title I was thinking this would be like something I had with TK a few years back. There was neither a fare difference nor a change fee applicable to my ticket, but to make the exchange by telephone (only option offered) they needed to apply a telephone fee. Not ideal, but fine. It was something like US$25 or so. I offer to pay it, and they say it can only be paid at the airport, and it needs to be before the originally booked flight. To which I say that if I could be at the airport before the originally booked flight, I’d be taking that flight! Also, what sense does it make to charge a telephone processing fee that can’t even be paid over the telephone, on a ticket that had free changes.

Schultzois

That’s another very good point… POS can have some weird effects on partly used tickets. I had some France-Argentina-France tickets several years ago. Basically same flights for my partner and for myself. Was able to change partner’s flight for fixed fee only, but to change mine they were repricing into full J. After awhile on the phone trying to sort it out with an agent based in either the US or the UK, I point out that the original ticket was issued in France, and the fare category I wanted was still available from France.
They sort of implied that availability would always have been better in UK (where they were working from) but after I persisted they changed country of sale to France and, well, voila. Problem solved.