fatbob

Hello All,

I’ve been lurking on these forums for sometime now, sucking up all the great information you have to offer. Until today I’ve not posted, as quite frankly I didn’t have anything to add that had not already been posted. I do now have a problem that I’m hoping someone can give me some advice on.

In July I’m booked on WT+ to fly from ABZ –LHR-LAX, returning from SAN-DFW-LHR-ABZ. I found out several days ago that I will be in London the day before I am due to commence my outward leg.

I phoned BA to see if they could remove the first ABZ –LHR leg. They were more than happy to do so at a cost of 250 pounds (100 change fee, 120 fare difference and 30 admin fee). I said I’d get back to them.

I did a little research and I am fly from LHR to ABZ on the same day (with BA)in time to catch my ABZ to LHR flight for 97 pounds! I really don’t want to this. It seems insane to take two flights when none are needed, just to save money.

I have flown to or from ABZ 68 times in the last 2 years, my address on my BAEC is in Aberdeen, so they should know that I’m not just trying to game the price.

I know rules are rules, but I’d like to know what the best approach would be to get BA to be a bit flexible and hence sensible about this. I’m more than happy to pay a 100 pounds or so but any more is very frustrating and quite frankly feels like being ripped off.

I’m a silver member and I fly quite a lot with BA (Typically 40ish flights a year), though not compared to most of you guys. I don’t really want to pull the “I’ll take my business elsewhere route” as I know that I’m not that important a customer and it also feels a little crass.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

InfiniteCycle

Call again and ask to speak to a supervisor. If they still are unable to do it then let it go.

How are you getting to London anyway? Could you move the ABZ LHR leg and use it sooner with London as a stopover?

nux

Sorry to say but your options are to either change the ticket to an ex-LHR departure and pay the change fee, fare difference and admin fee, or start your ticket as booked from ABZ.

scr

I second this suggestion!

fatbob

I'm flying from Aberden to Bristol a week before, then taking the train to london to another clients office. My employer has picked up the single ticket. All company travel has to be booked through them, I guess it's something to do with insurance. So they would not allow me to use my already purchased flight.

I'll give the supervisor route a go. Can't do any harm. Looking on the bright side, I guess If I take two flights, I'll get to enjoy the fantastic culinary experience that BA internal flights offer!

V10

Welcome - I'd be getting the extra flight back up to Aberdeen personally. At least you get some extra tier points.

I know it makes no sense but unless you get some other value from paying the extra 250 quid to start off in London, staying there overnight with the potential costs that might entail, then going back is your only option. BA will not budge on waiving any rules.

What tier you are and number of flights is of absolutely no consequence.

fatbob

Thats good to know. I hate trying to haggle on the phone, often it's obvious that the person on the end agrees with you, but have their hands tied. On the other hand I'd hate to spend 250 pounds just becuase I always have to be awfully, awfully polite and so British all the time!

Thanks for all your help. I'll post back the outcome, just so you all know.

More Champagne Sir?

Is your issue with the Fare difference, the Admin free or the Change Fee?

The fare difference is what it is. BA charge less from ABZ as they want people on BA rather than travelling to other Scottish airports and travelling on *A across the pond.

The change fee is because you bought an inflexible ticket. If BA don't charge the fee then how can they justify charging much more for flexible tickets?

The admin fee is because you're using their time. This is the only one you MIGHT get them to waive, but certainly they are well within their rights to say no.

chris1979

As others have said, I'd accept the 'flying back' route if you have no luck. It's 2,000 extra avios, 20 TPs and just a bit of time on a plane (take your book / favourite magazine). It's not going to make too much difference to your balance but welcome to the world of tier point running (even if unintentional).

Sixth Freedom

I would just go back to ABZ and think of the money saved.

Land-of-Miles

I would have sought to charge my employer in these circumstances at least to vary the outbound flight and use that with a return train booked to Bristol from London.

I wouldn't personally want to go from a week away from home straight to an airport whilst carrying the luggage from an earlier business trip.

fatbob

It’s not really with any particular element. The split between the three is somewhat arbitrary anyway I suspect. It’s more the fact that it seems rather odd for me to take two unnecessary flights, in a round trip, on the same day, with only an hour or so stopover in order to same 150 pounds.


I agree. In fact it was only the admin fee that annoyed me. The administration cost to change the ticket are negligible, hence this 30 pounds is actually a penalty charge and should be rolled into the 100 pounds. The only cost they have is the telephone conversation (can’t do it online), I can’t see how this equates to anything near 30 pounds. Interestingly they don’t charge this if I was upgrading!



I agree. I knew the T&C when I booked, BA are well within their rights. I just hoped that in such a situation there would be some flexibility. It seems like a win, win situation if they let me change for a lower price. They get 100 ish pounds and free up two seats. Which having taken those BA flights dozens of times, they would almost certainly fill. So BA get an extra 100 pounds in the bank, have a happy customer and have two more seats to sell

fatbob

I wish I could have, alas we have the travel department from hell. Director approval is needed for anything even slightly out of the oridinary. To be fair the current system is in place due to previous abuse.

Everything unnecessary is being dropped at the inlaws. US trip is also only hand luggage, so not too much to cart around for a week.

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

Globaliser

But isn't this exactly the same issue as with all the ex-EU trips that people do when such a routing offers a cheaper fare? If you book an AMS-LHR-LAX ticket, and you then happen to find that you're going to be in London two days earlier for other reasons, nobody would expect the "sanity" of BA waiving its right to re-price the ticket using a higher LHR-LAX fare - even if the passenger actually demonstrably lives in Amsterdam.

shorthauldad

Yeah, you might think it's straightforward, but I doubt BA will see it that way. I had a nice demonstration of BA's attitude on flexibility yesterday.