Refund for an upgrade
 

My wife is flying from IAD to LHR to CDG tomorrow. I bought her an upgrade from economy to business - but I mis-read the PNR, and upgraded the short flight, not the long one. Which is a complete waste of money, for an hour or so flight. Immediately realised the mistake when the confirmation email came, rang BA, said I'd like to cancel the upgrade (not the flight). Transferred to a different department twice. Third agent said impossible, then hung up on me when I asked to speak to a supervisor. Note that I'm not trying to get a refund on the flight itself, just the upgrade, with a downgrade to economy.

Rang again, was told that it was impossible because there were no more seats in economy in that fare class. I went to their website and found tickets at the same fare. Asked to speak to a supervisor, not possible due to high workload. Told to ring back, which I'm about to do.

Any thoughts, comments?

The new BA motto: If at first you don't succeed, call, call, call again.
:D

I assume the wife is flying economy IAD-LHR?

If so the CE upgrade to CDG isn't so bad. She will have access to showers and lounges at LHR. So no, not at all a waste of money. Add to this fasttrack boarding and some space (middle seat blocked), and first off the aircraft.

A good relationship investment if you ask me ;)

I think its how you word it and how the agents are/aren't explaining it.

Can you get a full refund of the upgrade......probably no unless it was a flexible fare which is unlikely.

Can you change back to economy if the fare is changeable still.....yes.

However would you want to do this? If the fare is changeable you would be paying any change fee but the fare is most likely non refundable so you wont get the fare difference back

You will get the difference in tax/YQ back but it probably still works out at a net cost rather than a refund.

Unfortunately i would say chalk this one up to experience and leave as it is!

Craig, I really do feel sorry for you here. I can imagine your wife's face when you told her what you'd done!

Never mind, She'll enjoy the comforts of CE from London. :)

It looks like most flight to Paris tomorrow are extremely busy, which flight is it Paris? as most flight only have the most expensive buckets are still for sale..

Just because fares are for sale doesn't mean they match your original bucket...

As other's have said, chalk it up to experience, otherwise you may end paying a lot more extra for the ticket.

Surely the distance selling regulations come into play and you have 24hrs to say that you don't want the upgrade. I've done this when I had booked an F trip to BOS and then discovered that night that there was going to be someone on my flight back in Club. So I called BA the next day and asked to downgrade the return flight so that I could sit next to them. This was done with no fuss and the difference refunded so if it matters to you call back ASAP and get it refunded.

Refund for an upgrade
 

The Consumer Contracts Regulations, just like the distance selling regulations they superseded, specifically exclude transport companies (such as airlines).

There is no cooling off periods for changes/upgrades only new bookings.

Didn't know that thank you both.

Thanks for your comments all, it looks like I'll just have to suck it up. I've called again, without success.

Nope, the same bucket is still available. They just lied. Imagine that! An airline lying to its customer. Unprecedented.

Others suggest that those regulations don't apply. I've tried that with BA and they do not buy it, unfortunately.

Yeah well, I do my best by her!

She gets the comforts in any case, she's OneWorld Emerald.

I'll be flying to Paris from DC with IcelandAir. I wonder which of us will have the more pleasant flight?

Connecting flights into LH tend to book into high buckets to ensure availability. (Typically) K for WT I think and Y for WT+. J for CW/F.

They have recently lowered them a bit for connections to/from WTP. It used to be Y on BA but is now K, and on AA domestic in the USA it was B but that is now H, so both ends now earn fewer avios and TPs than before.

From the same Point Of Sale though?
If you do a dummy booking LHR-CDG it may show for example K being available which would use a UK POS, but if you are calling the US number to make the change they may see different availability based on a US POS.

Every call I made, on both the US and UK numbers, went to a call centre in India.