Polygon82

Thanks.

Polygon82

Would you have any insight into why the cost has gone up so much? For context at 1700 yesterday the cost was £78 basic on a number of later flights (BA operated) LON > MAD, flying tomorrow 1st June. Decided to book today and cheapest of those is now £313 Basic and rest are all over £650 (BA flagged flight this is only)

corporate-wage-slave

SImply because anyone booking now is likely to be distress purchaser on a route that BA and IB has a near monopoly. Some tickets have a minimum purchase time, they have to be ticketed at least x hours before departure. And the flights are nearly full with it, a certain soccer match may have some bearing on this. You may find a cheaper fare on IB if you fly LHR-MAD-BCN and inconveniently get lost in the long distances of MAD airport, alternatively have a look at Avios redemptions.

Shl

As CWS said, check redemptions - see below.
And I am pretty sure they will open some seats for Sunday too, perhaps only midnight tomorrow though.

lkar

I was alerted to these fares in another thread and have a question based on some comments earlier in the thread.

I have a booking from USA to MAD on IB. I need to buy a separate ticket to London. I was thinking I would buy an economy plus ticket for a flight late in the day making for a long connection, but then attempting to change to an earlier flight if it looked as though the Iberia flight was set to arrive on time.

Depending on the timing, I suppose I could be in the air when I make the decision to go ahead and try for a shorter connection. In this case, it sounds as though I should not use my AA frequent flier number in the reservation, because I might not in that case be able to change the ticket on line and would have to try to call when I arrive at MAD. Do I have that right? Any other pitfalls in what I'm attempting to do? (Other than potentially relying on IB's internet connection?)

ISTFlyer

Regardless of your frequent traveler program or if you don't have a FQTV status at all, all passengers who have booked Economy Plus is eligible for a SDC. If you type in your AA Gold card, there would be no difference than not typing it.

A SDC on BA could only be made via the call center ( including local numbers ) or at the airport but not online. This was the case back in May 2019. If you try to change your ticket via the BA website, you would be charged a fee unless you have booked your MAD-LHR flight in a fully flexible fare.

lkar

EZEDoesIt

I imagine that it's unlikely that I'll be allowed to change a USA-LHR//LCY-EU CW (paid with AAdvantage miles) ticket to USA-LHR-EU whilst at Heathrow?

golfmad

corporate-wage-slave

I do a lot of SDCs since my last leg home to NCL/EDI/GLA means that it's better to make a judgement call on the day as to which flight I will take. Usually I can do it online, or via the App, so long as it is a clean ticket - so I haven't mucked it about with other changes prior to flying. On the App it usually works fine if it sticks to native App screens.

As for the use of AA or BA frequent flyer numbers, that doesn't make a difference, other than that if you are a guest on the App or BA.com (so not logged into BAEC) there is a high risk that you will need to insert your credit card number into the initial screen to validate your identity.

On BA.com there is indeed a screen which implies there is a £60 change fee, but the screen before that, and after that, middle screen indicates that because it is SDC there is no fee, and indeed no fee is attached in reality. The sort-of logic for this misleading middle screen is that if you are flying to EDI, you can actually depart from LHR, LGW or LCY, but if you switch airports you have to pay a fee. If you stick to the original routing it should show as "Low" in the cost band and end up as zero on the final screen. I think I need to call up maybe one time in ten, perhaps less, usually online is fine.

As for the underlying question, you need an hour, ideally 2 hours, before departure, for making the change. Now if you work back from the take-off time, once you have taken off there isn't much scope for delays on route other than those caused by the Jetstream and holding. I'm ignoring the risk of diversion. The Jetstream you can kind of work out by looking at a synoptic chart or actual flight schedules on other flights (regardless of airline). Holding can be 20 minutes but it is rare to be that long these days, they have greatly improved that one in recent years. So once you have boarded your aircraft and heard what the captain has said about take off and flight time you can make the judgement call then as to whether you will have enough time for the connection. At MAD I would allow 1 hour for the same terminal building, 75 minutes if a building change is needed. Alternatively, you can use wifi in the air and you'll have a better feel for timing. However in a sense if all else fails, and you do the SDC on the runway at MAD then the usual timespan means you almost certainly would be able to move to the appropriate service.

On MAD flights, it's not unusual for a long bank of BA flights to run completely full though.

scottishpoet

in a few weeks I will arrive into LHR from ORD at 06:50 and am currently booked on a separate ticket on a lunchtime flight to GLA.

If everything is on time I am hoping to SDC to an earlier flight to GLA around 10am.

I will have one bag in the hold.

I am hardly ever able to use the online tools to change tickets, even SDC has failed the twice I tried, I just get the message "you are unable to change this booking online" and have had to call.

Assuming all goes well, I collect my bag at LHR and head landside. Where would be the most appropriate area in LHR to request the SDC?

EZEDoesIt

Thanks, it's not worth the additional cost to avoid the £3.10 cross-town journey. It'll be good to stretch one's legs anyway.

corporate-wage-slave

Almost all LHR ground staff should be able to do it, since it's a revalidation process in theory, however many staff will pass it on to ticketing specialists. I would head to Zone H (H14 or so) where there should be such a specialist, however if you see someone en route operating one of those new-ish wheeled trolleys, I would try them.

scottishpoet

so in theory i could go to the checkin desks to drop my case and do it there?

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, that's right. But as you work your way towards H you may find someone in front of the self tag machines with a trolley not doing very much.