What is fare basis, is that the same as fare class? My tickets are class I, which is same class (and was same price) as the ones on Ba.com

Another instance of SDC “dropping off” the fare rules today, requiring a friendly reminder to the ticketing lady to look a bit deeper.

Does the booking class change if it is not available on the alternative flight?
i.e would an O class ticket change to an M for example? Or would it re-book in O ?

Another data point on this, my travelling companion was today able to SDC a ticket which had previously been POUG’d - the fare rules in MMB had correctly updated to show the free change being possible. Wouldn’t work on the app, but the desk agent processed it no problem.

I also made a SDC on the app after already checking in for the original flight. I didn’t think this was possible either until I tried it and was surprised that it worked!

Some feedback on this. Short version, it worked as described above. Thank you.

Longer version: I booked both ways as Economy Plus tickets and then called within 24 hours to change them to Club moving the bookings to I class in one direction and R in the other.

I had to call to make both changes as both app and website would not work. On the way out the flight was showing as J1 at Midnight on the day, so Skype-d the USA number and got connected to the India call centre. Agent blocked the inventory and then had to call me back - but it re-ticketed in about 20 mins. On the way back the flight was still showing as D5 the evening before so called on the morning of the flight. Agent knew what I was asking for but still would need to call me back. Again got the call back around 20 minutes later, but this time to say that they were having system issues that meant they couldn’t revalidate the ticket. Agent promised it would be done in next couple of hours and I would get another call back. In the event it took more like 3 hours for the new e-ticket email to appear and no call back. But it all worked in the end.

Borh flights have credited to BAEC at the lowest booking class on sale on the day - so J and D in my case and a welcome extra 1,000 Avios. Having said that I wouldn’t say this is worth the effort just on the off-chance you can generate additional Avios.

Incidentally the flight back from Edinburgh to City is one of the best short haul flights I’ve had. Lightly loaded throughout so we had the attention of a very good senior cabin crew member all the way through the flight including 3 offers of drinks. 5 passengers in a Club cabin back to row 5, so lots of space. And on the ground at City 15 mins early and luggage on the belt 5 mins later.

On Thursday I ran into some unexpected traffic on the Autobahn going to FRA, and for a while it looked like I might miss the bag drop at T-45 (this being a rare instance where I was not HBO). There was still availability on the flight an hour later, so I decided to make use of SDC on my CE ticket back to LHR. However, I’d of course already checked in on my original flight, so needed to call the gold line to be offloaded first.

Due to some faffing about with my phone and a bit of a wait, I did not get through to an agent until around T-63. Despite the cutoff officially being an hour before, the agent insisted that there was nothing she could do, since it was “too late” and the ticket was now under airport control, so I would have to get the ticket changed there. When she was done arguing with me, it was T-61 and HUACA was of course pointless. She said she would put some notes in my PNR and assured me they would be able to get me on the later flight when I got to FRA.

Now, as luck would have it, the traffic cleared, and I was able to drop my bag at T-48 or so - so I never got to test this out, and I was happy that I’d stayed on my original flight. But I’m still curious about this incident - was the agent really correct that she couldn’t offload me and change my booking, and would the desk at FRA have been able and willing to rebook me if I were to turn up at, say, T-30?