Cancel or change booking? (Family medical emergency)
Oct 5, 2016, 1:31 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, Eurostar Carte Blanche
Posts: 712
Cancel or change booking? (Family medical emergency)
Hello FTer's.
Seeking some advice on how best to manage the situation.
I'm do to fly to Toronto today (and back from NYC at the weekend), but need to attend my father's hospital. I'm on a non-refundable ticket.
I've a problem with my travel insurer which is making claiming an issue.
Do I cancel, and chance it with the travel agent?
Or can I move this booking to an arbitrary point in the future? (There's some dates I know are coming up).
Two little extras - this was an ex-IST booking in Club, with the positioning flights already flown. That was on Sunday, with my original transatlantic flight out on Monday.
Seeking some advice on how best to manage the situation.
I'm do to fly to Toronto today (and back from NYC at the weekend), but need to attend my father's hospital. I'm on a non-refundable ticket.
I've a problem with my travel insurer which is making claiming an issue.
Do I cancel, and chance it with the travel agent?
Or can I move this booking to an arbitrary point in the future? (There's some dates I know are coming up).
Two little extras - this was an ex-IST booking in Club, with the positioning flights already flown. That was on Sunday, with my original transatlantic flight out on Monday.
Oct 5, 2016, 1:38 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Sorry to hear about the emergency.
The technical answer is always that it depends on your fare rules. But looking at the ex-IST I class fares to NYC today, they look like they're on pretty standard €350 change fee conditions. And as you are after departure, then provided that you're changing to dates with I class availability trans-Atlantic, then historical fares ought to be useable so that you shouldn't have to pay any fare difference on top of the change fee. (The short-hauls presumably book into J.)
So if you know some future dates you can move this ticket to, that would be an obvious thing to try. But what I would do is to call and explain what has happened and why you can't now travel today, and ask whether it's possible to move the ticket to a future date just to hold it. Possibly depending on the agent you get, recent experience has suggested that you may get a more sympathetic response than that, and that just paying to change in accordance with the fare rules might simply be the worst case scenario.
The technical answer is always that it depends on your fare rules. But looking at the ex-IST I class fares to NYC today, they look like they're on pretty standard €350 change fee conditions. And as you are after departure, then provided that you're changing to dates with I class availability trans-Atlantic, then historical fares ought to be useable so that you shouldn't have to pay any fare difference on top of the change fee. (The short-hauls presumably book into J.)
So if you know some future dates you can move this ticket to, that would be an obvious thing to try. But what I would do is to call and explain what has happened and why you can't now travel today, and ask whether it's possible to move the ticket to a future date just to hold it. Possibly depending on the agent you get, recent experience has suggested that you may get a more sympathetic response than that, and that just paying to change in accordance with the fare rules might simply be the worst case scenario.
Oct 5, 2016, 3:04 am
#4
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cham CH
Posts: 1,645
Give BA a call and tell them the situation - they've been very good in allowing me to change a (non-changeable fare) ticket when Mr HH has had little jaunts into hospital <glares sternly at Mr HH....yep in the hospital again>
Oct 5, 2016, 5:19 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, Eurostar Carte Blanche
Posts: 712
Thanks for the advice folks -
Called up the Gold Line. They offloaded me and held my itineraries (both PNRs), fixing at an arbitrary date in future. All I need is to call up or DM to rebook in future.
No charge, and (Gold/Premier only) no need for medical evidence. Really really helpful
The itinerary is still fixed on the original routing, but I'll discover whether this is changeable at a later date.
Finally, "anything else I can help with?"
"Yes, something about Percy pigs. Suppose you've been hearing a lot about them recently?"
*chuckles* "Yes, just a little"
Called up the Gold Line. They offloaded me and held my itineraries (both PNRs), fixing at an arbitrary date in future. All I need is to call up or DM to rebook in future.
No charge, and (Gold/Premier only) no need for medical evidence. Really really helpful
The itinerary is still fixed on the original routing, but I'll discover whether this is changeable at a later date.
Finally, "anything else I can help with?"
"Yes, something about Percy pigs. Suppose you've been hearing a lot about them recently?"
*chuckles* "Yes, just a little"
Oct 5, 2016, 5:50 am
#7
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: AFC
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 281
