FFMilesJunkie

I really wish we could book directly with BA and use a GUF, however as noted here extensively in the BA forum, booking GUFs without a Joker is nearly impossible to do directly with BA since award space would need to be available in the upgraded cabin. Try finding 2 J or F awards on popular routes on the days you actually want to travel. I never book with a TA under normal circumstances. This just happens to be a circumstance that BA forces its best customers to book with a TA to utilize one of the benefits of being a best customer. Crazy, right?

danielonn

It sounds to me that the Travel Agent GDS and BA's GDS are not live and perhaps the travel agent was pulling a ticket from an archived or sold out ticket as another passenger perhaps took that fare and usually the agent would see an error at the time of booking like "Fare sold out" or some other code.

In the ticketing queue on the Travel Agent there is an immediate ticketing and a delayed ticketing option. Perhaps your ticket went to the delayed ticketing queue and BA did not accept because the fare was not available and the Travel Agent should have seen this under the Payment (Form of Payment).

It would show Ticket#33422121 FOI VI301 Sabre Itinerary Number 3231222 BA PNR 4QJA8 Smith/Henry A followed by an OK HK(Holding Kofirmed) or NK(Not Konfirmed) in the status of the ticket. Remember if you do not see an OK or HK in the status you have a 1 cent piece of paper.

You should ask your travel agent for the ticket# and Payment History to see that your card was processed as well as a copy of your bank statement.

Is this a good Travel Agent? Makes me wonder if the Travel Agent passed the blame to BA just to deflect that he/she made a goof. I know too many agents who keep their payments in an escrow and send a travel agent check to the vendor. A good travel agent pays directly via your credit card and reports the sale as such. Your agent may have taken your payment but did not pay the vendor in time and thus your ticket was canceled and voided. The same goes for cruises.

A good agent passes your credit card directly to the cruise line for deposit and final payment.


I would see if this agent is IATA certified and Google the agent for Yelp Reviews. I have a hunch and other FTers can back me up perhaps that the agent goofed and likes to put the blame on the vendor when in fact he or she did not pay the vendor. The agent would then have to use his/her Errors and Omissions Insurance to pay for a new ticket at the prevailing rate.

danielonn

All the more reason to avoid BA. Any good airline would want you and beg you to book directly with them. More than crazy its downright criminal to force you to book with a Travel Agent who may be so incapable and incompetent of handling your booking and mistakes like yours arise.


If you were my client I would have ensured that all e-mails from BA go to a Monitored E-mail address. In fact I would go as far as to create a free Gmail account where all my client's itineraries and updates go to and would check it on my Smartphone often for any changes. Then I would have informed you and see if you wanted me to book you at a higher fare or go with another airline all together. I am very proactive with my family's bookings and I am the family travel agent learning the fare codes, mileage redemptions all because of FlyerTalk.

At age 12 I was booking all of my family airline tickets and was an early adopter of online bookings and online checkin. So I know more than some brick and mortar travel agent would. In fact I have learned how to decipher the fare codes, learned the Special Meal Codes, how to find the best fares available etc.

In fact on my e-mail account I have folders of my family's trips. I never delete any itinerary even if the trip took place. I can look up a flight I took to Israel from 2007 2009 2010 2011 and 2016. This is how I know that I am getting a good rate today when I book. I am OCD about historical airline pricing and i compare it to the going rate today. If its $100 more or even $200 more than I paid three years ago for a nonstop flight I am fine but if the airline wants $2000 for a Economy Ticket then I know to look at Premium Economy or Business Class or wait to purchase it at a better rate.


Your Travel Agent should have gotten an e-mail saying something like this

Mr. Smith

We appreciate your booking for Passenger Smith/Doe PNR#3QAQ however our fare department advised us that the fare is not valid and while we try to ensure that all fares are valid when we load them into the system sometimes errors do occur. As per our Terms and Conditions we have the right to void any fare that we deem to be inconsistent with our product.

Please feel free to advise your client and rebook him/her on a fare and class of service that meets his or her travel needs.

Again we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and we really value your client's and your business.

If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact our BA Travel Agent Support Desk at XXXX M-F XXX

Kind Regards,

Doe Johnson
British Airways Travel Agent Support Desk.

Please ask your Travel Agent if he or she got any letter that attested to the denial of your fare with a reason. Had you known then you could have rebooked yes for a higher price but as high as it is today.

Please exercise your local consumer rights and contact your local Consumer Advocate Bureau. Keep us posted.

In my opinion you should only pay what the prevailing rate even at the new fare or opt to fly Virgin Atlantic. You can tell your Travel Agent to fight on your behalf a good compensatory package. I would say its 50 percent the Agent's Fault and 50 percent BA's fault for letting this go until its too late and the fares are too high.

Please keep us posted and again I am sorry for what happened. I feel your pain,

danielbk

Hi Everyone.

The travel agency was Propeller Travel, which I own. The fare expired (last ticketing date 18may) less than 24 hours after the initial booking and therefor was not usable for ticketing by the time the GUF was approved despite the fact that the segments were live. If you are curious, fare basis was IHN8S1T1 . I will not identify details about the actual customer / route / booking.

BA would not accept ticketing on the fare basis as they pulled the fare from sale. The GUF was approved by BA after the fare was pulled. No ticketing took place as the fare basis was not available for ticketing.

There was no delay in ticketing, the fare was simply pulled by the time the GUF was approved and ticketing rejected by sabre. Rare, but it may happen occasionally.

I post this so you have the facts about the fare, as other theories have surfaced that are not related to this case.

Have a good evening,

Daniel

FFMilesJunkie

Thank you Daniel. I have to say, you and your staff have been professional and forthright while dealing with this incredibly frustrating situation. I can't say that I'm happy about the outcome, but I feel that an honest effort was made to make it right.

danielonn

I am so glad the agent came on here and posted The OP is in good hands so we hope. I have studied Travel and Tourism and I know about how fares are not guaranteed until purchased and ticketed and one must advise their clients that there is a chance(and perhaps in a form letter thanking you for the request and that you will be contacted once the ticket has ticketed).

A ticket is on a request basis until ticketed and you see a HK Or OK in the Status. This is a great lesson for others to learn. Any travel booking that we make online or via the phone whether its hotel, car, airfare is on request until we have it confirmed and payment has posted and only after you call the vendor directly to see that the third party has transferred it over properly. I would rather learn now than at checkin that there is a problem.

Whenever I book through any third party vendor directly with the vendor I always call directly to the hotel or to the airline and ask "Do you see my ticket number and please read it out to me". Confirm the dates, time, name spelling, seats etc. E-mail me the confirmation directly from the vendor/airline not just the third party e-mail.



Nothing is guaranteed until its purchased.

OP while the agent replied still you need to work to get the fare down to a reasonable price and not go for the prevailing rate. Again this could have been handled 24 hours after the fare was denied not 3 weeks or 3 months after.

KARFA

Unfortunately, even if everyone has acted promptly, if a fare is pulled prior to ticketing then this is just something you would have to accept. The important thing now is that you get your GUF back.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielonn

Your Travel Agent should have gotten an e-mail saying something like this...

Airlines don't email travel agents about individual bookings; all communication would be in the PNR via queue. In this case, BA wouldn't have necessarily known which fare the TA was intending to use, they were simply pulling the voucher and giving the TA an auth code, not checking the fare.

Good to hear from the actual TA; it just seems like one of those things which was outside of anyones' control. Fares are not guaranteed until ticketed, and with the time required to get the auth code, the fare was pulled.

Ideally, BA would create a way for TAs to generate the auth code via a BA.com tool - as well as perhaps opening direct bookings to be bookable in revenue classes.