madhukumail

I purchased tickets from www.ba.com on Jan-6-2017 for my parents to travel from Hyderabad, India to Houston, TX for Mar-24-2017. I’ve received an email confirmation (with 6 digit booking reference code) and e-tickets (number starts with 125-).

After a couple of days, my father wants to move travel dates to sometime in June, so I called BA customer service on Jan-17-2017 to move travel date to Jun-27-2017 from Mar-24-2017. The customer service representative said, there will be a price difference for moving travel dates, I paid the difference amount as well. I’ve received an email confirmation (with same 6 digit booking reference code) and e-tickets (new number starts with 125-) for the new travel date. So far so good.

Last week, I’m trying to check everything is ok to travel on www.ba.com getting an error that invalid booking reference number specified, so called customer service for assistance with my father in conference line for passenger authorization. Customer service personnel said, there is a fraudulent activity found by British Airways security department in my transaction hence they cancelled the tickets. How did BA cancel tickets without informing to the customer? I came to know when I called the customer service that tickets were cancelled. However, I have not received the refund from British Airways, confirmed with my credit card company as well. I called a couple of times to BA customer service, everytime same answer that we are still investigating.

So, what are my options? Your valuable response appreciated.

danielonn

Sounds like to me that BA did not reissue the ticket for the new dates after you paid the change fees. Can you ask BA for a Payment History on your ticket with the new dates? Also I would call your bank or go online and get a copy of your statement for the originally purchased ticket and the changed ticket. Your Ticket# should be listed on your credit card statement.

Then I would call BA Web Support and see if there was a clerical error and if it was made they should be able to change it. If they ask for the prevailing rate today you can fax over your bank statements to prove that you did indeed pay the change fees and fare difference.

Are you sure your credit card was charged the proper fees and fare difference if it applies to your new ticket?

On the other hand BA's fraud department is a whole other animal. I am dead serious. Google Flyer Talk Forums BA Fraud Department and take it for what it is. Yes they should have contacted you and given you 24 hours to rectify the situation. Now it seems like you have no ticket and this is not good.

Hope this helps and please keep us posted.

KARFA

Actually I do not think this is a simple lack to re-issue based on the bit I have quoted above. This sounds like BA have decided there may be some fraudulent and cancelled the ticket because of that.

golfmad

Hello madhukumail and welcome to Flyertalk although. I'm sure you'll find plenty of useful advice forthcoming and we hope to see more of you and hopefully under less trying circumstances.

I do agree with KARFA that this doesn't sound like a problem reissuing the ticket. Indeed, the OP states the new ticket number was provided.

May I ask was this a booking made entirely with cash or was there an element of Avios involved?

Ldnn1

Agreed - the OP says they got a new ticket number after the date change so it seems this was properly done and then was cancelled later on.

Must be very frustrating for OP and not something we see reported here often. I'm not sure how best to deal with it I'm afraid other than keep persisting with BA to reinstate.

fransknorge

Initiate a charge back would be an option I guess

lavajava

I don't really see this as an option, unless the OP has exhausted all avenues to get the ticket sorted out. I assume the family member still needs to travel.

OP - I would stop trying to deal with this over the phone and write to [email protected] with the details others have posted above, again assuming the OP still wants the tickets. Keep it to the point and state what you want as an outcome.

I had to write to BA to sort out some booking issues on Friday, and used this method. Someone called me back this afternoon and the issue was sorted in a couple of hours.

All the best, as you shouldn't really have to chase this when BA have your money. Do let us know how you get on.

madhukumail

Thank you. For both charges listed on my credit card statement with proper information. Something like:

07 JAN BRITISH A 125*********INTERNET $2,473.79
CURRENCY: INR EXCHANGE RATE: 67.984752141
TK#: 125*****
PSGR: GA*****L/BH***
ORIG: HYD, DEST: LHR
CARRIER: BA SVC: N
ORIG: LHR, DEST: IAH
CARRIER: BA SVC: N
ORIG: IAH, DEST: LHR
CARRIER: BA SVC: N
ORIG: LHR, DEST: HYD
CARRIER: BA SVC: N

17 JAN BRITISH A 125******INDIA $167.37
CURRENCY: INR EXCHANGE RATE: 68.064766685
TK#: 125*****
PSGR: GA***/BH**
ORIG: XXX, DEST: XXX
CARRIER: XX SVC: X
ORIG: XXX, DEST: XXX
CARRIER: XX SVC: X
ORIG: XXX, DEST: XXX
CARRIER: XX SVC: X
ORIG: XXX, DEST: XXX
CARRIER: XX SVC: X

Initial transaction made in www.ba.com; travel date change transaction in customer service via phone.

danielonn

Your most welcome. And welcome to FT.

With this information I would scan and e-mail it to BA, We all can learn from this and honestly if its the issue of a new ticket number then BA shoud be able to tell you the new ticket# and PNR and when it was cancelled and who did this what date , what time and where it was done and the reason and what you can do to rectify this so your Parents can fly on their scheduled itinerary.

So it seems more complicated than just a reissue it sounds more of a Fraud and they cancelled and voided the ticket. Is there any email stating that you have any problems with the first reservation and then the one for the second reservation?

You may have to take this up with your Credit Card company or consider using another Credit Card and inform them that a charge from BA will be forthcoming.

It seems like that your credit card was somehow marked as Fraud. So you may have to get the funds released and see if they can recharge the card for the amount and have BA ticketing just accept the new charges. Not sure about fare increases but I would first ask for them to work with your institution who issued your Credit Card.

Whenever a transaction is made it tests the card for validity and that you have enough funds to cover the transaction hence it shows "Pending". Sometimes charges fall off if the vendor does not "Authorize the card" for the real amount. In some instances a charge may be pending for a long time and it never posted so it just falls off. This may be part of the problem.

BA may have tried to authorize the card more than once and perhaps the credit limit was exceeded or the Bank saw multiple charges coming from BA and blocked it but then the Fraud department needed to contact you to authorize the charge.

Could there have been a double charge?

So many different reasons and its best to ask both your Credit Card issuer or BA Fraud Department and Reservations.

I know this may take time but you need to ask that you get what you paid for a ticket on the dates and time you had originally wanted.

Please let us know the outcome and if we can be of anymore assistance. I hope this gets sorted out to your advantage.

Dambus

Looks like another case of poor or non-existent communications and customer service from BA - to BAs financial benefit of course.

Given that the ticket (appears) to have already been cancelled and BA are highly unlikely to re-instate the booking your CC company may be your best (only?) recourse to recovering you money.

Guy Betsy

So don't book through airlines' own websites because they cane trust any transactions they receive as real. Look at the case of Air Canada when they cancelled a couple's return segment of a trip.

The best way to avoid this is to book through an OTA or travel agency.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guy Betsy

The best way to avoid this is to book through an OTA or travel agency.

Not true, an airline can and will suspend a TA issued ticket if fraud is suspected. You may or may not then have a helpful TA to work for you in getting things sorted, but pick the wrong TA and you're even worse off.

I'm a travel agent and I prefer to book directly with airlines!

madhukumail, welcome to FT, sorry to hear you're going through this. A tip, try not to focus on why this has happened and why it wasn't communicated - you won't get a satisfactory answer and it will just get more frustrating. Of course they should have tried to contact you - but now you need this resolved, focus on what needs to be done next to get the flights rebooked and the tickets reinstated, and leave the why it happened to afterwards, once you've got your booking back. It's understandable to want to know why this got messed up, but put it aside for now, and focus on what needs to be done to fix it. Call BA, have them Reebok the flights and have them contact the fraud dependent to find out what, if anything, they need from you to get this done.

Sam Bee

I'm not a Travel Agent, but I work in travel. An airline would *never* intervene with any ticket we issue on our own GDS *ever*. How would they know if a ticket is risky if we do not charge them using the clients credit card (we don't).

If there is any fraud committed, it's against us, and we have to sort it out. The airline is paid by BSP, they get money by us.

It's relevant as there are certain instances and certain countries where booking with a TA can be safer. My experiences with India would be one, as i've had airlines refuse to take my money. The trouble there is getting a reputable recommendation.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Bee

I'm not a Travel Agent, but I work in travel.

Before becoming a travel agent, I was previously with BA, and I've seen suspended TA issued tickets from both sides.

You're right that the TA does assume a lot of the risk in processing the payment. ARC in the US is slightly different from IATA BSPs however, and airlines will do what they need to do if necessary. It isn't common, just like the OPs situation isn't.

madhukumail

Thank you all for your support.

Early morning 3:30am CST I've received a call from BA customer support, give us final 24hrs time to final investigation and will get back to you. Whatever question I asked like how far you are with the investigation so far what you find out, he said, we are still in process.

One thing I'm confusing here, if I book new tickets for my parents with other airlines or BA for same travel dates, later BA comes back and say we reinitiated tickets and your parents are good to travel with old tickets, then I have to cancel either ticket with penalties?