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Old Sep 26, 2017, 10:24 am
  #1  
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refund due to schedule change

I have an award booking issued on BA stock for AA-operated flight between MIA and AUA. There is a schedule change of 45 minutes (arrival 45 minutes later than originally booked). BA cannot accommodate on an earlier flight saying that there is no award space. And it also refuses to issue full refund of avios and taxes claiming that the time change needs to be greater than 3 hours for a full refund.

Is this in line with BA policy?

Thank you for your help.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 10:56 am
  #2  
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I think it's 2 hours before you can a free refund, but you will only lose a few dollars on that, you will get all the Avios back. The service fee is USD 55 but is deducted from the cash already spent and no extra is charged to release the Avios. Frankly given the timekeeping out of MIA I'd imagine you would be in Aruba no more than 20 minutes behind schedule, may be less than that.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 11:10 am
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Originally Posted by olm022
Is this in line with BA policy?
Yes.

BA needs the same space available to be able to rebook on another airline's flight - even on a partner. They can't just take any seat.

BA's policy on cancelling is for schedule changes of 2 hours or greater. AA's seems to be only 1 hour, but that still doesn't help.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 11:27 am
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BA can request AA to make a seat available, it might take a few days to sort out (if at all doable).
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 11:59 am
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Thank you all for your feedback. Good to know about 2-hour rule (re: refund) so not to book with BA in future.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 12:31 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by olm022
Thank you all for your feedback. Good to know about 2-hour rule (re: refund) so not to book with BA in future.
How come 45 minutes is throwing your itinerary out so much you need to change flights?

Out of curiosity which airline allows free changes for flight time changes of 45 minutes btw?
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 12:41 pm
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The group will have arrived by 14:30 and will be waiting for me for over an hour. Landing at 16:11 is already asking them to wait too long, but now landing at 17:00 is an overstetch.

In past, LH, OS, AF, LX and LO allowed free refund, especially on award bookings for a schedule change of 30-minutes and more, although some first would not but after not being able to offer the rebooking option, they gladly offered refund.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 12:57 pm
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Originally Posted by KARFA
How come 45 minutes is throwing your itinerary out so much you need to change flights?

Out of curiosity which airline allows free changes for flight time changes of 45 minutes btw?
I believe the OP is looking for a free rebooking rather than being actually inconvenienced by this schedule change.

For your information I was able to get a free rebooking last week for a LH M&M award. There was schedule change of 15 min for my HKT-BKK evening flight with TG. Not really a big issue, but I would prefer to travel in the morning (same date) so I inquired to get rebooked stating that the new flight time was inconvenient to me. Rebooking was granted after agent checking that award seats were available and obtaining authorisation to rebook from back-office/supervisor (or whoever the agent asked). Kudos to M&M.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:00 pm
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Originally Posted by KARFA
Out of curiosity which airline allows free changes for flight time changes of 45 minutes btw?
Plenty - LH, LX, AA, KL, UA from my experience. My favourite was BD - you used to be able to convince Dennis (or one of his colleagues) at Pune to make a change with only a 5 min schedule change
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:22 pm
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Originally Posted by olm022
The group will have arrived by 14:30 and will be waiting for me for over an hour. Landing at 16:11 is already asking them to wait too long, but now landing at 17:00 is an overstetch.

In past, LH, OS, AF, LX and LO allowed free refund, especially on award bookings for a schedule change of 30-minutes and more, although some first would not but after not being able to offer the rebooking option, they gladly offered refund.
for those of the airlines that you mention which I know quite well, your experience is certainly not their normal policy so I'd say you were on a rather lucky streak (unless you are HON in which case everything becomes a lot more flexible!!)

2hr is par for the course, neither amongst the best nor amongst the worst. Under 2hrs, qr wouldn't even waive the change fee to get on another flight.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:31 pm
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Call AA and see if it will take over the ticket and change it for you. There may be a $50 fee for taking over the ticket.

If OP were on an AA ticket, AA would likely make the change for any decent reason even though it need not. But, this is not an AA ticket and BA has no reason to do anything.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:33 pm
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My assumption is that if I can't be rerouted, I should be refunded. Yet I can't be refunded because the inconvenience caused by the retiming is not inconvenient enough, according to BA.

But like I said, lesson learnt not to deal with BA. I don't think that I was lucky with other airlines when a 30+ minute time change occurred and I was refunded (not always rerouted but always refunded). In many cases, these 30 extra minute do make difference....
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:35 pm
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Originally Posted by rossmacd
Plenty - LH, LX, AA, KL, UA from my experience. My favourite was BD - you used to be able to convince Dennis (or one of his colleagues) at Pune to make a change with only a 5 min schedule change
Flybe were willing to refund me for a 30 min change
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:37 pm
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Originally Posted by olm022
My assumption is that if I can't be rerouted, I should be refunded. Yet I can't be refunded because the inconvenience caused by the retiming is not inconvenient enough, according to BA.

But like I said, lesson learnt not to deal with BA. I don't think that I was lucky with other airlines when a 30+ minute time change occurred and I was refunded (not always rerouted but always refunded). In many cases, these 30 extra minute do make difference....
That's your assumption and your decision, but the reduction in airline choice may disadvantage you in the future though.
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Old Sep 26, 2017, 1:43 pm
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Originally Posted by olm022
The group will have arrived by 14:30 and will be waiting for me for over an hour. Landing at 16:11 is already asking them to wait too long, but now landing at 17:00 is an overstetch.
There's a reason airports have bars and coffee shops landside. Lord knows, that's how 10 years of rugby tours with my friends have always started: meet at the bar at Dublin/Edinburgh/etc landside on Friday afternoon.....

Your group might also be late for some reason and so no need to fret.
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