sPaCePiR8

Dear FT BA forum,

Lurking around most of the time here, but I do not recall reading about people with a similar issue so decided to open a thread myself.

Here’s the situation: I am travelling about once per week from LHR to MUC and back for work, flights are always booked in Economy, booking class B through our corporate travel agent and paid directly by the company, i.e. not charged through my personal credit card.

On a recent trip, I dediced to hit the “Upgrade” button in the BA app and it showed a price of EUR 31 to upgrade my next return leg from MUC back to LHR to CE. An absolute no brainer for the additional TPs gained so I put in my personal credit card details, payment was taken and the booking upgraded - worked like a charm!

On my current trip this weekend I decided to do the same. While waiting for my outbound flight in the lounge at LHR, I checked whether it was possible to upgrade the return leg via the BA app. Pressed the upgrade button and the price quoted was EUR 21 and some cents (don’t recall the exact amount). Since it worked well last time (c. 4 weeks ago), I decide to go for it again. My booking is upgraded and I choose a seat in business class, however when I’m checking my Amex statement the next day I see a charge from BA to the tune of EUR 833.62. Called them up immediately but since it was a Saturday, the lady on the other end could only confirm that the payment was related to this particular trip, but that someone who could look into the issue in more depth would only be around from Monday onwards.

Since it worked so well the first time around, I obviously did not take any screenshots as proof of the quoted price.

Before calling BA again tomorrow, I wanted to see whether someone around here came across a problem like that before and how it was eventually rectified?

Thank you very much in advance!

Krisz

You should got an email from BA to confirm the change of booking and the price they cost that change.
Also you can use checkmytrip website and you can see what is the latest status of the e-ticket. My corp TA pays via direct to BA so when I upgrade I can see the payment and fare details of the upgrade itself as I paid that on my cc.
That should contain some details and some others in this forum can shed a light what those means, etc.

sPaCePiR8

Thanks Krisz.

I just double checked my emails from BA for both changed bookings from four weeks ago and this weekend and both times I received an email which was titled “Confirmation of changes to your booking” and the only content in there under summary of changes was “Seat Request” - nowhere did it mention the amount I was being charged or confirmed the new booking class.

EsherFlyer

If this was a POUG then the emails I get are from ba.e-ticket@, subject "... changed e-receipt..." and contain the magic phrase "total new payment". The seem to get sent to the address that our corp TA sends through, or if I've added my BAEC number to the reservation it arrives at the (non-work) one that I use for BAEC.

Seat request changes come through to the address that I put in the booking for contact details, which is a "vanity" variant of one of the other two so defeated the initial mail handling rule that I'd set up.

So, make sure all three of those at pointing at something that you'll receive.

Krisz

Do let us know what’s happened with BA. I’m thinking more and more that a change price over 800 Eur one way has to be a mistake. I’m sure the full price J ticket is around that figure but your are upgrading from B which most of the time is flexible too. (And expensive) C tickets goes around 600eur so the difference has to be in a few hundred eur even wouthout the special offer.
Without any email or confirmation you need to speak with BA and maybe with your Corp TA but as the ticket was most likely changed within 24 hours of the flight then BA took it over from the TA.
If BA is just pain and doesn’t lead anywhere I would follow up with your credit card company as an unauthorised payment so they will investigate and let you know what BA is saying.

sPaCePiR8

This is pretty much my thought process as well. Seems like a non-contentious hickup, especially since the exact same thing worked fine a month ago, but we’ll see.
Called BA yesterday in the UK and Germany, both said they couldn’t help over the phone and to file a complaint via email which is what I did...will keep you posted on the progress