Wingnut

I have a bunch of LONE4s that I booked through BA (which I'm beginning to suspect was a major mistake).

I had a nightmare booking them, which need not detain us now (briefly the booking was mishandled initially by a number of different agents so it didn't get to / from the fares department and held seats were lost without notice and then the inventory had gone etc etc etc).

Now I'm trying to make a date change. It's not the first segment. It's an AA flight. Routing (indeed, flight number) remains the same, just one day later. The L class inventory is there.

The Delhi call centre is insisting that there is a $125 fee payable for this change. I explicitly confirmed when booking the fare that there was no change fee for a date only change, whereas a routing change (or initial segment change) would incur a re-fare and a fee.

So I called the UK sales office. They confirm there shouldn't be a fee. But they can't make the change because they just sell flights. So they put me through to Delhi, who say there's a fee.

The One World website says that only reroutes will incur a fee. It also says to call the airline you're flying on for the relevant segment, so I call AA but they say only BA can make the change.

What can I do? I really want to make the change ASAP so I can make plans around it (and before the inventory goes).

Flexible preferences

A change fee seems reasonable to me to cover the agent's time and the back office work in processing this change. 125US seems too steep though, maybe more like 50US would be fair.

nufnuf77

There is no such a thing as fare fee being fair. The fee is not payable for this change. No more discussion. Ask the agent to check with the fares team or to read the fare rules in full (it would take at least 30 min to actually go through them all).

Anonba

Anonba

Flexible preferences

I was wondering in case it wasn't a ticketing charge being quoted, but a BA amendment charge (much as a travel agent would charge a fee)...

Wingnut

Thanks for your replies.

There was talk of "sending it to fares" but I'm not sure whether the fares team are there on a Sunday and this was certainly a "we'll email it off and wait for a response" suggestion rather than a "please hold for a few minutes" suggestion.

How / on what number? The only way I found to the UK team on a Sunday was via the sales number 0844 493 0787. The make a change number 0344 493 0787 only seemed to route to Delhi. The customer relations number not open at weekends.

simons1

I don't follow....surely it depends on the fare rules of the ticket?

With the greatest of respect whether you find it reasonable or fair isn't really of much help to the OP.

corporate-wage-slave

Now you are of course ringing on an overseas mobile (and there is no need to clarify this), since BA does hand this number out if your mobile struggles with non geographical numbers.
+44 191 246 3933

I thought there was a USD 125 charge for changes after the first flight. This relatively elderly PDF gives the fare rules
https://www.oneworld.com/documents/1...9-d346ec820edf

nufnuf77

And these are the fare rules for LONE3 for LHR-origin (but they dont really differ from other geographies):

CHANGES

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHARGE USD 125.00 FOR REISSUE.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR
FAMILY MEMBER.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
LOCAL SERVICE FEES MAY APPLY ON REROUTING/REISSUE
-------------------------------------------------
CHANGES BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHANGES TO TICKETED POINTS ARE PERMITTED AT A
CHARGE OF USD 125.00 PER TRANSACTION.
IF THE FARE LEVEL HAS INCREASED SINCE TICKET
ISSUANCE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW
FARE WILL ALSO BE CHARGED. IF THE FARE LEVEL HAS
DECREASED SINCE TICKET ISSUANCE NO REFUND WILL
APPLY.

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHANGES PERMITTED FOR REVALIDATION.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
LOCAL SERVICE FEES MAY APPLY ON REBOOKING
-------------------------------------------------
CHANGES BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHANGES ARE PERMITTED PROVIDED TICKETED POINTS
REMAIN THE SAME. IF THE FIRST FLIGHT COUPON IS
BEING CHANGED AND THE FARE LEVEL HAS INCREASED
SINCE TICKET ISSUANCE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
OLD AND NEW FARE BE CHARGED.
IF THE FARE LEVEL HAS DECREASED SINCE TICKET
TICKET ISSUANCE NO REFUND WILL APPLY.

AFTER DEPARTURE
CHARGE USD 125.00 FOR NO-SHOW/REISSUE.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR
FAMILY MEMBER.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
LOCAL SERVICE FEES MAY APPLY ON REROUTING/REISSUE
-------------------------------------------------
CHANGES AFTER DEPARTURE
CHANGES TO TICKETED POINTS PERMITTED AT A
CHARGE OF USD125.00 PER TRANSACTION.
-
NO SHOW REQUIRES REBOOKING AT A CHARGE OF USD
125.00.
-
IF THE REROUTING RESULTS IN AN INCREASE TO THE
NUMBER OF THE CONTINENTS OR EXTRA FLIGHT SEGMENTS
PREVIOUSLY CHARGED THE TICKET SHALL RECALCULATED.
TICKET MAY BE REISSUED TO ANY APPLICABLE EXPLORER
FARE VALIDATING ALL RULES OF THE NEW FARE EXCEPT
FOR RESTRICTIONS ON RETROACTIVE USE.
REROUTING FEE APPLIES WHEN THE RESULTING FARE IS
LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO THE ORIGINAL FARE. NO
REFUND APPLIES. SEE UPGRADING PROVISIONS WHEN
RECALCULATION RESULTS IN A NEW FARE BASIS AT A
HIGHER VALUE.

AFTER DEPARTURE
CHANGES PERMITTED FOR REVALIDATION.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
LOCAL SERVICE FEES MAY APPLY ON REBOOKING
-------------------------------------------------
CHANGES AFTER DEPARTURE
CHANGES ARE PERMITTED PROVIDED TICKETED POINTS
REMAIN THE SAME.

CANCELLATIONS

CHARGE 10 PERCENT FOR CANCEL/NO-SHOW/REFUND.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR
FAMILY MEMBER.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
LOCAL SERVICE FEES MAY APPLY ON REFUND.
-------------------------------------------------
CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS
AFTER TICKET ISSUE - CANCELLATION/NO-SHOW FORFEIT
10PCT OF TICKETED FARE FOR ECONOMY CLASS FARES.
---
IN CASE OF REFUSAL OF OFFICAL DOCUMENTS/ENTRY
PERMIT/VISA A FULL REFUND WILL APPLY PROVIDED
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION FROM THE APPROVED AUTHORITY
IS PRODUCED AND ATTACHED TO THE REFUND REQUEST.
-
FOR PARTIALLY USED TRANSPORTATION THE REFUND IF
ANY WILL BE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FARE PAID AND
THE FARE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION USED LESS THE
FEE AMOUNT SPECIFED ABOVE.
-
UPGRADING
1. AN ECONOMY ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE MAY BE
UPGRADED TO A HIGHER TIERED OR FIRST/BUSINESS
CLASS ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE WITHOUT FEE.
2. A BUSINESS ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE MAY BE
UPGRADED TO A HIGHER TIERED OR A FIRST
CLASS ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE WITHOUT FEE.
3. A FIRST CLASS ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE MAY BE
UPGRADED TO A HIGHER TIERED ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE
WITHOUT FEE.
4. UPGRADING BY SECTOR TO BUSINESS/FIRST CLASS IS
NOT PERMITTED.
5. AT ANY TIME THE ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE MAY BE
USED AS CREDIT TOWARDS PAYMENT OF ANY HIGHER FARE
FROM THE POINT OF ORIGIN PROVIDED THE CONDITIONS
OF THE HIGHER FARE HAVE BEEN MET. NO FEE WILL
APPLY. WHERE SUCH CREDIT IS TOWARDS ANOTHER
EXPLORER FARE -RETROACTIVE USE WILL BE PERMITTED.
REISSUED TICKETS MUST BE ENDORSED - NONREF/XXX -
WHERE XXX EQUALS ONEWORLD EXPLORER FARE BASIS
CODE -AND THE ORIGINAL NON-REFUNDABLE AMOUNT
REMAINS NON-REFUNDABLE. IF THE UPGRADED TICKETS IS
SUBSEQUENTLY CANCELLED THE ORIGINAL FEE WILL
APPLY.
---
FOR TICKETS SOLD IN VENEZUELA ANY FULL OR PARTIAL
REFUND MUST BE PROCESSED THROUGH THE ORIGINAL
ISSUING LOCATION IN VENEZUELA.

nufnuf77

From fare rules I posted from expertflyer it seems there indeed is USD125 fee reissue fee.

Wingnut

In which case the issue is with the UK sales office not the Delhi call centre as I was explicitly told when booking (and again when calling today) that date only changes incurred no fee.

Dave Noble

From the rules you quoted, there is no chane fee as long as it is only a date/time change

The relevant part is

As can be seen, there is no change fee associated with this

simons1

Not from my reading there isn't.

corporate-wage-slave

As tends to be the case, we don't have enough information to be sure. E.g. has the first leg been flown? Is the exact same inventory being used? Have the taxes been recomputed?