likethis

HIDDY

The thread title was never going to get the sympathy vote especially with the OP having Gold status.

IAN-UK

Indeed. Having got the OP over a barrel, the airline can apply its very own droit du seigneur.

Fair only because that's how revenue management works. There was a time when premium-class fares were uniformly high, but had flexibility built-in. We've got to accept that access to lower fares for can bring unexpected costs: that's where insurance policies can come in handy.

Vasco Pridat

I'm surprised Noone asked about the price for the ticket? If you paid 10.000 and are now faced with those facts I can see frustration...
If u paid 2000.. Frustration doesn't make sense.
There's a bucket of the cheapest tickets on the market. They are gone quick. In f and c..
So now u wanna change.. And it's obviously busy as f is sold out. So guess what's left in club ? Yess. The most expensive tickets.. Of course they are more than the cheapest f tickets.
Guess what.. You Gotta pay the difference .
Makes sense, aj

Abstract1

I think this is a new and quite common problem. In the 'old' days when you had an A class ticket with the first flight flown it would generally just cost 300 to change if you could get it. But now it seems to be based on the business availability (for the first class price)...which i think is quite odd.

LondonElite

This really boils down to a lack of understanding or appreciation of how fare classes work. From that perspective, the OP makes perfectly understandable sense.

simonrp84

Indeed. There's a lot of people here who fly so much and know so much that they lose a bit of perspective about the knowledge that the rest of us have. The vast majority of passengers have no idea what the different fare buckets are (I include myself in that). To be honest I think a lot of airlines misunderstand their customers on this too, making the fare structure so complex must cause them all sorts of customer service headaches.

orbitmic

twoclubs

Should have mentioned why I needed to change flight
On a connecting from CPT and my wife was taken ill and offloaded when we arrived at JNB and sent direct to hospital for 7 days..
Arrived back from JNB this morning and the ground staff were aware of what had happened to us without us telling them and I learnt that I did every thing wrong.
Should have contacted the local office and now they could have helped me. This was not a case of willingly wanting to change a flight but of medical necessity.
Came back in club but received first class service from excellent crew until you get back to heathrow when assistance was non existent

Kgmm77

Globaliser

BA now has dual inventory A class fares, too, each of which also requires inventory to be available in a specific CW booking class - just as WT+ DIFs require inventory to be available in specific WT booking classes in addition to T class.

But given the figures quoted by the OP, it doesn't sound like this was the problem.

Globaliser

The system is never going to be "transparent" so long as there are private deals that only some people can benefit from (like the OP on that thread).

Published fares are pretty transparent. You can get almost all of the rules from sources like EF or ITA. The problem is that many people confuse "transparent" and "simple". The system is never going to be simple so long as the structure of the industry is such that airlines have to try to extract from each passenger on a flight the maximum amount that they are prepared to pay, even though every passenger on that flight will simultaneously depart and arrive at the same times and places regardless of the fare that they've paid.

And this is why the system is anything but an anachronistic relic. The complexity has only increased over the years, in every corner of the industry. Recently, the additional complexity introduced by DIFs has been introduced as a way of artificially simulating additional booking classes in cabins in which there is a tight limit on the number of actual booking classes: 3 in WT+ and 2 in F. None of this is going away any time soon.

If you really think that this is a system which is past its time, then perhaps you could tell us what it ought to be replaced by? It's highly likely that the replacement would be something that we wouldn't like. I'd rather that we all had a better understanding of why we benefit from what we have got, and how we can make the most of the system.

Kgmm77

orbitmic

Not entirely - I think that Globaliser was mostly trying to spell out the alternative.

It reminds me a discussion with my brother. He is the sort who often books tickets very late in the day as he doesn't like to commit to a specific day and time in advance, and he is always shocked by price levels. When he compares to the prices that I pay by booking very early on and accepting little to no flexibility on many of my itineraries, he then complains that it is very unfair.

He used to live in Japan and I pointed out to him that the alternative system is the Japanese train one. Everyone pays the same price for the same itinerary but the train fares are actually very high. In my view, Globaliser was merely making the same point: pointing out that the alternative model to complexity is one where effectively, leisure travellers and those who can accept less flexibility, more inconvenient itineraries or times, and early commitment would subsidise corporate travellers who can only book their trip very late in the day, need flexibility, nonstop flights at peak time. Instead of they paying £10,000 where I pay £2,000, we would all be paying £5,000.

In fact, this is also very similar to the airline world till the early 1980s. People are quick to point out that fares have decreased a lot, but in fact, while they have decreased a little, it is mostly a case that they have differentiated a lot. The flexible fares have not really decreased much at all, but airlines have started differentiating prices a lot according to flexibility with "discounted" fares for less flexibility or more inconvenience itineraries , whereas 30 years ago, the most differentiation you might have got (and not even with all airlines) was peak/off peak periods, one way or return, and in some cases some advance purchase.

That's what the transparent and equal world would entail: forget Y returns from Europe to the US for under £800-1000 return, forget J returns for under £2500-3000, etc.

So yes, as you say, Globaliser may have said that he prefers the current system of complexity and opacity to that alternative (as do I), but more importantly, he spelt out what that alternative is: not just a rosy world of transparency and flexibility, but a significant increase in low end prices as leisure travellers and those willing to accept restrictions to be able to fly within a budget would end up subsidising corporate travellers who currently pay a significant premium for flexibility (and then get a discount back on the super high premium so that they can be charged more than us whilst considering that they have a good deal). Not an unimportant precision.

orbitmic

PS: OP I'm really sorry about your circumstances. I realise that this must be a very traumatic and unpleasant episode. Unfortunately, it serves as a reminder to all of us about the importance of travel insurance: problems occur when you least expect it and in a case like this, even mediocre insurance policies would cover the costs.

It is also true that in such cases, it is certainly worth calling BA in advance and offering to send in a medical certificate. The airline has policies in a range of situations (illness, loss of a relative, etc) with solutions that can range from waiving the change fee to allowing a cancellation depending on the circumstances (agents have fairly specific guidelines) but it is true that this is best arranged with the call centre and it is important to give the agents the circumstances and be ready to provide evidence if asked.

I sincerely hope that your wife makes a full and speedy recovery.