TTmex

Morning

I've just had a flight cancelled at Easter from Malpensa to London. I have the rebooking option online, but I was curious before i do anything to know whether it is possible to upgrade without the typical change penalty when doing this, i.e. if rebooked onto the new flight, can I request for them to charge me the price differential for ET to CE without the typical 60 gbp fee that they slap on when you do this normally? The difference appears to be a reasonable 70 gbp, which is better than the POUGs I had been getting. (149)

Any ideas? We're set to lose 4.5 hours of our trip due to this changed flight, so if I can't do the upgrade, I'll shift ot the following day.

Thanks a lot
ttmex

babats

If they charge the change fee, you may have the option to cancel your original booking and then re-book in CE.

Often1

To be clear, OP has the absolute right to cancel for a full fee-free refund. There is no "may" about it.

He may then book anything he wishes (or not). While it would make sense for BA to simply rebook into CE for the fare difference, it is worth asking once and that is it.

TTmex

Thanks, yep. I am aware of the refund option. My concern is originally paid with paypal some months and that account no longer exists, so I need to ask BA exactly how they'd refund it, or whether they can just give it to me in credit.

I'm curious as to what flexibility I get in terms of changing cabins or even changing fare buckets to an upgradeable via avios one due to the cancellation. Definite bonus is now have to option to switch from original decision to fly out of Malpensa to returning via Linate, which I believe is a much nicer airport and more centrally located.

corporate-wage-slave

I'm not sure I would use the word "nicer" in respect of Linate, MXP is the more modern, efficient and user friendly airport, but Linate is certainly more central.

But yes, the agent may get permission to avoid a change fee in this circumstance, I've known that to happen but I think it needs supervisory sign off. Otherwise if you cancel, that refund is strictly to the original method of payment, so Paypal. It's worth bearing in mind that if you cannot access the original account then Paypal is far more problematic than a credit card, hence I would tend to steer clear of that method of payment.

If you get moved to another flight, you would be put into the lowest available bucket, but there is a mechanism - which doesn't always work... - to redefine your booking into the original fare bucket. But it is worth looking for flights where Q, O and G are zero

TTmex

Oh that's great advice... As always.
I think I noticed the linate was steering me to V on the ba site, so I'm guessing that means the low buckets are zeroed out. Could be a good chance for extra 5 tps haha

Often1

The fact that you have closed your PayPal account does not affect your ability to obtain a refund. If BA refunds to your closed account, PayPal will simply contact you with a request for instructions and a default option which will be to credit a bank account it either has on file or which you provide.

For the benefit of others, I would never use PayPal or anything other than a credit card to pay for good or services to be provided in the future. While you have many consumer protections via ordinary bank accounts, credit card protections tend to be more ironclad and much easier to exercise.

TTmex

I shifted the inbound to a day later. Appeared that O,G and Q were zeroed out, but seems to have shifted across to O fare bucket anyway.

Oh well. If the POUG drops to 99 I'll bite