TATL Same day flight change
 

Hello,

Looking for some help if possible. I have a flight to the States (JFK) in about 2 weeks and I’d ideally like to travel a little earlier than my scheduled 6pm flight.

I’ve upgraded the flight to Business using Avios.

I ideally need to be in New York a little earlier in the day now. Would I have a chance to swap to an earlier flight at a non ridiculous price?

Thanks for any help in advance

Well its going to depend on A) what the fare availability is like in WTP and B) if theres Avios availability. If theres Avios availability then you just pay the difference between the current WTP fare and new WTP fare.

If theres no Avios availability but you would still like to travel in Club it could be expensive.

Thanks, so it won’t be a simple £50 charge let’s say even if there’s space in either WTP or Club

I can hear BA yield management crying with laughter in the distance :p

I was quoted £2,145 to change my JFK-LHR-LUX to JFK-LHR-DUB. I know multi sector changes incur complicated repricings but that gives you a sample of how it often works. But you never know - it is worth asking.

No it depends on what fare is available for how how much you pay its not a fixed amount.

For short haul, same day flight changes are free, as long as there is availability. Did one myself this week.

For long haul, zero flexibility, as far as I am aware - it's a full reprice - even if the flight you want to move to has plenty of space.

I also have an 1800 flight to JFK coming up, and would also like to be there earlier. But sadly not possible without paying a big load of cash.

Anonba has already given the fully correct answer so I won't add anything, but I suspect the potential misunderstanding goes back to your thread title.

For BA, on a long haul flight* a "same day flight change" or any flight change will be treated exactly the same. There is no additional flexibility granted by going on the same day and if anything, same day would not allow changes on avios tickets. There is a difference in the repricing basis between changing your ticket before you have started your journey (e.g. taken your outbound) or after (repricing at current fare for the former, at historical fares for the latter) but any difference in fare will be due anyway. Currently, due to covid, you will avoid adding a change fee as long as it is your first voluntary change to the ticket (but not the difference in fare).

* I am specifying this because on short haul only, "economy plus" and club point to point fares specifically allow a same day flight change

As mentioned above, this is not altogether correct, ie only true if you are on a plus or club point to point fare. Otherwise (if you are in an economy basic fare or a short haul flight with any connection, whether short or long haul, difference in fare will be due.

When you're not on an upgrade book AA - they do same day change between LHR and JFK - worst case is $150.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/plan-travel/...day-travel.jsp

It's confirmed, not standby.

May be useful in the future or for others but AA will do same day confirmed change on LHR-JFK-LHR for $150. Not sure if in practice they can put you on AA coded BA flights but it's actually one route that this would make sense to have this flexibility on, especially as AA have left JFK at T5

If you're at LHR then worth asking in person, either bad weather or v busy / oversold flights may mean they'll be happy to get you away earlier but wouldn't plan around it otherwise. Not sure how things are these days but in my transatlantic commuting days a few years back JFK coming back to London was very fluid, they'd often proactively offer to get you away earlier IME

Coming back to this thread with all the current BA disruption/schedule changes.

I have another LHR-NYC trip in a few weeks, booked to arrive quite late in the evening. Still no flexibility in regards to trying to get on an earlier flight?

Thanks

Nope unless you have a full fare ticket or pay the fare difference. The current travel waiver ended July 25th.

If resurrecting you should update us on what happened with your original post :)

Did you ask/manage to change?

Apologies, yes I did and was quoted something ridiculous in the 000s as was speculated up thread that I would be.

On a recent return from JFK in May I was in F on the BA114 at 2130 and looked online in the morning to see if I could move to an earlier flight as I had lots of spare time. BA.com quoted me a figure of around £11,000 to change that leg. Yikes. The original F fare was about £1700 return, bought in the sales in late 2020 for mid 2021 and rebooked a couple of times through BWC to 2022. Needless to say I just spent the extra hour or two in the CCR instead !!

As mentioned, the situation is currently just the same as before - however do keep checking the Ba website (or here), there was a 2 week period when changes and even bwc type vouchers were allowed due to the disruption, and of course if your flight is cancelled you can also rebook on any other flight with space in the same cabin.

finally, if you booked your flight before the bwc policy was ended in early June you are allowed one change for fare difference (but no change fee), but given how packed flights are at the moment that will likely still prove very expensive.