RayZim

I booked a family holiday to Zimbabwe in August with BA 3 months ago. LHR-Jo'burg-Vic Falls return from Harare-JNB-LHR. BA just cancelled the JNB- Vic falls flight and the Harare-JNB flights. I phoned service centre and was told they could not get us to our destination and what did I want to do. I had already done some research and there was no available JNB -Vic falls flights on that day. Ethiopian airlines did go from LHR to Vic falls. BA said they did not code share with Ethiopian Airlines. I would have to do it myself. I asked to cancel LHR - JNB flight for a refund and use the money to buy Ethiopian ticket.
I was also due a refund for the two BA (comair)flights that BA cancelled in and out of Zimbabwe. I found a Fast Jet flight to replace the Harare - JNB canceled flight but it was 2 hrs later and a bit tight transfer to catch the BA JNB- LHR return flight. It was suggested I take a later evening return BA flight which worked fine.
So basically I was cancelling my flights for a full refund and booking a single return front JNB to LHR. And arraigning the other flights myself.
She said I was only allowed one change and was I happy with the changes. I agreed and she said I would be getting a refund in 5 - 7 days. She booked our later BA flight and said it was asking for a seat fee but as we had already paid £144 for seats it should be free.. She said she would look into this and to check MY BOOKINGS on the web later.
I then proceeded to book the Ethiopia LHR- Vic Falls outward ticked and a Fast Jet HRE- JNB. Expecting a refund for the BA flights soon.
I checked later only to find MY Bookings was asking us to pay for the seats on the changed flight. I also noticed I still had an outward BA flight which should of been canceled and refunded.
I tried to contact BA again but only managed to get through early next morning. They said I was only allowed one change and on their system I now had a LHR- JNB return ticket only, there was also no refund for the BA canceled flights as I had made a change. I tried to explain this was wrong that the changes were not just one flight, but they were not interested. I asked them to review the recording and was told I had agreed on the recording . !! (They are obviously not going to admit wrong) But would not give me a copy of the recording.
I now have a LHR- JNB return ticket and no way to get to Vic Falls (our destination) . I have also purchased an Ethiopian Air LHR - Vic Falls ( but no refund money to help pay for it) .
So I can get to Vic Falls with Ethiopian Air. But as I would not be using the BA flight LHR - JNB , BA said they would cancel my return JNB-LHR. !!

I have tried six times now but each say they are not interested and keep suggesting I could cancel my return ticket (with no refund) and buy another single ticket.
Given that these long hall flights are in the £1000's for a family are not cheep.

We are out of pocket an extra £2250 which we cant afford for alternative flights and still no closer to getting to and from our holiday.
Anyone with any suggestions? I feel the call centre made a mistake which is conveniently profiting BA..

mikeyfly

They very much do admit when wrong on a recording. I had a holiday priced differently last year to what MMB said, I called, queried, and indeed after half hour or so, they called back and lowered the balance to pay online to the price I had been told on the phone previously.

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA Forum, I'm sorry this event brought you here, indeed you may well have got different advice had you raised it here first, I don't think your plan was efficient even if BA had done as you suggested. All you can do in this space is keep calling BA, in case an agent takes pity on your case, but I rather suspect they have put notes on your booking and therefore won't budge. If that's the case all you can do is raise a customer complaint after travel and then potentially take the matter to either a small claims court or CEDR, a dispute resolution service. There is some more information about this in the EC261 thread, which you will find via the BA Forum Dashboard.

EC261 does give you some protection in this space since this is the area where BA have to offer a rebooking, which it appears they have not done, from what you have said, and furthermore then treated you unfairly in the way they made changes to your reservation. I doubt you can do much until you do travel, but you can in theory pursue BA for whatever it is that you are out of pocket. At this stage I would make a note of the sequence of events and phone calls, since your memory may blur details over time. You can also seek a data protection disclosure on your booking and what personal information (ie phone calls) exist about the booking. They don't have a choice about that, it has to be disclosed to you. I guess you could have a dialogue with your credit card company if you believe you have paid for one thing and received a different thing altogether, but you best work on the Section 19 rights with the credit card company first, since this is sometimes more complex than it looks.

ScienceTeacher

You can’t claim a full refund, and keep the return segment of your journey JNB - LHR. I suppose what you should be asking for is a refund of the LHR - JNB, JNB - VCA, and HRE - JNB segments since they were cancelled.

RayZim

Yes that's exactly what I was asking on the call. A refund of the two outgoing flights and the 1st return flight. Refunding 3 out of the four flights leaving just one BA return.
She even said 'so we are canceling the London - Vic Falls leg. and HRE- JNB.

Yes I suspect the first person I spoke to after the error had decided not to entertain without checking and put a note on the system as subsequent call backs refer to ''my notes say you have already made a change and cant do another ''. Although fuming I never lost my rag on the phone.

Question is do I now have to book another JNB- LHR one way, or hope they don't cancel my existing return as I wont be getting on the outgoing BA flight.
Would It say on the ticket they will auto cancel return flights if outgoing missed.? or is it automatic. ?

RayZim

On the original booking the email says you have 24 hrs to check your ticket and can cancel free of charge under some rule.
Does this not also apply to the rebooking as there is no way of checking the operator has done what is asked. ?

corporate-wage-slave

Generally if you miss the first leg of the ticket as currently ticket, you are at substantial risk of automatic cancellation of all following sectors. So it's critical to find out what exactly BA will be ticketting and try your best to negotiate a better solution than you have at the moment. Otherwise frankly you may as well book a completely new set of tickets. This precisely why there is consumer protection via EC261, which forces BA to rebook you on an alternative services, but if BA has reason to believe you did request cancellation of the sectors BA have cancelled then you've got quite a weak hand. Clearly the tape may show otherwise that explains the adviice I gave earlier.

Rebooking is not subject to the 24 hour rule, and cancellations cannot be undone without management intervention. There's no button an agent can press to undo it.

RayZim

I may have said on the phone to cancel the two already BA cancelled flights meaning I wanted a refund not rebooking on another flight. I presumed you can't cancel a booking BA has already cancelled ..So canceled only for refund not rebooking options and I didn't want rebooking to days later.
As I'm not a seasoned flyer maybe I worded it wrong. But It was clear on the call I was expecting a refund for the cancelled flights to pay for the alternative flights. If there was no refund coming she should of said and not said It would be 5 -7 days. Hopefully the recording will shed some light..
Unfortunately at this stage and with the prices of return flights on the day buying more long hall flights isn't an option. Hopefully Local SA airlines might take up the gap Comair has left and a JNB - Vic falls flight appears. ..

Globaliser

On which LHR-JNB flight are you booked? Is it the same flight that you originally booked? Is the problem that the agent cancelled the JNB-VFA and HRE-JNB sectors, but failed to cancel the LHR-JNB sector so that it is still there?

If that is right, then what you need is for the LHR-JNB to be cancelled too, as you think you originally asked for. That shouldn't be complicated, and would leave you with the JNB-LHR sector that you still want to use on this ticket.

What is more complicated is working out whether the agent misunderstood you or made a mistake in not cancelling the LHR-JNB sector as well. That could only be resolved by listening to the recording. For example, if you said that you want to leave "just one BA return", that could be interpreted as meaning that you wanted a LHR-JNB-LHR "return ticket". (In this respect, the English terms "single ticket" and "return ticket" are dreadfully ambiguous, even though they're used widely here. The industry standard terms "one-way" and "round-trip" are much better.)

One thing that I always do when making a booking or making a change on the phone is to ensure that before the end of the call the agent reads back exactly what the booking now has. If this had been done, then you would have heard that the LHR-JNB sector was still in the booking, or that the agent had changed the LHR-JNB sector to another date. Most agents I have talked to have insisted on doing the read-back without my asking. Again, the recording will show whether or not this was done.

RayZim

The LHR-JNB flight is still the same as the original booking. The JNB-VFA and HRE-JNB sectors were canceled by BA which is how we started in this mess. They failed to cancel the LHR-JNB sector and is still there. I have tried to get them to cancel the LHR-JNB sector but they say that can't be changed as this would leave a single return and they would have to issue a whole new ticket. with no refunds.

Globaliser

The aim would be to demonstrate to them that you originally asked for LHR-JNB, JNB-VFA and HRE-JNB to be cancelled, and to put that right now. But the recording would be needed to show whether or not that was what you had asked for.

Did the agent read back the amended booking to you before you ended the call?

RayZim

I do recall the agent reading back what she thought I wanted to do, Then I added I wanted the canceled flight refunds and i was using just the one flight out of the 4 flights originally booked. But while all this was happening I got an email of the flight change with the later outward flight booking. I think she already done the change while we were still talking instead of waiting till the end and deciding best way to tick all requirements.

Globaliser

I'm confused. Earlier you said that the outbound flight had not been changed. And now you say that during the call you got an email showing that the outbound flight was changed to a later one. And if you didn't want an outbound flight at all and that was a mistake, you were still on the call.

SK AAR

Would the OP be able to get a partial refund for the return flight? The return flight is HRE-JNB-LHR and the OP is basically asking for rerouting of the return flight to JNB-LHR (which may be more expensive that HRE-JNB-LHR; I have not checked); I'm not sure if that is going to fly.

The outbound flights can obviously be cancelled.

RayZim

Yes sorry ment JNB -LRH, 2nd part of the return leg that was moved to a later time to enable us to catch a later HRE-JNB flight replacing the flight BA had cancelled . What would you call one of the return legs of a homeward bound ticket. The 1st or 2nd return flight? Or would that imply a 2 way ticket.