inkiboo

BA are insisting that if I change the date on a companion voucher booking, I will need to pay an extra £270 per person in taxes (plus the £35 change fee).

If I were to make the booking separately on the same dates, I would be charged my original rate of tax and not the extra £270 per person.

They are saying that when you book, you are offered a lower rate of taxes but when you change, you have to pay the higher rate.

Is this correct? Never heard of this before and have changed many companion voucher flights.

mikeyfly

If you can book the new tickets at the same amount of fees and charges, then just pay the £35 cancel and rebook? Usually when reticketing / amending a Reward flight you would be subjected to any increase in fees that had happened since booking, but if they haven't increased I am not sure what the £270 would be for?

JAXBA

Not true in that sense. If taxes, fees, & charges (TFCs) have changed since the original booking, then you pay (or are refunded) the difference between the historical rate and today's rate.

There's no such thing as "introductory offer" TFCs…

chris1922Mk2

Is this to do with the new(ish) varying option of Avios and cash ? Rather than the old, one, default price ?

Sounds like nonsense to me, either HUACA or cancel original, and rebook the dates you want taking the £35 hit.

KARFA

What are you trying to change? Was this a voucher issued pre September 2021?

What are the taxes/fees/charges you paid as shown on your email eticket and what are they now if you price up the same flights?

inkiboo

It’s a return LGW-MCO, out WTP, back Club.

Original booking was £780 in taxes and 137500 miles.

We want to change the date on the return leg, and we are being quoted £305.77 per person including the change fee.

If I try and make the booking now, the cost for the taxes is coming out at the £780 in total.

I’m told that when I booked, I had reduced taxes and when I change, I need to pay the full taxes.

KARFA

Sounds an odd number of avios. So if this is a 241 booking for 2 people even with peak dates I would expect WTP+CW to be 50,000+75,000 which is 125,000 avios.

Actually I think I understand this now. When did you book this and when was the 241 issued? I think you may have made this after December 2022. You paid the lowest avios + max cash rate for your 241. These are the current RFS price points for 1 - so obviously if using a 241 double the cash figure. The 95000 avios price point would be the old band rate.

But I still don't understand what they are trying to get you to pay to do the change.

corporate-wage-slave

I think it is recognised within BA/BAEC that this is a messy area - there are several moving targets here (in terms of changing TFC amounts and changing policies) and individual agents may well be struggling to hit any of them. If the sum doesn't look right - and it doesn't look right to me - we're in the good old perseverance game, in terms of getting another agent to look at the problem.

LPQ

Another potential source of unexpected changes could be changes in fare/tax tables from 7 December 2022. For 2-4-1 bookings made before the December 2022 change, would a change in return date use the original avios/tax tables or be calculated as a new booking plus change fee?

inkiboo

I think I may have worked out it but it’s still wrong!

137,500 is correct for an off peak return LGW-MCO, out WTP, back Club (47.5 out, 90k back).

Those are both off peak.

The date we want to change the return to is peak. They said on the phone that the miles would stay the same, but the taxes would increase. Could that be the source of the confusion?

inkiboo

To also add, this has become a real issue rather than hypothetical as my wife went ahead with the change.

We have been charged the £305.77 per person in extra taxes (including change fee) and no extra miles have been taken from the account.

Original booking was made April 2023.

TheEscapist

No answers - but I've had a similar experience recently.

Redemption Club tickes booked MAN-LHR-SYD (as no LHR-SYD reward seats available at time of booking). Had called back to add the return and asked the agent to check if LHR-SYD was available for the outbound, advised that it was but first leg on the BA11 rather than all the way through on the BA15.

She claimed that there were two additional charges to make the change, first was the same as above - higher tax on the ticket (despite removal of the MAN-LHR sector) PLUS additional Singapore airport taxes because we were now 'connecting' from the 11 to the 15 rather than simply stopping off on the 15.

Refused the change as the total quoted was more than the train to Manchester and night in a hotel...

Cheers,

TheEscapist

inkiboo

To complete this, after contacting the CEO’s office, having already spoken to a variety of other agents, we got a resolution.

Money refunded and Avios as compensation for the time and trouble.

Phew.