SDUKAG

I am trying really hard to quit BA and indeed have mostly done so having gone from GGL to 210 TP and won't renew Gold this year. But seems like they want to give me a tap out of the door (fair enough!)
I have however taken one flight in First and have another one booked.
This second booking I needed to cancel and so tried to do so through the app, however the refund shown is $316 for a $12,785 ticket. I called the blue line and they told me that the refund amount was correct and that the cancellation fee was some $10k. That's not a cancellation fee, that's just in effect a non-refundable ticket and I have not seen this before booking A or F fares.
Also, I don't book non-refundable tickets, I recall when booking that the penalty was $450 per direction. In addition and crucially I always take screenshots as I go through the booking process and indeed a penalty of $450 per direction applies. This sounds familiar, higher per direction than it used to be ($200?), higher than EK, SQ, etc etc but that's ok.
I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what I am missing?

Dave Noble

Without knowing the origin and destination, its hard to know whether it is likely in your situation, but there are non refundable 1st class fares on BA - e.g. cheaper 1st class London to Sydney fares

KARFA

Are you able to post the screenshots?

SDUKAG

ijgordon

Hard to say without access to the full fare rules, but there are definitely non-refundable first class fares that only allow changes for a fee.

SDUKAG

LAX LHR which is my most popular route by far, and I honestly have no idea how I could have selected a non-refundable fare.

Ldnn1

Is it before the first flight or no? The screenshot says refundable before, non-refundable after.

KARFA

many thanks. And I am sure it is the case, but just to confirm you are trying to cancel before any flight in the booking has taken place?

SDUKAG

Yes, the first flight is for March 10th 2024 returning on the 15th March.

Ldnn1

Well in that case, assuming the screenshots are actually from this booking, then the phone agent was wrong and it's indeed refundable less the 450 each way fee. HUACA...

orbitmic

Agreed. My suggestion however is that you stick to the “I booked a refundable fare and I have the screenshots from the time of booking” explanation and drop the “never seen that”, “more than before” , “I always book refundable” etc bits which merely confuse things. There are plenty of non refundable fares in first so the general point you’re trying to make is not valid, but as it happens based on your screenshot, your own fare is refundable and that is all that matters.

SDUKAG

Thank you for all the replies. This really is a great community.
Having already called and escalated with no result, it's probably not worth the elevated heart rate. BA are so opaque with fare rules, it is quite shocking. It has always been a bugbear of mine in that you get a lovely 6 page confirmation with little useful information. Emirates manage to send an attachment called 'fare rules', just as one example.
I will just try to make this work, and finally learn my lesson to move on. I think there is more chance of the BA mainframe supercomputer exploding than resolving this.

Dave Noble

If BA's information is poor then maybe would be good to book on another site / travel agent where better information is provided or at least use ITA to price up and see fare rules

SDUKAG

Absolutely, although there are other issues with not booking direct, aren't there.
The fix, for me, has just been to use airlines with transparent, often repeated and emailed fare rules.
BA could do this if they wanted, there must be a reason (?) that you cannot easily find (for the 99% of average travellers) the fare rules post booking. Such as, in an email, on BA.com in the booking.
Certainly I can go back through EF and try to figure it out but my mum wouldn't know what I was talking about.
If you have to book through a secondary site because the primary is not good enough, well, it's just not good enough!
Like I say I really should have learned by now.

spanishflea

Try calling YouFirst instead of the Blue line.