yanxfann

I've been in the Gulf region since March. We've recently gotten improved internet access and during a down time I had a question about a BA travel reward so I used the link on their web site and emailed the following question:

"Message: Three times in past years I have redeemed 35000 BA miles for a free coach roundtrip on your partner American Airlines for travel between the continental US and Hawaii. A very nice feature about these award tickets was I was always able to change the travel dates (based on availability of course) if the need arose and these date changes were free of charge.

My question is this: With the huge changes in the Executive Club rewards that just took effect this month I need to know if DATE CHANGES for award tickets issued by BA for use on your partner airlines miles is still allowed, and if so are there any charges for changing the travel dates?"

To make a long story short BA emailed me back and told me to call toll-free numbers in the US or Canada to have my questions answered, since I don't have the luxury of being able to make a phone call in my current situation I'm turning to you - any assistance in getting my question that I emailed to BA about date changes (above) would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks


[This message has been edited by yanxfann (edited 07-14-2003).]

[This message has been edited by yanxfann (edited 07-31-2003).]

bagold

I share your frustration with their e-mail response. I received something similar that never answered my question.

To answer your question, they will allow Date changes on Partner awards. Reissues and redeposits on partner awards are NOT allowed.

There are no charges for date changes.

OnePassLover

I hope you are right bagold. But according to the T&C it doesn't look like so:

So partner airline award is like one of those non-refundable, non-changable ticket. A big change to NAEC.

yanxfann

OnePassLover: I actually found the 14.2 rule that you cut and pasted in your above post while going thru BA's rules and terms the other night, that's what prompted my original email to BA in the first place. I was hoping that with the rules revamped that the unbelievable "14.2 Flight bookings for Award travel on Airline Partners cannot be changed, Awards cannot be reissued or Mileage refunded" was a big mistake that had accidently slipped thru the cracks and that nobody at BA had caught it yet to remove it from the rules.

If 14.2 is actually true then this has huge implications, for example if I want to use BA miles on a partner airline say on a popular route and/or during a holiday season and to to ensure that I'm able to grab one of the limited # of seats allocated for FF travel I have to book about a year ahead of time does this mean that my travel dates are set in CONCRETE with absolutely no chance to change them whatsover - not even by paying a change fee - come h*ll or high water?

That's why I emailed BA in the first place, so that I could have a WRITTEN ruling that I could reference in the future should the need arise instead of getting a verbal ruling from a phone representative. That way if they do say "sorry but your award ticket that you have in hand is unchangable" we can in turn reply, "I was told by your rep that it was indeed changable and here is their email in black in white to prove it."

OnePassLover

I believe no changes for partner airline award has been the case for UKEC. So BA just bring NAEC in line with the rules. I sure hope they allow date change. This is a huge devaluation for partner airline award, in addition to the redemption level increases.

CT-UK

In the UK we have not been able to change the dates on partner awards either.....

Kiltboys

It's common to not allow changes on partners (Aeroplan does the same)...but not allowing cancellation and redeposit seems overly punitive.

ALW

I agree, and as I posted in one of the Topics before July 1, it seems a much more significant change than the increase in premium awards. But all the complaining was about the latter.

andrew

thezipper

I would be VERY careful about this... I was on an award ticket and got to CDG early from paris on the bus (heard about traffic and didnt want to get caught) and wanted to standby to take an earlier flight. I thought I would be able to get into LHR early as I was continuing on Concorde later in the day. After speaking to a CSR she disappeared into the back. Upon returning I got the surly reply of "we have recently received new directives concerning award tickets and they CANNOT be changed... you can call Qantas in Australia if you want to try and change your flight... they are still open" She then they told me I couldnt check-in my baggage until 3 hrs before my flight, so I had to lug it around CDG... what a hassle! As far as BA goes, no more for me!

whmere

You can still change dates on BA awards, but you could never change them on partner awards.

yanxfann

Maybe I just got lucky but in the past two years I've redeemed three BA awards for travel on their travel partner American Airlines and I was allowed to change the dates on all three tickets - and to top it off there were no fees for the changes.

BRITISH AIRWAYS USA

BAGold - Your answer is not completely true.

Here are the exact rules.

- If it it a Partner or Joint award with BA and it was issued on or before 30 June 2003, then you can make date changes subject to availability. However you cannot re-issue it or redeposit the miles.

- If it is a Partner or Joint award with BA and it was issued on or after 01 July 2003, then it's a "use it or loose it ticket". That means no revalidations, re-issues, or redeposits are permitted at any time for any reason, and it does not matter what your tier is.

Way to many people were using the free date changes rule. There would be many cases where passengers would call and make a date change to the day before. Then, one of the Tele-agents would look in the PNR history and see that they have called everyday and made a change back and for between the same flights just on different days just because "they could free of charge". Every time they do that it costs BA lots of money from the airline that the reservation is on. Some people were completely abusing the rules. I'm talking like 30-40 date changes before they even get to day of departure. And that number is not a joke. It is sad though that some people have to suffer because of that.


[This message has been edited by BRITISH AIRWAYS USA (edited 07-14-2003).]

TransWorldOne

Is this the British spelling of lose?

fallinasleep

Thanks BA USA.

Was wondering if anyone here ever managed to redeposit a joint award issued before 30 Jun 03. I issued a F ticket for a friend who will not be able to use the ticket now. I completely overlooked this no redeposit clause in the old T&C

yanxfann

BA USA: Thanks for answering my question, although I've got to tell you that BA's new policy totally dismays and baffles me. Wouldn't it be much better for EVERYONE involved - i.e. your airline AND your customers - if BA simply followed the suggestion of a poster from a thread ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum70/HTML/000645.html ) discussing BA issues on the Diners Club board:

This move would please BA frequent flyers PLUS it would put a little extra cash in BA's almost empty pockets, a win-win situation.