LondonBA

Glad to see you are DV's lawyer - I disagree.

The fact that they rarely or may not actually pursue the matter is a different topic. The fact remains that BA is entitled to reprice the fare if it is proven there was intent to use a return ticket as a one-way ticket because otherwise it is a violatioin of the terms of the contract. The passenger has engaged in a contract to use both legs of the ticket - not just one. As another poster also pointed out, BA can refuse to carry you until they reprice the existing ticket.

Lets make this simple and ask the BA Lurker.....

Disco Volante

I think we will have to agree to disagree on this. If you look carefully at section 3 of the Conditions of Carriage, you will see that they do not require a passenger to take a return leg, but to take the coupons in order. I can see no term of the contract that requires the passenger to take the return leg, or provides for what should happen in such a situation. If I have missed it, please let me know. And in any event, there is nothing in these terms or elsewhere that permits BA to make unauthorised debits from your credit card.

latitude

I've been in a similar situation twice now, first time was on behalf of a colleague who missed an EU>LHR return leg, so I called BA to book a single back. Very expensive so I asked for the cheapest return possible, to which the agent didn't appear too pleased but allowed me to book it even though he know my colleague had no intention of using the final leg.

Second time was recently when I was in Europe and needed to come back early (again on a cheapo ticket) - I called BA and asked for a single back. Again very expensive so I asked for the cheapest return, the lady on the phone said "Are you aware of the fare rules, we cannot sell a ticket if you have no intention of using the last leg, I suggest you book online" (or words to that effect).

IMO I think there would be a public outcry if BA decided to charge someone because of this. Whether or not the T&C's state this I would be sure, in the real world this would NEVER happen.

yyzlhr

I have had to purchase a one way ticket from AGP and not use return of another ticket. I found a very cheap ONE WAY ticket on BA at Expedia.co.uk They seem to sell some one way fares at 1/2 of the discount fare. It may be worth a look.

---- Just tried Aug 16-- and Finnair via Hel comes up at £296 O/W

efincomputer

Personally, i've never understood why airlines do this. I can understand them charging more for a o/w than 50% of a return, but i've never figured out how on earth they can justify charging 1.5x the cost of a return for a single?? Surely they are actively encouraging people to do this. If they made a single 75% the price of a return, then they would get less people trying to bend the rules, and probably make more revenue on the single seats in the long run.

dnw

Please quote the specific part of BAs conditons of carriage that state or imply this fact/violation (i.e. that you must use all segments that have been paid for)

dnw

Easy- they only sell the highest fare buckets as a single. If comparing a oneway in Y class to a return in Y class, then it is usually just over 50%. Its only when comparing a one way in Y class to a reutrn in N class that you get the huge difference.

pauldb

Was that a typo? More like three and a half hours.

efincomputer

This is what I think is crazy though. Joe Public wants to fly from A to B one-way. He checks the price for a o/w and finds it's £700. He checks the return price (cheaper fare bucket) and it's coming out at £450 (or £225 per leg), so he decideds to chance his arm and only use one-leg of the trip. BA not only get £250 less from Joe than they would have for his o/w (top fare bucket), but they also have a seat they cant sell (which would have made up for the £250 they lost on Joe's ticket) until the very last minute. Now, the fare bucket availability for each flight must be worked out on an individual flight basis each way, so why cant BA include o/w tickets in the normally discounted fare classes, but with an extra premium for o/w travel (which still works out less than Joe Public buying a return).

For example:

Fare class 1 (mega-cheap, no flexibility or change)
Cost per leg £225 (if part of a return) £337.50 if only a one-way (50% increase).
Fare class 2 (cheapo, but can pay for a changes to ticket)
Cost per leg £350 (if part of a return) £525.00 if only one-way (50% increase)

For each fare bucket, the number of seats available are used up regardless of whether they are a return or a single - the only thing that changes is the price, and once each bucket is used up, the prices go to the next bucket up (as they do currently with returns). Surely this would be a very easy thing for BA to implement???

KSinNYC

Sorry, let me provide more details. I am currently holding award tickets r/t from New York to Helsinki. They are doing a tour and I thought it started and ended in Helsinki. It doesn't... it ends in St. Petersburg. The return flight on the award ticket is HEL-LHR-JFK, so they need to get from St. P to either HEL or LHR. There is no award availability for either, so I will have to buy a ticket to get them out of Russia. Once I'm forking out cash, it may be worth going directly from St. P to LHR, eliminating the HEL stop.

The 55 minute flight I referred to was St. P to HEL. You are correct that St. P to LHR is 3.5 hours.

ps. I hope I am not giving away too many identifying details. You don't think the BA Lurker will try to identify me and blacklist me somehow? Or am I just being paranoid from reading FT too much?

jamespvg

You won't be blacklisted, never fear.

However, you need to be careful with your return routing. This discussions about using coupons out of turn apply -- if you fly LED-LHR, it's likely BA will have cancelled your LHR-JFK flight on the basis that you didn't board in HEL.

heartybob

So, you have a HEL-LHR-JFK award ticket, you plan to buy a LED-LHR-LED return and use it to get to LHR, and you plan to check in for the LHR-JFK segment of your HEL-LHR-JFK ticket having not flown HEL-LHR.

Hope you're planning to file a trip report

KSinNYC

The HEL-LHR part is not on BA.

KSinNYC

Not sure why you're giving me the ...

Clearly the best outcome would be for BA to open an award seat LED-LHR. But until that happens, I'm trying to find the best/cheapest/shortest Plan B.

ps. Unfortunately I won't be filing a trip report. The ticket is actually a present for my parents. So unless they have room in their carry on for me, I won't have much to report.

KVS

For the HEL-LHR-JFK award portion: If they do not fly LED-HEL, they will not be able to fly LHR-JFK.

So, to summarize, your options are:

• Buy them a ticket for LED-HEL (or LED-HEL-LED);
  - or -
• Buy them a ticket for LED-XXX-NYC (or LED-XXX-NYC-XXX-LED)