House

I booked a WT+ fare to JFK very cheaply in the BA Travel Shops sale (£381 all in), for travel in November.

I now have to rebook the return for work reasons to the Wednesday (i.e. 4 days earlier). I now want to leave New York 6 days after I arrive. I will still be taking the original outward flight.

I phoned up to rebook and got told that changing now would trigger a repricing (costing close to £600). However, if I wait until arrival in the US then I will only have to pay £75 to change. This of course depends on there being availability in T at the time of rebooking. I have some flexibility in terms of time of day I travel but would really like to get back on the new date I have in mind. It is not an option for me to stay in NYC until the original return date.

Of course I could cancel the whole thing for a fairly low penalty but there's no way I would get anything like the same fare.

This will also be the flight that gets me to Gold...

So, would you take the risk? I have to say I'm tempted, given the sheer number of flights and the time of year.

leaveamessage

I have never had any problems with T class availability JFK/LHR or LHR/JFK- and I fly it a lot, and often have to change sectors. $100 change fee (plus offline fee ) and away you go.
As you say, its a busy route with lots of flights- I am usually able to get my preferred flights too, even as late as a couple of days before.

Frequentflyer99

If you really wnat to live dangerously ...

In my experience, even on non-flexible tickets (or at least tickets which are rather complex and have an element of non-flexibility, such as the return leg of an already flown miles booking) the check-in agents will generally let you fly if there is room on the flight you want. Thus, just as an example, I had an ex Eur WT+ MFU'd to NCW last year and wanted to come back on the US - UK leg a day early. I turned up at the airport and simply checked me in although there was most definitely no U class availability on the flight I wanted to fly on. It probably helped being able to do this at the F desk with Gold card, but I think its ultimately the luck of the draw.

Once you are at check in you probably have half your backside in the seat ...

Bukhara

Could you book a ticket with miles and cancel that once you have your paid reservation rebooked? I'm assuming that it shouldn't be too difficult to find a spare seat somewhere from New York.

If I were in your shoes, I'm not sure would even bother with this and waste £30 for the cancellation. The chances of you not being to able to get a T class seat for 6 days ahead on any flight from JFK/EWR are very, very remote.

House

I'm going to chance it but have enough miles lying around to book something using miles if push comes to shove.

Thanks all for the replies!