Well I called BA and the girl attempted the changes, was put on hold and she came back and said that the changes have to go through sales team (which I expected) who are on skeleton staff so said they would call me back. Not had a call back a day later but both changes have come up on the booking, haven't paid any services fees yet and I was able to select the seats this morning!

This means perhaps only that the PNR was changed, not the ticket.

You need to keep an eye on this, if the itinerary remains unticketed other airlines may eventually cancel the sectors.

Nothing wrong with taking a cautious approach, of course. If on the phone with an agent, the usual process is for the agent to make the changes in the PNR and calculate the price/fees without committing the changes (like editing a document but not saving it). Then if you say "Oh, I didn't realize it would cost that much, never mind," the agent discards the changes and everything is as it was. As far as I know, there's not a way for an agent to know what the charge would be without tentatively making them and seeing, especially when changing the ticketed points or airline code on a flight, since there could be tax differences even if there's no fare difference or fee.

What I described as a possible, worst-case scenario happened to me only once. The prospective change was too expensive, so I said never mind. But the space was already gone. Lesson learned.

Sorry it happened to you. Depending on exactly who said what when, if the agent updated the record before confirming the cost with you, that was a clear agent error and I would have escalated with the airline. They record such calls and so could verify that the agent messed up, and could overbook original inventory to fix an agent error. Agent errors happen and there are procedures and policies to fix them.

Thanks. Back then I had no idea about this stuff and just accepted it.

If anyone is interested BA called me back this morning and made the changes, was meant to be charged the $125 fee as it was a city change but because the took best part of two days they waived the fee and just charged the taxes.

Excellent outcome! Glad it worked so well for you. If you don't mind, could you say which type of fare you booked (e.g., DONE5, AONE3) and the origination city?

ermmmm its DONE4 I think, it's DONE but not sure how many continents.... :confused: Originating in LON and going to North/Central/South America, over to Australia and back to LON via DOH.

Without knowing the exact itin, it sounds like maybe a DONE5. Wow, you ex-London, wonder how much you paid for the base fare and taxes + carrier surcharges! I'd jump over to Oslo and ...., oh well, never mind!

Enjoy your trip.

Hi all,

New to the forum here! I joined especially to ask a question about potential fees incurred for changing the date/time of flights on a Oneworld Explorer RTW ticket.

It was my understanding that changes to the date/time of flights on the itinerary could be made at no charge, with the USD125 change fee only being applied if changing any of the actual stops on the ticket (i.e. re-routing). This is in keeping with everything I have read both on this forum and others, as well as on 'fare rules' documents I have found on the BA and Qantas websites through Google.

However, when I called to confirm and pay for my booking today, a member of the BA commercial team with whom I spoke informed me that the USD125 fee applies for any and all changes... When I challenged her on this (because I have literally never come across anything online that states this to be the case), I was informed that the reason is because of the class of my ticket (economy) being less flexible.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Have the fare rules changes in the last couple of years? Are the rules with regards to itinerary changes different for different travel classes?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

NB: I was hoping for some level of flexibility due to this being a backpacking trip... hence my concern.

First, welcome to FT!

You are correct in that simple date/time/carrier changes do not incur the $125 USD re-route fee. However, not all agents understand this. Further, some airlines at some offices impose a reissue service charge regardless of if the $125 fee applies. You shouldn't have to pay the $125 USD fee unless you are changing any of the airports that have been ticketed (regardless of being a stop versus a connection).

Have you started the trip yet? It's generally much easier to make changes after one or more flight coupons have been marked as used (which might take a couple of days after flying a flight). The rules allow free date/time/airline changes even before departure, but it's usually easier to fly first and then have dates changed on flights you have not yet flown.

How did you book the ticket? That's important, as some agents and some airlines are easier to deal with.

If your ticket is BA-plated, contact the BA RTW desk directly ([email protected]) - they know the fare rules.

This is pretty much correct. There are some ways to calculate things without "editing the document," but that is often more complicated and may not always be accurate. FYI, to "save" the document (PNR), the agent has to "End (Transaction)" ("E" in both Sabre and Amadeus, though most agents will use "ER" - End and Retrieve PNR). If the changes were to be discarded, then "Ignore (Transaction)" ("I" in both GDSs, though "IR" is more often used).