BA Change Fees

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gpl007

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Nov 6, 2012
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Hi All,

Received a notification from BA of a time change for a flight I have booked around Christmas. The time change means that I won't be able to connect with an ongoing flight, which is a separate ticket on a non-affiliated airline, and is the only flight on that route for the day (so I have to make that connection).

Rang BA to move to an earlier flight and I've been slugged with a change fee and difference in fare, essentially equivalent to the original fare!

I did understand the change fees associated with the fare, and would accept them if I just decided to make a change for my own reasons. However, it's a bit hard to swallow when it's because of a schedule change they've made.

I booked these flights a long way out because there aren't many options on this route (LHR-ARN-KRN) and I wanted to lock in the dates.

Does anyone have any experience with BA in this sort of situation? Any flexibility on their change fees? I'm guessing I just have to suck it up but it doesn't sit well.

Cheers
 
How much did you move the BA flight by, time wise? Generally changes fees are waived for schedule changes that result in something that isn't acceptable.
 
How much did you move the BA flight by, time wise? Generally changes fees are waived for schedule changes that result in something that isn't acceptable.

That's a good point, their change was only an hour. That was enough to make my connection impossible though.
 
Good luck!

I was faced with a change fee >$10,000 when I wanted to change from one BA flight (T3) to another (T5). My letters and calls received sympathy and nothing else. In the end I joined FT (flyertalk) and the good folk on the BAEC board got me in touch with Nicci (Ba - RedRoo) who made it happen for free.

Without FT and Nicci - it wouldn't have happened.
 
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That's a good point, their change was only an hour. That was enough to make my connection impossible though.

How long was your original connection? Sounds like it was cutting it fine to start with and is now worse.

Do you have travel insurance?
 
This is one reason why booking separate tickets can be dangerous, especially if there is little leeway on either side.

If normal channels do not help your case, I would try social media or, as suggested, Flyertalk.

In all cases, it would be advisable to adopt a humble disposition of having a favour done for you rather than demanding something. If your flights are during Christmas, that's peak travel time, so that means there's already little wiggle room as it is....
 
How long was your original connection? Sounds like it was cutting it fine to start with and is now worse.

Do you have travel insurance?

When I booked both flights, there was a 3hr connection window.

The second flight was actually changed first, so there was an hour and a half between them after that. Still enough for this connection I was advised. Ironically I would have been able to change this flight fee free except there is only 1 flight on that route on that day, and none at all the following day.

Then the BA flight was changed and the connection became less than 30mins, which is cutting it too fine.

I do have travel insurance but would have preferred not to have had to go down the path of making a claim.
 
This is one reason why booking separate tickets can be dangerous, especially if there is little leeway on either side.

If normal channels do not help your case, I would try social media or, as suggested, Flyertalk.

In all cases, it would be advisable to adopt a humble disposition of having a favour done for you rather than demanding something. If your flights are during Christmas, that's peak travel time, so that means there's already little wiggle room as it is....

Yep I knew the risks in booking separately but in this case there wasn't a lot of choice.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I may see if I can stir up some sympathy from BA or I'll look at what I can claim on my insurance.
 
Wow! Mine is only a few hundred dollars...

There was 5 of us SYD-LHR-SYD in F + some J sectors either side and in the middle. It was my first foray into the forum world and I'll be forever grateful to FT and Nicci. In fact it was due to this positive experience that I decided to join AFF :cool:
 
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