Cancelling a Flexi Fare???

[ricee007]

Howdy,

Long story short, flying standby to London in September.

Will, hopefully, arrive early in the morning, and need to make it to Paris that day.

Ideally, will be arriving on QF9 at 05:40.

Since I am standby, I might arrive then, I might arrive on the plane that leaves Singapore 54 minutes later (QF1, arriving circa 6:35), or I might arrive another day / time or, I might arrive on QF9 and it may be late in. My LHR-CDG flight will, obviously, be on a different PNR.

Ideally, I'd catch the BA 304 LHR-CDG departing 07:25...... but, I if catch QF1 instead of QF9 (or, catch an altogether different plane/arrive late), I'll miss BA 304.

Currently, BA 304 is £270 one way, and £270 back (flexible fare) ...... but, I only want a one-way flight. Unfortuantely, oneway is over £500 (flexible).

I'm not sure what happens if I purchase the return fare, then cancel the return flight?

The fare conditions state:
"If you want to cancel your flight
If you cancel a refund is permitted, subject to recalculation of the fare for any journey flown. There are no cancellation fees."

So, I don't understand... if I fly the first leg, then cancel the return leg (can I cancel just the return leg?).... will they 're-calculate' the original fare that I paid for the outbound journey (£270), and charge me more?

Per the Terms and Conditions:
"Administration charges for changes made to your booking on ba.com are as follows:
Booking cancellation:
For fully flexible tickets there will be a charge of £15 per person."

Wait up, will there be a cancellation charge of £15, or 'no cancellation fees'?

It's quite confusing... can someone please spell it out to me?

Cheers

 

[harvyk]

From what I have heard no airline has yet charged a person more for failing to use the return component of a return ticket, but they may keep it as something which they have up their sleeve if they are feeling mean one day. Of course what you could do is set the return date to be some date far into the future (eg some time next year), and thus you have sitting in reserve a very cheap £15 ticket (as a change fee) for CDG-LHR in case you needed it.

 

[ricee007]

From what I have heard no airline has yet charged a person more for failing to use the return component of a return ticket, but they may keep it as something which they have up their sleeve. Of course what you could do is set the return date to be some date far into the future (eg some time next year), and thus you have sitting in reserve a very cheap £15 ticket (as a change fee) for CDG-LHR in case you needed it.

Thanks for that. It is a very strange little system.

It's like £289 for flexible one way economy.... or £267 flexible one way (as part of a return) business flexible (or £243 economy flexible one way (as part of a return). If you needed a flexible ticket, what would you choose?

I expected to be able to get like a £100 flexible economy ticket.... but the absolute cheapest is that £243.... I think I'll hold off for a couple of weeks and keep checking the BA website to see if any specials come up..... but, I don't want to leave it too long and have the price go up too much.

The other thing is, with a flexible ticket, what happens if I miss my flight but can't tell them I'm missing it, because my inbound QF is late, so I am without phone/internet access?

 

[harvyk]

Thanks for that. It is a very strange little system.

It's like £289 for flexible one way economy.... or £267 flexible one way (as part of a return) business flexible (or £243 economy flexible one way (as part of a return). If you needed a flexible ticket, what would you choose?

Return Y or J for sure. That said, what does an inflexible ticket cost? What about for other airlines? LHR-CDG is a pretty short flight with loads of travel options between them, you may find that a throw away one way cheapy ticket works out to be better value than a flexi-ticket. Book it assuming all will go to plan but be prepared to throw the ticket away and simply book something when you get there. It may end up been a cheaper option than prepaying hundreds of pounds on a flexi ticket.

I expected to be able to get like a £100 flexible economy ticket.... but the absolute cheapest is that £243.... I think I'll hold off for a couple of weeks and keep checking the BA website to see if any specials come up..... but, I don't want to leave it too long and have the price go up too much.

The other thing is, with a flexible ticket, what happens if I miss my flight but can't tell them I'm missing it, because my inbound QF is late, so I am without phone/internet access?

Depends on the tickets conditions. You'd need to read over them very carefully. With QF, a flexi-ticket can be cancelled upto 24 hours after the scheduled departure, thus if BA have a similar policy you'd simply move \ cancel and re-book your ticket on arrival at LHR if you did arrive late but still on the same day, or you would call up BA from SIN if it looks like there are no standby seats available.

 

[ricee007]

Return Y or J for sure. That said, what does an inflexible ticket cost? What about for other airlines? LHR-CDG is a pretty short flight with loads of travel options between them, you may find that a throw away one way cheapy ticket works out to be better value than a flexi-ticket. Book it assuming all will go to plan but be prepared to throw the ticket away and simply book something when you get there. It may end up been a cheaper option than prepaying hundreds of pounds on a flexi ticket.



Depends on the tickets conditions. You'd need to read over them very carefully. With QF, a flexi-ticket can be cancelled upto 24 hours after the scheduled departure, thus if BA have a similar policy you'd simply move \ cancel and re-book your ticket on arrival at LHR if you did arrive late but still on the same day, or you would call up BA from SIN if it looks like there are no standby seats available.

Give or take £110 for a single economy one way.... so, probably not quite worth it to purchase one of them... I mean, if I needed even two of them, it'd work out about the same - assuming that when I purchase it on the day, it has not gone up in price.

I'll have to read into those BA conditions - it wasn't evident on the booking website in T&C / fare conditions.

Unfortunately, IIRC, there are very few flight options LHR-CDG...... like, only AIrFrance and BA?

 

[harvyk]

Does it have to be LHR to CDG? What about other nearby airport options?

 

[greenfish]

Does it have to be LHR to CDG? What about other nearby airport options?

Or Eurostar?

 

[ricee007]

Or Eurostar?

Eurostar flexible is not really cheaper.... Could be a good last minute if LHR to CDG is too expensive, but.

Doesn't *have* to be LHR-CDG, but, my travelling companion will be doing the same flights as I am trying to get (but, on a confirmed ticket)..... and I have a flight booked and confirmed for the following day from CDG to Santorini.

It would have been much easier for me to fly EasyJet LHR-Santorini the following day, instead of heading across to CDG...... but, alas, for reasons outside my control, I'm stuck with a ticketed CDG-Santorini flight that I realllly want to get.

At this stage, I'll give it a month or so (or until ticket prices have increased by a bit) and see if I can get a flexible fare on special. If not, I'll have to revisit my options and considering alternative airports, eurostar again, etc.

 

[greenfish]

What about just booking a couple of one-way discount Y - one for the flight you want, and one for much later in the same day?

I'm a bit unclear of the return flight cost you mentioned - is it 270 + 270 = 540, and you're hoping to refund the return leg

 

[ricee007]

What about just booking a couple of one-way discount Y - one for the flight you want, and one for much later in the same day?

I'm a bit unclear of the return flight cost you mentioned - is it 270 + 270 = 540, and you're hoping to refund the return leg

That would work out to be about £230 to book two flights, in economy.... or I can spend £270 and get a flexible fare, in business (ASSUMING that I can refund the return leg for £270).

YOu have worked out the return flight cost accurately.

 

[greenfish]

I expect BA would be within their rights to recalculate your ticket based on what you flew - i.e. the cost of a one-way LHR-CDG fare and so no refund. Seems like a risky strategy.

 

[ricee007]

I expect BA would be within their rights to recalculate your ticket based on what you flew - i.e. the cost of a one-way LHR-CDG fare and so no refund. Seems like a risky strategy.

Which is why I created this thread

1. Are they in their right?
2. Have they ever exercised that right?

 

[greenfish]

I can't vouch for BA J, but I've tried this a couple of times in the past in Y (most recently 2010 on a BA Dulles-> Heathrow return), and always had the fare recalculated based on what I flew - which has meant no refunds. Hopefully someone will have some more directly relevant experience though.

What do the detailed fare conditions state on how refunds / reroutes are calculated?

 

[ricee007]

I've spent another 30 minutes on Google, and I just can't get a definitive answer.

I've emailed BA yesterday, so hoepfully I get a response in the next month or so.

 

[harvyk]

1. Are they in their right?

Yes, they have the right to recover losses from you.

2. Have they ever exercised that right?

Not to my knowledge over a simply throw away sector, but again they do reserve the right and they do send pax a bill from time to time if the pax costs them money (although it usually involves a diversion). A throw away sector could cost them money in 3rd party charges (and administration fees) that you are not aware of and they may look to recover those costs.

 

[ricee007]

Yes, they have the right to recover losses from you.

Er, how is me cancelling a sector causing them a loss?

Not to my knowledge over a simply throw away sector, but again they do reserve the right and they do send pax a bill from time to time if the pax costs them money (although it usually involves a diversion). A throw away sector could cost them money in 3rd party charges (and administration fees) that you are not aware of and they may look to recover those costs.

Yea, but, me cancelling a flight won't cost them money! (esp. if I don't no-show and DO actually cancel).

 

[markis10]

Er, how is me cancelling a sector causing them a loss?



Yea, but, me cancelling a flight won't cost them money! (esp. if I don't no-show and DO actually cancel).

Yield management 101, sometimes through connections are cheaper than point to point, for instance DRW BNE Saturday versus DRW SYD via BNE for $200 less, my not taking the second flight I have got a service that should have generated $250 more revenue.

 

[ricee007]

Yield management 101, sometimes through connections are cheaper than point to point, for instance DRW BNE Saturday versus DRW SYD via BNE for $200 less, my not taking the second flight I have got a service that should have generated $250 more revenue.

So, do you know the answer to my OP?

 

[harvyk]

Er, how is me cancelling a sector causing them a loss?

Because in air travel logic you have just done a trip which should have cost you £500 rather than £270, therefore they have just lost out on £230 because had you pay the one way amount instead of a vv with throwaway sector that is how much extra they would have made from you.

As I said, they have the rights to recover this amount, but I haven't actually heard of anyone receiving a bill for using a throw-away sector in this fashion.

 

[greenfish]

As I said, they have the rights to recover this amount, but I haven't actually heard of anyone receiving a bill for using a throw-away sector in this fashion.

The issue is the OP actually wants a refund for the return segment of a single e-ticket, so the issue isn't being charged extra, but rather, refunding the return segment. In this case, I'm confident BA will recalculate the entire ticket based on what was flown (a one way LHR to CDG) and use this as a the base cost for calculating the refund.