Tip when trying to change a flight with BA...

[Febs]

Hi all,

I'm sure this isn't news for most of you, but it may help some.

My girlfriend is in Frankfurt at the moment, and had a flight booked from FRA to LHR on 28/2 with BA. She wanted to change it to 24/2 (same flight, same time, different date), and rang BA. They told her fare class (S) was full for the entire period 24/2 to 28/2, and that she'd have to pay:

• ~$250AUD to upgrade her fare class (presumably to a full economy fare), AND
• ~$100AUD to make the change

She was pretty annoyed. I suggested she call Qantas (in Australia), as according to the conditions on the Qantas site, she should be able to change it without penalty (remembering it was just a simple date change).

She rang Qantas (in Germany instead), and in under 60 seconds had her flight changed to 24/2 - no charge.

As I said - probably not news to anyone, but it might help some save a bit of money.

Cheers,
- Febs.

PS: She originally tried to get the travel agent to do it, but they said she had to sort it out herself.

 

[Dave Noble]

Hi all,

I'm sure this isn't news for most of you, but it may help some.

My girlfriend is in Frankfurt at the moment, and had a flight booked from FRA to LHR on 28/2 with BA. She wanted to change it to 24/2 (same flight, same time, different date), and rang BA. They told her fare class (S) was full for the entire period 24/2 to 28/2, and that she'd have to pay:

• ~$250AUD to upgrade her fare class (presumably to a full economy fare), AND
• ~$100AUD to make the change

She was pretty annoyed. I suggested she call Qantas (in Australia), as according to the conditions on the Qantas site, she should be able to change it without penalty (remembering it was just a simple date change).

She rang Qantas (in Germany instead), and in under 60 seconds had her flight changed to 24/2 - no charge.

As I said - probably not news to anyone, but it might help some save a bit of money.

Cheers,
- Febs.

PS: She originally tried to get the travel agent to do it, but they said she had to sort it out herself.

Assuming that this is a QF ticket ( e.g. SYD-FRA-LHR) To be fair to BA, the fare rules do state on a lot of QF tickets that date/time changes do cost $100 though I have come across that Qf have an unpublished rule on some of them to allow 1 change free of charge

Also, if S class was full, then it is correct that there is a need to pay a fare difference to get to a higher class and $250 would not be the difference to Y. The availability of S class on BA can well be different from country to country, so although FRA may well be correct that S is full as far as FRA reservations are concerned, Australia may well be showing a different availability

As you found, it can def be worth checking both the operating carrier and the issuing carrier in this case to find which is cheapest. Can make a huge difference in overall costs

Dave