British Airways amendment - insult to injury

ionh · 15 January 2017 at 4:40PM

I booked a surprise city break to Istanbul with British Airways for She Who Must Be Obeyed -- about 3 hours before the terrorist attack on a nightclub there on Jan 1. In light of that, we decided that it probably wasn't, after all, the destination for us, so I checked with BA what our options were; and they were to cancel (losing £221, or 60% of the original £369 charge) or amend (£60 per person per flight, plus £25 hotel cancellation = £145). Okay, we'll bite the bullet and amend (after all, it's our unilateral decision to change).

So we scoured the BA City Breaks web site and found something that suited us -- Lisbon for £354. Phoned up, made all the changes, expecting a hit of £354-£369+£145 = £130.

But no, the charge was £197. Why? Because in addition to an amendment fee, BA won't give you the prices on the web -- basically, they'll charge whatever they care to. This only emerged when the final charge was stated -- it just hadn't been mentioned in the two previous phone calls I'd made to them to clarify what my position was.

Looking at the numbers now, I see that it would've been only slightly more to have cancelled my original booking and start again from scratch....not best pleased....

richardw · 15 January 2017 at 4:44PM

Prices for what exactly on the web?

jpsartre · 15 January 2017 at 5:02PM

You can never pay less than your amendment fees, if the new holiday is cheaper the difference won't be refunded. There would have been a reason for the additional £52, the agent didn't just make up a random number. Had you asked I'm sure you would have been given a breakdown of the numbers.

ionh · 15 January 2017 at 5:18PM

@richardw -- another "city break" package (flights+hotel, just Lisbon instead of Istanbul)

@jpsarte -- believe me, I tried to get a breakdown, but basically couldn't get past a "computer says no" response. As best I could make out, they wouldn't sell me a city break package as an "amendment" (to a city break package), and I was charged more for flights than the advertised package price.
You'll also note that even if they won't take into account the £15 price drop between the original booking and the new one, the £197 charged is way more than just the £145 amendment fee that was advised.

leylandsunaddict · 15 January 2017 at 5:52PM

(£60 per person per flight, plus £25 hotel cancellation = £145).

Surely that's £265 not £145?

ionh · 18 January 2017 at 11:20AM

@laylandsuna -- sorry, unclear: i meant £60 per per person per flight *booking* (i.e., return flights)

leylandsunaddict · 18 January 2017 at 2:51PM

ionh wrote: »

@laylandsuna -- sorry, unclear: i meant £60 per per person per flight *booking* (i.e., return flights)

For amendments to package flights BA charge £60 per person per flight, not £60 per person per flight booking, unless they were making you a gesture of goodwill by only charging you for changing one flight?

British Airways amendment - insult to injury

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