Am i being unreasonable?

natalieandmonkey

Hi!
Basically booked a trip to Oz for 6months going on to US after for a couple of weeks in January- booked through flight centre/real gap and they said because flight dates are more than 10 months in advance they'd book "dummy dates" which I would then change once it was within the 10 months. Got flight details through friday morning and they said had to confirm by 5pm friday or else the prices could go up
HOWEVER, everything's booked and have now had dummy dates explained and they've booked me on a ticket which means I have to pay minimum £225 to change the flight dates once I'm away!
Am I being unreasonable, is there anything i can do short of swearing at the wall! Any help appreciated!

Voyager2002

Could you not fly on those 'dummy' dates? Otherwise, if the agent knew what your plans were and so could work out that the dates were no good for you, then are right to object.

natalieandmonkey

Basically they've booked Sydney to LA for may 1st, LA to Wyoming May 2nd, Wyoming-London May 3rd whereas the programme i'm doing in Wyoming starts August 13th so the dummy dates are useless lol!
They haven't explained anything to me and I have no clue why they booked the dummy dates given that the flight prices aren't going to go up and it's gonna cost me a ridiculous amount to change!

budgetflyer

How much in relation to the dates you really wanted is the flight prices with the "dummy dates"

ie is the price + change fee more than cost of booking with your actual dates ?

natalieandmonkey

As far as I can tell, the dummy dates and actual dates cost exactly the same but i think they've booked them so they have a price to charge me rather than wait until my actual dates become available and book then. the £225 is the admin fee to change dates, not because the seat prices are any different- it;s a bit complicated!

johnnybondfinger

Have you spoke to flight centre? Surely if they have told you that they are dummy dates and you can change them for free, then that's what should happen.

They should have carried out a sales checklist when they sold a ticket, so they have a record of what the sales consultant said to you (it's what we do!)

What airlines you flying with on the whole route?

natalieandmonkey

I think because it's done through Real Gap I have the correspondence with Flight Centre and like an advisor but they haven't spoken to me directly about the conditions- the flights are with Delta, British Airways and Qantas and the charge is £75 but each airline will charge £75 because they can only change their particlar segments. I've written a complaint to Flight Centre and Real Gap because I think I should have been made aware of how high the charge would be so be interesting to see what they say!

johnnybondfinger

I am guessing you won't get far, because they will probably have it that you have accepted t&cs.
Why have they booked you on a separate Qantas and BA flight? Shouldn't they have combined it as a codeshare so there would be only 2 changes (delta and qf/ba)

Also I am not aware of a Contract that is £75 airline fee to date change other than some classes Emirates.

natalieandmonkey

Ok, went back to Real Gap who've talked to Flight Centre and they say they'll do all the changes for me and shouldn't cost more than £75! Still a bit high but definite result!

signol

We had something similar in 2001-2002, the fee to change the dates was £40 per change. Sounds like a bit above inflation, but not too unreasonable.

signol