British Airway changed flight times, do they negotiate?

davetrousers

Hi all, I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and booked a holiday (flight and hotel) with BA, with good flight times, outbound left LGW at 14:50 and return landed at LGW at approx 17:00. Good flight times was a priority and therefore adjusted the dates in order to get good flight times.

BA have now changed the outbound to 06:50 departure and the return to 23:25 (lands back at LGW). I have therefore booked the Premier in for the night before and night after (currently costing £79 and £85, but I'm hoping a saver rate will be available nearer the time.)

I have spoken to customer services and all they can do is refund me or allow me to reschedule and pay the difference (I had hoped that they may be able to supplement a hotel or help with some meals, but no). The thing is I had been monitoring the price and managed to book when the price was pretty low, today the cost is over £100 more. So if I reschedule I'll be paying today's price and not the price when I bought (at a low).

So does anyone know if BA negotiate at all and say meet me half way on the price I paid to the newer more expensive price?

I had asked via a DM on twitter if somebody with authority could call me but got told that they can't get a manager to call me.

Thanks

Caz3121

Refund or reroute would be the norm for changes like these. Are you travelling in the next 14 days? if so you may be entitled to compensation under EU261

becominganobsessivesaver

I'm not sure about the hotel element, but they've been pretty good for me in the past with changes over a couple of hours, including letting me switch from Lgw to lhr at no extra cost.

Where are you flying to? Is it the hotels which have gone up in price or the flight element? Would you want to switch dates?

jpsartre

davetrousers wrote: »

I have spoken to customer services and all they can do is refund me or allow me to reschedule and pay the difference

That sounds very odd. With such significant schedule changes, BA would normally be happy to rebook you on another flight free of charge (assuming the alternative flights are with BA or an alliance partner). I have done so myself a number of times in the past. I would try to call again. As for getting them to pay for hotels, that's much more unlikely.

NiftyDigits

That doesn't sound right. If they have alternative flights to and from another airport, they would normally swap them over on request. Ditto if more suitable(for you) flight times are available via the same airport.
Though they will have one or two idiots working there who will advise you poorly, until you write to someone senior. Then they do the right thing. In general BA are not bad with this kind of thing, but more than once they've needed prompting.

Look here and then tell the silly person trying to charge you more the error of their ways.

Westin

Morning All. Detective Westin here.

A small wager that OP might be going to Bordeaux.

On the day I checked over the summer, there are two flight a day with BA to BOD:-

BA2786 LGW 0650 BOD 0925
BA2788 LGW 1930 BOD 2210

BA2787 BOD 1010 LGW 1040
BA2789 BOD 2255 LGW 2325

The OP gives no details on flights, destination or travel dates but if indeed going to Bordeaux and on a date with two flights operating, then I would have thought BA would be happy to move his family to the earlier return flight departing Bordeaux at 10:10h. BA are normally very good about these types of changes. Sometimes the key is to do your own research first on options and then put those to the call agent.

Alternatively, EasyJet fly the same route 2-3 times a day from LGW.

Can the OP return to clarify?

davetrousers

Thanks

We are going to Malta next March. They only fly once a day (and not every day) and only from LGW so there are no re routing options.

From reading the link above from Niftydigits, it is apparent that BA are doing all they need to do. Which in my case is nothing.

The Premier Inn is costing £79 and £85 for the night before and night after. So my holiday is costing £164 more than originally thought, and this is before any food is included for the evening and breakfast. Hopefully I'll make a small saving by Premier Inn releasing saver rates.

jpsartre

davetrousers wrote: »

We are going to Malta next March. They only fly once a day (and not every day) and only from LGW so there are no re routing options.

So what is the rescheduling option you mentioned in your first post which is a £100 more?

davetrousers

If I booked the same dates today it would cost over £100 more. Actually I've just checked and it's £200 more!

Rescheduling would mean going 2 days later and returning 3 days later (than currently booked) thus making it a 12 day holiday rather than 11 and that is £440 more than the price I have paid. And then there is no guarantee that those flights wouldn't be rescheduled.

jpsartre

davetrousers wrote: »

If I booked the same dates today it would cost over £100 more. Actually I've just checked and it's £200 more!

Sorry, maybe I'm missing something but what os the relevance of this? Obviously you're not going to ask for a refund only to book the exact same flights again?

If you decide to reschedule to alternative BA flights on different days there should be no additional charge (for the flights, you may have extra expenses for things like hotels).

davetrousers

davetrousers wrote: »

Hi all, I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and booked a holiday (flight and hotel) with BA...

jpsartre wrote: »

Sorry, maybe I'm missing something but what os the relevance of this? Obviously you're not going to ask for a refund only to book the exact same flights again?

If you decide to reschedule to alternative BA flights on different days there should be no additional charge (for the flights, you may have extra expenses for things like hotels).

I booked a package (flight and hotel), therefore to reschedule would mean paying for the package on the rescheduled dates.

Anyway my question really is do BA negotiate?