British Airways Grrr

amyjaxon2002

In August my husband and I booked British Airways flights from Edinburgh to Miami for next May 2017, changing at Heathrow. My husband serves with the RAF and is currently stationed in Edinburgh. However, he recently received a posting to RAF Honington in Suffolk, effective from March 2017. Therefore, we contacted BA to cancel the Edinburgh to Heathrow leg of our journey so we could just board the international flight as Heathrow will be much closer to our new home. Imagine our shock when BA told us we would need to pay an extra £550 just to cancel the internal flight. We had imagine we might receive a refund, minus a sensible cancellation admin fee, so we are shocked at this extra cost which seems very unfair. Recently BA announced they have signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant saying "We will promote the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation". This hardly seems as if they are living their own values!

Kim_kim

amyjaxon2002 wrote: »

In August my husband and I booked British Airways flights from Edinburgh to Miami for next May 2017, changing at Heathrow. My husband serves with the RAF and is currently stationed in Edinburgh. However, he recently received a posting to RAF Honington in Suffolk, effective from March 2017. Therefore, we contacted BA to cancel the Edinburgh to Heathrow leg of our journey so we could just board the international flight as Heathrow will be much closer to our new home. Imagine our shock when BA told us we would need to pay an extra £550 just to cancel the internal flight. We had imagine we might receive a refund, minus a sensible cancellation admin fee, so we are shocked at this extra cost which seems very unfair. Recently BA announced they have signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant saying "We will promote the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation". This hardly seems as if they are living their own values!

How about a nice bit of adverse publicity.
Might make them rethink.

alwaysskint96

might be cheaper to get a flight from stansted to Edinburgh and join the BA flight there

jpsartre

amyjaxon2002 wrote: »

Imagine our shock when BA told us we would need to pay an extra £550 just to cancel the internal flight. We had imagine we might receive a refund, minus a sensible cancellation admin fee, so we are shocked at this extra cost which seems very unfair.

Your unrealistic expectations are hardly BA's fault! If you want to remove a leg from an itinerary it usually results in a ticket reissue which means change fees plus fare difference. Nothing unfair about it, you agreed to this when you booked your ticket and had the choice to pay extra for a more flexible ticket.

unforeseen

Maybe people ought to read up on what the Armed Forces Covenant is and the areas that it deals with before suggesting adverse publicity.

Being service friendly doesn't mean that people get what they think they are entitled to.

Voyager2002

I suggest you ask your husband's employer to pay the extra, since presumably the move is not for his convenience. Or maybe just insist on staying put and tele-commuting: after all, the modern airman heroically kills villagers in Afghanistan while sitting in the comfort of a Washington office, so the distance between England and Edinburgh cannot be of any operational significance.

Kim_kim

unforeseen wrote: »

Maybe people ought to read up on what the Armed Forces Covenant is and the areas that it deals with before suggesting adverse publicity.

Being service friendly doesn't mean that people get what they think they are entitled to.

If they aren't doing anything wrong they won't be worried about being challenged.

leylandsunaddict

Just because the airline has signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant it doesn't mean they allow you to forget about the contract you signed up to, and allow ticket fare rules be disregarded. As someone else says, perhaps familiarise yourself with what the Covenant covers.

pollypenny

Somewhat harsh responses. BA will have seats to resell on the Edinburgh flight. OP still has her costly leg.

She's not changing on a whim.

leylandsunaddict

pollypenny wrote: »

Somewhat harsh responses. BA will have seats to resell on the Edinburgh flight. OP still has her costly leg.

She's not changing on a whim.

Why harsh? The fare rules apply to everyone, no matter for what reason they want to change their ticket.

Sicard

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

Why harsh? The fare rules apply to everyone, no matter for what reason they want to change their ticket.

Yeah, but it's the nasty way the replies are formed.