British Airways amendment - insult to injury

ionh

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

Prices for what exactly on the web?

jpsartre

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

@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

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

Surely that's £265 not £145?

ionh

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

leylandsunaddict

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?