British Airways - Unfair Practice - Advice desperately needed

Clarelouise1974

On the 14th May BA cancelled my return flight from London Gatwick to Orlando. I chose to take a voucher so I could immediately rebook the flight as it is fairly urgent that I get to the UK. The website informed me that the voucher would be emailed to me with 48 hours. After 4 days I contacted BA who said they were sorry but vouchers were taking 7 days. After 10 days of patiently waiting I contacted them again and was told a Future Travel Voucher had been applied to my account and I need to phone the customer centre to book a new flight.

The first phone number I was given didn't work and after an other hour online in a chatbox I was finally given the correct number to ring. Now I fly frequently and I knew exactly how much the new flight would cost ($1045) from BA.com. However, I was appalled when I was told that as I was booking over the phone the flight would cost me in the range of $1600.

Can BA.com do this? Can they give me a Future travel Voucher knowing that the price for their flights are nearly 50% more expensive if you call their Customer Centre rather than book online? Any help would be much appreciated.

sheramber

Are you  comparing  the current price online or what you previously would have paid?
ihttps://thepointsguy.co.uk/guide/understand-use-ba-future-travel-voucher/
Several readers have reported they have been quoted higher prices when calling to use the voucher than the ones they can see online. BA confirmed that call centre staff have access to exactly the same fares and seats that you can see online at the same prices, though the airline did note that prices and availability fluctuate frequently.

davidexmachina

Hmm, this sounds odd - firstly if it was just simple flight booking, you should have been able to request an e-voucher rather than an FTV - the former tend to be issued near instantly and can be used online. If you're a frequent traveller, I'm guessing this is why you opted for a voucher rather than a cash refund... otherwise if getting to the UK is so important, I'm surprised you'd be limiting yourself to using BA here? 

But on the price issue, there really should be no difference to the price you can get on BA.com versus what you'd get on the phone. There is a 'service fee' for phone bookings, but it's waived for any booking that can't be managed online (including where you are using an FTV).

Did you definitely get $1045 as a final confirmed price on BA.com? Why did the call centre say that it was different when you challenged it with them?

As it's a US originated flight, this question might be one for a more specialist forum like Flyertalk...