Incorrect date of travel

soolin

Alfrescodave said:

soolin said:

Alfrescodave said:

Has your friend asked BF if they can change the date to a July one ? instead of just asking for their money back.

I wouldn't think that has a remote chance of working since the original date has now passed, I can't see any company giving you a free trip if you failed to turn up for a trip a few months earlier.  

I agree. We assume that the booked travel date was January 2024, could it not have been for January 2025? Details are somewhat lacking.

That's a good point. 
However OP looks like another post and run newbie, so I doubt we will ever find out.

outtatune

Alfrescodave said:

soolin said:

Alfrescodave said:

Has your friend asked BF if they can change the date to a July one ? instead of just asking for their money back.

I wouldn't think that has a remote chance of working since the original date has now passed, I can't see any company giving you a free trip if you failed to turn up for a trip a few months earlier.  

I agree. We assume that the booked travel date was January 2024, could it not have been for January 2025? Details are somewhat lacking.

They said they booked in January and

they left the month as January

So pretty clear that was the same January they booked, so they've missed the boat, both literally and figuratively. 

I've not been on a cross channel ferry in years. Could you complete your journey without the ticket being scanned by a computer? Could the ferry company even confirm if the ticket has actually been used? I've no doubt Brittany have the OP (or their friend) down as a chancer.

Aylesbury_Duck

Alfrescodave said:

soolin said:

Alfrescodave said:

Has your friend asked BF if they can change the date to a July one ? instead of just asking for their money back.

I wouldn't think that has a remote chance of working since the original date has now passed, I can't see any company giving you a free trip if you failed to turn up for a trip a few months earlier.  

I agree. We assume that the booked travel date was January 2024, could it not have been for January 2025? Details are somewhat lacking.

I agree.

I assumed that it would be impossible to book for a date in the past, so I would think that one of two things has happened.  Either they made the booking sometime in 2023 and the January 2024 date has since passed, or, they perhaps hit J when using the month drop-down box and it's defaulted to January (being the first J month in alphabetical order) and the year has automatically jumped to 2025.

Either way, there's no right to anything, it's down to goodwill or cancel/re-book.

soolin

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Alfrescodave said:

soolin said:

Alfrescodave said:

Has your friend asked BF if they can change the date to a July one ? instead of just asking for their money back.

I wouldn't think that has a remote chance of working since the original date has now passed, I can't see any company giving you a free trip if you failed to turn up for a trip a few months earlier.  

I agree. We assume that the booked travel date was January 2024, could it not have been for January 2025? Details are somewhat lacking.

I agree.

I assumed that it would be impossible to book for a date in the past, so I would think that one of two things has happened.  Either they made the booking sometime in 2023 and the January 2024 date has since passed, or, they perhaps hit J when using the month drop-down box and it's defaulted to January (being the first J month in alphabetical order) and the year has automatically jumped to 2025.

Either way, there's no right to anything, it's down to goodwill or cancel/re-book.

The crossing was booked in January according to the OP , so the month was just not changed from the current one. There was no indication to clarify either way whether the date was changed from 2024 (the day of booking) to 2025 and just the month left unchanged.

I imagine it is the same as with train tickets- I just had to check a train price and the default is for a train leaving today - if I wanted an advance ticket I would have needed to change my day and month of travel- but I could easily have just booked it for today by changing nothing. 

TELLIT01

The OP also said the ferry company won't reimburse rather than won't allow them to change the date which would have been a potential option if booked for 2025.  I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that the trip was booked in error for January 2024.

AlexMac

What a pity; I hope this doesn't put them off future trips?  We've had great service from BF over 25-30 years, with lovely relaxing crossings, mainly to Spain.  And the call centres are great too especially id you have the secret number direct through to the Holidays team.  COVID, illness and surgery meant we had to cancel one of their ferry/hotel packages twice; two years running and the UK based staff were great; very flexible.

And on another occasion we got a call the morning before travel to say "you think you're sailing to Spain tomorrow... well, you ain't... boat's bust!" Three options; "Refund. Defer or... sail to France today and drive 600miles/1,000km"?

So we took #3, had a lovely cabin on the overnight crossing to Caen; blagged a free hotel night en route and enjoyed a leisurely drive with 2 overnighters en route at La Rochelle and Hondarrabia. They even bunged us £250 for petrol and tolls (although as they are now in hock to the French COVID bail-out grants they might now now be so generous?  And the prices have gone up; c'est la vie!)

Grumpy_chap

DullGreyGuy said:

soolin said:

Alfrescodave said:

Has your friend asked BF if they can change the date to a July one ? instead of just asking for their money back.

I wouldn't think that has a remote chance of working since the original date has now passed, I can't see any company giving you a free trip if you failed to turn up for a trip a few months earlier.  

You certainly would have thought so... that said we did once turn up at the airport to discover the Mrs had left her passport in the other jacket she'd planned to wear but switched at the last minute. Too far from the airport to go home and get it and back again, the check in agent just waved us off and said come back when we have it. 

Called the airline, had booked directly, after getting back home in a very expensive taxi and was very surprised that they allowed us to move the flight free of charge even though clearly our fault and the flight by then had flown. Was fully expecting to have to buy a new outward ticket and just hoped that the return was still usable. 

Dont ask you dont get but certainly dont hold your breath. 

Your experience with the airline seems rather different to the OP missing a ferry in January and then in May trying to rearrange to July.

It is quite possible with your flight that it was overbooked and the airline was hoping for "no shows" or people willing to slide and wait for the later flight in the day.  With the latter, the airline is on the hook for compensation.  You may have been doing the airline by turning up and wanting the delay - plus the airline get to see you as a very happy customer who received great service.

Arunmor

This is another of those posts that is not a consumer rights issue, but a personal responsibility issue.

I have learnt the hard way (flights booked for the wrong date) that you need to triple check everything before buying the tickets.  Sure you can ask to change but if you have gone down the cheap no refund no changes route you are snookered.

This case just takes it a completely different level, being moths after the booked dates.