British Airways Miss-selling

traveller2000

Way back on 24th April, after many inquires and being pushed around multiple departments because no one seemed to know the answer, I finally got the answer. I wanted to book a return flight to Nairobi, leaving in August and returning the following June (2026) As booking more than a year in advance is not possible I wanted to know how to do this. I also inquired about ticket validity because airline tickets are only valid for 12 months from the date of issue meaning that, eve if I manage to book the June date returning, my ticket would expire in April. I was advised to book changeable dates and, that when I change the dates, the ticket would automatically be reissued extending validity.

Based on this advice I booked the ticket. Fast forward to mid July and when I applied for my 1 year visa online, they wanted me to upload my ticket. I went back to the British Airways website to change mt dates to be correct for my stay and the site would not offer me anything beyond April. When I contacted customer service they told me I could not re-book for June 15 because my ticket expired in April. I told them about the advice I'd been given and was met with metaphorical shrugged shoulders. Time was short and so I was forced to cancel my entire booking for which I was charged a cancellation fee and then re-book at a higher cost for a lower class.

I opened a complaint with BA but by the time I left they hadn't even started looking at my claim. Some time after my first flight they finally got back to me apologizing for the bad advice I was given saying that my ticket class had a cancellation fee and so I was correctly charged, completely ignoring the fact that they were the ones who had given the bad advice resulting in me booking a ticket I would not otherwise have booked.

I rejected their solution and got exactly the same response. "sorry we lied to you (paraphrase) but you booked a ticket entitling us to steal money from you and then charge you more for the same flight on a lower class ticket. Mwahahah." This is text book miss-selling but BA refuse to acknowledge it.

sheramber

 was advised to book changeable dates 

that my ticket class had a cancellation fee 

The wrong ticket class was booked. Who booked it?

saajan_12

What's the actual issue: 
(A) Their advice that if you change the date, the change will extend the validity; or 
(B) Their advice that the ticket booked will allow changes at all; or
(C) something else

traveller2000

The ticket allowed free changes, but not free cancellations. This should not have been an issue as the issue was the return date.And yes, the advice was that if I changed the date, the ticket would be reissued with a new expiry fate.

Regarding the re-booking, I was forced to cancel because the original ticket would not allow my date change and I then re-booked the cheapest available which was more expensive than the higher class I had previously booked, So I paid more for less because the prices had increased owing to the late nature of the booking.

I also forgot to mention that the price of my excess baggage also increased by the time I re-booked.