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.