Stranded

[Ticktock]

I'd been flying up and down to Edinburgh every week for the past 6 months, and booking flights about a month in advance each time.
For the past 2 weeks Clientco suddenly asked me to work in their offices down south, and then I'll be moving to their London office for the rest of the contract. I had a return flight booked to go up last Sunday and return this Saturday, but instead I fly up tomorrow, do 2 days in Edinburgh and then clean out my flat and come back.

I called Customer Services to say I wanted to cancel the original Sunday outbound flight only, but wanted to keep the return. They said I'd get a refund of about £49, but there would be an admin fee of £51, so we agreed not to bother cancelling, I'd just book my new outbound flight.
I just went online and have found that my return flight has disappeared from my Exec Club page, and if I search using the booking reference get the message "Sorry, we are unable to display your booking as all the flights have been flown".

All I can think is that because I didn't get on the plane on Saturday they have cancelled my return flight, and of course customer services is now closed so I can't check. I really don't want to be stranded up there - I have a birthday party to go to Saturday night!

 

[SimonMac]

I'd been flying up and down to Edinburgh every week for the past 6 months, and booking flights about a month in advance each time.
For the past 2 weeks Clientco suddenly asked me to work in their offices down south, and then I'll be moving to their London office for the rest of the contract. I had a return flight booked to go up last Sunday and return this Saturday, but instead I fly up tomorrow, do 2 days in Edinburgh and then clean out my flat and come back.

I called Customer Services to say I wanted to cancel the original Sunday outbound flight only, but wanted to keep the return. They said I'd get a refund of about £49, but there would be an admin fee of £51, so we agreed not to bother cancelling, I'd just book my new outbound flight.
I just went online and have found that my return flight has disappeared from my Exec Club page, and if I search using the booking reference get the message "Sorry, we are unable to display your booking as all the flights have been flown".

All I can think is that because I didn't get on the plane on Saturday they have cancelled my return flight, and of course customer services is now closed so I can't check. I really don't want to be stranded up there - I have a birthday party to go to Saturday night!

Yep pretty standard, if you miss the outbound flight they assume you are not there so don't need to come back

 

[Ticktock]

Yep pretty standard, if you miss the outbound flight they assume you are not there so don't need to come back

After typing my rant I sort of came to the same conclusion. Just a shame their Customer Services didn't think of that...

 

[Platypus]

IIRC this "rule" was brought in to stop people getting clever and using "back to back" tickets which always seemed to work out cheaper.

 

[Churchill]

IIRC this "rule" was brought in to stop people getting clever and using "back to back" tickets which always seemed to work out cheaper.

Yep, fckers!

 

[DirtyDog]

If you didn't take the flight, then they have to refund the APD on the ticket, so make sure you chase for that. Many airlines "forget" about it, and some will charge more than the duty, but worth asking.

 

[NotAllThere]

IIRC this "rule" was brought in to stop people getting clever and using "back to back" tickets which always seemed to work out cheaper.

The way round that if your making the trip frequently is to do a long A->B (covering a few months) and lots of shorter B->A's in between.

 

[Ticktock]

Spoke to "Customer Services" this morning - no way to reinstate the return, and, although if I was told what I was told, then that was "wrong", no refund. All I can do is book a new flight - at double the cost of my original return.. Callcentres

I'll wait until I get to the lounge tonight and argue with them there. Hopefully they'll at very least refund the original return leg, if not the cost of the new return, as I'll make it very clear that I was following the advice given by BA.

I guess it teaches me a lesson for assuming everything would be OK, instead of checking, double-checking and asking for confirmation in writing.

 

[Mich the Tester]

They said I'd get a refund of about £49, but there would be an admin fee of £51, so we agreed not to bother cancelling, I'd just book my new outbound flight.

IIRC this "rule" was brought in to stop people getting clever and using "back to back" tickets which always seemed to work out cheaper.

I wonder whether these policies really save money or generate profit, considering the loss of goodwill from customers and the cost of employing people to argue with disgruntled customers.

 

[Platypus]

I was following the advice given by BA

That it was BA surprises me. I would expect them to be more helpful.

No, really I would. I'm not joking.

I've used them quite a bit this year and have found the customer service to be excellent.