[openfly]

A couple of months ago I booked a BA Club Europe return from LGW to AMS for late August. These sectors connect to another flight ex-AMS. I allowed a 3 hour connection both ways.
But, in view of the recent horror reports of passing through AMS I decided to be sensible and change the outbound LGW-AMS to an earlier flight.
Went onto BA.com, put in the details, the robot worked it out as an extra….wait for it…LGW-AMS, one way…£638, yes £638….unbefrigginlievable!! I booked CE, and being a Gold, as I wanted the allowance of two heavy bags. The original fare was £190 return.
I wasn’t going to pay £638 extra, so I looked at EasyJet…£135 rtn, but without the bags…a good comparison though.
Anyway, I called the Exec Club Gold line. I didn’t mention the BA.com ridiculous quote! I said that I was doing something sensible…unusual for me! How much to bring my booking fwd to the earlier flight? £101…yes £101…£537 cheaper than the BA.com robot!
The BA guy was even apologetic that he had to charge me and went to his supervisor to see if he could do it gratis because “you are trying to be sensible”….no, the computer wouldn’t let them do it for nothing. Oh for the “old days” of individual customer service. I paid on my Amex. He said that there is a small compensation …. ” at least you get 303 Avios!
How can there be such a horrific difference between BA.com and the personal quote?
Sorry Sr Cruz, you didn’t get your £638. Another sleepless night for you.

[capetonianm]

BA and many other airlines’ websites run an API which feeds into a ‘ticket changer’ application. Because there are several ways of pricing a voluntary change, the price will differ. If the default setting is to price it at a fully flexible fare it will give a higher result than if it looks at best price options.

Programmers know a lot about programming but rarely understand what they are programming for.

[Inthesandpit]

I had the same experience, I booked a CW DXB/LHR/DXB for some welcome R&R back in Blighty. One week before travel I had to change my departure from DXB by one week due to the other half having to go into hospital in the UK. It was pretty serious so I had to travel. On the web site the cost of the change was 6750AED (1350GBP) when I had only paid 8350AED (1670 GBP) for the whole trip. I appreciated my original ticket was very restricted but come on 6750AED for a change. Of course out here all local lines were closed and redirected to a call center in the ‘former jewel in the crown’, they of course were completely unfazed by the urgency to change and quoted the same price, so I took a chance and called the gold line in the UK and I was charged 400AED for the change. Strange thing was on both legs I had originally booked the seats were 62A (my favourite on the upper deck), as the change was onto a 777 this was a seat change, but for some reason the system reallocated my seat for the unchanged return leg down to the main deck seat 10A. As soon as I noticed I went into my booking and saw 62A had gone but 64K was free – pheww.

[stevescoots]

I have had that before, but not recently, where trying to change a flight was more expensive than booking a complete new ticket, on the same bird i wanted to change to.

[MartynSinclair]

I often suffer similar when trying to change hotel reservations by 1 day either way…. price can flex by up to 5 x if there is an exhibition starting…..

[FaroFlyer]

For those who moan about the lack of benefit of a BAEC Gold card, this is actually a very clear benefit. Keep it secret, please.

[openfly]

@capetonianm thanks for that info. That makes it clear to all of us that,in the event of a ticket change, always go for “talking over the phone”.

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