[Anonymous]

[stevescoots]

yesterday i was in Prague, in and out in a day. My return flight was the 21.45 flight but i arrived back at PRG early enough to get the 18.30 flight. I went to the ticket office run by menzies and asked if there was a seat frr and could i change, she said there was but they wanted £365 notes (not CZK) to change!!!

the original round trip ticket was only just under £200 quid non restricted. and no luggage I am also a silver BAEC member.

is that normal of BA for change requests at the airport? or did menzies, who are the agent screw it all up, she was insistant.

as a footnote last time i changed a ticket was also in PRG with easy and there was no charge at all.

[Bucksnet]

When using the return part of your ticket some airlines allow you to take an earlier flight free of charge.

[BeckyBoop]

Steve, usually it depends on the availability on the earlier flight and if your original flight is overbooked because if it is you are doing them a favour and so can put you on an earlier flight at no extra cost.

[stevescoots]

niether was fully booked. the earlier flight had spaces and i was trying to change 20 mins before check in closed. Later flight was only 70% capacity, i ended up with a row to myself

[FormerlyDoS]

Steve

In my experience, it was likely to be BA pricing, up to the full flexible one way fare.

easyJet do put you on an earlier flight, for free, so long as certain conditions are met; one is that it is the return leg of a trip.

Who will you choose next time? (Genuine question to see what you value the most.)

[stevescoots]

it depends, i use both BA and Easy when travelling to prague depending on my itenary and both airlines schedules, BA were cheaper this time. Usually if i need to be in and out in a day then its BA, but if an overnighter is needed then its easy

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi Steve

It looks liek the earlier flight was busier so you would have had to pay £60 plus whatever the fare difference. Based on next Wednesday you can see the 18:30 flight is busier than the 21:45 flight

PRG LHR 1830 1940 BA 857 J9 C6 DC R4 I2 Y9 B0 H9 K4 M1 LC
VC NC QC OC S4 G3

PRG LHR 2145 2245 BA 863 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9
VC NC QC OC S9 G9

You £200 fare was probably in V, N or Q Class. You would have had to pay the difference to a higher fare class (probably H or K if on the day – or B). This would have equalled the £300 aprox on the one way leg. It is ashame BA don’t follow Easyjet policy but then they are trying to make money (or not lose it!).

Hope that gives you an idea of where they were coming from.

Tim

[Cedric_Statherby]

Steve

You have not been singled out for harsh treatment and believe me, sometimes the cost difference people have remarked on has been even higher.

There have been a number of threads on this topic on the Forum over the years, and the comment is always along the lines of “given that neither flight was full, and it cost nothing to let me get home earlier, why did they not do it and garner some goodwill?” The airlines’ response is routinely that flexibility has a value and if they give that flexibility away, even if it is just the one-way flexibility of coming home earlier, then no-one will bother to buy a full-fare ticket.

I can see both sides of the argument (and have on several occasions been in your shoes). The real culprit here is the ludicrously complicated ticketing and fare structures that airlines like to use, and the stupidly high walk-up top-rate fare levels which they wish to protect.

It will be interesting to see if Easyjet’s innovative approach of allowing one to come home early makes any inroads into the full-cost carriers’ practices. FormerlyDoS’s suggestion is open to all of us, but only if we vote with our feet will the likes of BA change their mind.

Interestingly, for those who can remember it, BA used to operate a “turn up and pay a flat fare, take the next plane” system – it was called the Shuttle, and it ran (from memory) on the London to Glasgow and Edinburgh routes. And very effective it was too. I presume they stopped it when we the customers deserted them for the low cost carriers on these routes.

[stevescoots]

I wouldnt have objected to paying, even paying 150+ but the 360…thatw as a kicker, never mind set up camp in the lounge!

[Cedric_Statherby]

When the airlines are that stupid/greedy, the only thing to do is sit in the lounge and eat and drink as much as you want at their expense until the later flight goes!

[AMcWhirter]

Cedric

I remember the BA Shuttle well. Besides EDI + GLA, the Shuttle also covered MAN and, I believe, BFS.

It was competition from British Midland that eventually saw the demise of Shuttle. BM offered free food (a good meal in those days) and drinks for the same price or less than BA Shuttle which offered zero onboard service. All that BA onboard staff did, in those days, was to collect the fares and this was done inflight.

Competition from BD forced BA to turn Shuttle into Super Shuttle also with food and drinks. But the guaranteed back-up plane concept (Shuttle’s selling point) was gradually watered down until it ended up as what we have today.

[MartynSinclair]

from my own experiences in Europe I have been lucky, although last week in Frankfurt, BA charged me Euros 25 to change to the earlier flight. It can be hit and miss and sometimes depends who you talk to.

As a general tip, I tend not to ask at the ticket desk, but try my luck in the lounge, if its a BA dedicated lounge OR just go to the gate and hope the flight hasnt closed and isnt full – that is of course on the basis that you have a boarding pass to go airside..

[jayjay007]

i completely agree with cedric_… advise -but that’s mostly because i allways try to make the most of my stays in the lounge -anyway it is my experience that BA,contrary to many other airlines allways tries to cash in with the pax needs -not only low cost.

i never trust the airport staff for those matters -agents or BA

next time just try to call your usual reservations center at home,or even executive club -a simple personnal call to the usual operator will trigger,if necessary ,the supervisor’s OK for the release of the seat at no extra ,or little extra price

martyn sinclair is right on the approach…but you need to be airside…

[NTarrant]

BA used to have a ticket on domestic services which you had to travel on the outward flight but the return you could change and it only worked out about £30 more than a fixed. That was about 10 years ago though, but it was very useful if you turned up early for whatever reason.

Recently a colleague and I arrived at GLA early for our flight and we were offered to move to the early flight which we were not expecting. The staff were even apologetic we had middle seats and not sat together!

I have found not asking sometimes gets a result, but never expect to get a free change. I turned up early at MAN for a BE flight and asked if I could change and was told it was £60 which I was happy to pay as it was worth it. But the staff member seemed reluctant to make the change and kept on checking that I wanted to pay the £60!

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