Caution - BA and Easyjet bookings

[lotman1000]

I tried just now to book to Tunis from Gatwick on BA next June...it's an important date and I want to get the trip sorted asap.

The BA website offered fares at £71 all-in for the outward sector, and £963 for the return. At the next stage of booking it converted these to £517.00 each way, but still for an economy class fare. I think this is slightly more than a fully-flex return, if not it's pretty much the same.

So I rang BA to see if there's a website/computer glitch here. While assuring me that it was absolutely correct, because I don't want to stay over a Saturday (thereby reducing the return fare to £132) the agent advised me that they would no longer be operating the service, it would be Easyjet. OK, I hadn't realised that the flights were by GB Airways.

When I asked whether the flights would continue as per the published GB programme, she said "there is no way of knowing". I got the same answer about the Esasyjet fare, IF they operate at all.

She confirmed that if I wanted to continue with the booking and pay £1,034, "as far as we know it should operate, but we have no idea if it will or not" and " I cannot comment" about what would happen to my £1,034 if it doesn't.

The message is:

DO NOT BOOK AND PAY FOR VIA BA ANY FLIGHT ON ANY GB SERVICE, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE STILL IN THE BA COMPUTER FOR 2008.

BA WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY, EVEN THOUGH THEY DO NOT KNOW IF THE FLIGHT WILL OPERATE OR THE FARES AVAILABLE IF IT DOES.

DO NOT BELIEVE THEM IF THEY SAY THE SERVICE WILL OPERATE. IT'S OUT OF THEIR CONTROL.

Just imagine trying to get your money back from Easyjet, which is where BA will probably send it, eventually.

BA's actions in this respect are of course fraudulent under any common-sense definition, but that probably won't stop them continuing to take money for firm reservations on services that may/will not operate.

[Pax Agent]

Although EZY may be operating this route....BA mainline at LGW are taking 6 of the ex GB routes to run in direct competition Tunis being one of them.
Now we don't know what shcedule it will run to but when these are announced i'm guessing you will then be able to book on proper BA.

[lotman1000]

Pity BA doesn't give that information to its own Help Desk staff; she didn't know that, or if she did she was fibbing.

Still and all, BA are taking money for bookings on a published "schedule" when in reality we don't know what schedule it will run to without advising customers of that, unless they ask or protest on pprune.

IMHO that's still fraudulent, under any common-sense definition.

[bealine]

BA mainline at LGW are taking 6 of the ex GB routes to run in direct competition Tunis being one of them.

Not true! Nothing yet has been decided officially.

Yes - BA is taking its routes back (GB only operated them, the routes and slots always belonged to BA) but until the shinybums behind their desks at Watersplash have sharpened their pencils and plotted and planned, no one can say for certain what routes / schedules will be operated. Mr Easyjet will, at this moment, be in the same situation!

Don't be alarmed unnecessarily though, any money you pay to BA for a future booking will be safe. If the timetable changes from that currently published, you will be offered the choice to change your schedule or obtain a refund. (This has always been the case.)

[10secondsurvey]

I still think its pretty misleading, for BA to take these bookings.

I'd strongly advise anyone wanting to book those routes not to bother, as now the deal had been agreed, it is nothing but pure racketeering by BA to accept such bookings. I'd be pretty angry booking a BA flight, only to find someone like EasyJet running it.

BA really do seem hell bent on losing customers.

[Pax Agent]

I beg to differ....we ate LGW have been told by our Fleet Manager that we are continuing in direct competition to EZY the following 6 routes.....

Malaga, Faro, Gibraltar, Tunis, Palma, Ibiza.

I believe this is the extent of our route expansion.

[Haven't a clue]

What interests me is the huge price hike for not staying a Saturday night. I thought that requirement was shelved by BA a while back in a blaze of publicity when it changed its fare structure to compete with the LoCos. Has it been quietely re-introduced, or was it always there and I misundertood?

[Curious Pax]

Whilst I can understand you wanting to get your travel sorted out, if you are prepared to spend over £1000 on a ticket then surely waiting a couple of months until the dust settles on the GB takeover isn't a big deal? Assuming Tunis isn't suddenly the only place anyone wants to travel to next June then there will be seats available at that price (and most likely cheaper) until a lot nearer the time, and the dust will have settled sufficiently by the new year to see the best way of getting to your destination

[lotman1000]

Curious Pax - The event in Tunisia in June is so important to me that I want to get a solid, reliable booking now, not in 2 months time; I think that may be an optimistic forecast of when BA will sort itself out. It's been trying for 30 years, after all.

I've got lots of options other than BA and I'll use one of them. Probably a First Choice or similar to Monastir and a cab or car hire; I need to hire a car anyway.

But I would never pay £1,034 for a return trip to Tunis. It's a ridiculous price!

Just to see what would happen I looked at buying the return from Tunis on BA separately; sure enough it's £537.50. But if I buy a return trip over a weekend the total is £244. If I do the same from London I would pay £121.40. By using the first half of each booking the total is £365. Much better than £1,034 but still too much, so I'll use First, TUI or Monarch to MIR, or of course Tunisair if they aren't matching BA, or indeed one of the Tunisian independents.

Hello BA, it's called competition on price.

I don't know if the BA computer picks up the conflict between the two bookings, and I won't waste money trying it out. Does anyone know? If the bookings are accepted, I wouldn't be a no-show on the first ticket before using the second to get back, so that shouldn't be a problem.

This is of general interest, not just Tunis. When airlines try to screw you for wanting to travel back in the same week, known in the trade as "let's soak business passengers, they don't mind" we should all fight back by using their own system against them, because we do mind. A lot.

.

[fendant]

Buy now two separate tickets over Saturday, one LGW-Tunis and one Tunis-LGW.

You can even use separate airlines. Remember you ALWAYS have to take the first segment,otherwise all following segments will be nil and void.

Frank

[lotman1000]

Fendant, yes that's what I looked at (see above), and you've confirmed it.

But the best option of all, by a long way, was a simple return flight-only ticket to MIR on First Choice, or Monarch or Thompson, I forget which.

[Fargoo]

Funny how you've come on here slating BA when you had no intention of ever buying the ticket because "it's too expensive".

I agree things are a little messy regarding the ex GB flights but it's hardly the end of the world for you to go and book a ticket with one of the alternatives you mention.

In your own words "it's called competition on price" :ugh:

[10secondsurvey]

Fargoo
Things are not just 'a little messy'. It's downright deceptive - and BA know it.

[lotman1000]

Fargoo

Read my first post..

I tried just now to book to Tunis from Gatwick on BA next June...it's an important date and I want to get the trip sorted asap.

I had every intention of just booking and paying. I've used BA several times to Tunis, but never had these problems before.

What BA has done is encourage me/force me to look for alternatives, and Lo 'n Behold, they are a great deal better than BA ever was. So now I know.

And I still think it's criminal to take people's money for an uncertain product. "A little bit messy" indeed!

[Fargoo]

I've read your first post, still stand by what I say.