BA flight change

[siocox]

I hope ther are some BA ticket experts out there to advise what plan of action I should take. Back in May I booked a BA ticket to Puerto Rico via Antigua on the 30/03/2012 (BA2157)and returning from Antigua on 15/04/2012 (BA2156) with Touchdown.
Everything was ok till yesterday when Touchdown contacted me and told me that my outbound flight had been changed to Monday the second of April by BA. The problem is I have also booked a cruise that departs on Sunday the first of April.
When I spoke to BA they said they could do nothing about it and I will have to speak to Touchdown.
When I spoke to touchdown they told me that BA said my only options are to accept the change, have a refund or travel the Monday the 26 of March. I can't do 26/03 because of my Daughters school.
The reason for the flight change is that BA has changed the day of travel for BA2157 from a Friday to a Monday.

[Hartington]

Touchdown, they're the staff travel type agency aren't they? Doesn't really make much difference if they are. It all depends on how the booking has been made. If you booked the cruise with the cruise company or a different agency then you are stuffed. Take the refund and find another way of getting there.

If it was all booked via Touchdown quote the Package Travel Regulations at them and see how they react.

[Fargoo]

Where is your cruise leaving from - Antigua or Puerta Rico?

I guess the Antigua to Puerta Rico leg is with American Airlines.

Are you flying from London to Antigua first with BA? If so you could just change your booking and fly direct to Puerta Rico as they have a daily flight.

p.s. Did they say why your flight dates have been changed?

[airsmiles]

I can't believe BA wouldn't change your flight to route via MIA or JFK, so you can pick many more Peurto Rico connections? There again, IMHO as a BA frequent flyer, that do they have the sh#tt##st customer service known to man.

[Hartington]

airsmiles, this isn't a normal reservation. It's a form of staff travel. Different rules apply.

[airsmiles]

Sorry, that's a new one on me. So is this staff travel or not? You said a form of staff travel. How does that work and who is this service available to? Just intrigued that's all.

[Capot]

Touchdown is a broker, in effect, selling dumped capacity, sorry, spare capacity (air, sea, hotel etc) in a restricted market so as not to influence prices downwards on the open market.

To buy from Touchdown you must prove your airline and travel industry credentials. Even then, if you are not in customer contact you won't find much available in Touchdown for you; the best discounts are restricted to agency staff, reservation staff, counter staff etc etc, so that these staff will then gain some product knowledge at least, and hopefully promote the products.

Engineers get very little from Touchdown, and I imagine that back office staff fare equally badly.