Aer Lingus/BA refund policy

[FairPayer]

I'm up the creek looking for a PPRuNe paddle.

Heres the background. I'm from Ireland but now live in Bangkok with my wife and son. We decided to pay for my wifes parents to fly out to Bangkok this coming Xmas. We usually book Evergreen Deluxe with EVA as its a good compromise between economy and full fare Business class but there was no availability back in May so we ended up paying full fare economy with Aer Lingus (Dub-LHR) and BA (LHR-BKK).

Heres the problem. Soon after we booked and paid for the tickets but before we had taken out travel insurance for them my father in law had both a stroke and a heart attack in quick succession. He is recovering but the doctors recommend he doesn't make the trip which is understandable. The tickets are non transferrable and non refundable. We can move the date forward up to 11 months for circa $150 but thats good money after bad as there is no way they will make it out here at all now given the health problem. The tickets were almost 3000 Euro and its going to go up in smoke unless I can convince Aer Lingus/BA to give me a credit or refund. Has anyone any ideas? I'm just getting the run around going through the travel agent.

Appreciate any help you can give me.

[san diego]

Someone along the way isn't telling the whole truth. You describe the tickets as full fare economy, if that's what they are, they are fully refundable for any reason but presumably your actual tickets show something entirely different.

If the travel agent told you they were refundable at the time of purchase, then demand a full refund and complain to their trade association if you get no satisfaction. If on the other hand it was simply the cost that made you think they were refundabe but no one actually told you they were, you may well have absolutely no claim from anyone. Look to see which airline issued the ticket, BA or EI and if you actually have no real claim, plead with them. For everyone else, a salutory lesson to get insurance as soon as possible.

[Globaliser]

Do you want to post here the fare basis (or bases) of the ticket you bought? If you have one of the laser-printed card/paper tickets you should find it on the passenger coupon, on the right hand side. It may look something like "HXWALK2" or some similar apparently random combination of letters and digits. The fare basis is the key to what sort of ticket you have actually got and what the rules are.

[FairPayer]

San Diego

I stated that the tickets were full fare based on the price, I did not purchase them myself so will check the exact fare basis, good point. In relation to the lesson, trust me its well and truly learned.

Globaliser

Thanks for the note. I will grab a copy to the tickets this evening and post all relevant details tomorrow.

I suspect that its going to boil down to a begging letter though :o(

[bealine]

No promises, mind, but IMH experience, Aer Lingus and BA both will eithr refund or change non-chg non-ref tix in the circumstances of personal emergency if supported by documentary evidence.

Telephone the sales and reservations dept and tell them what has happened. They'll probably ask you to send your tickets in with a copy of doctor's letter / consultant's notes etc.

Hope this helps

[FairPayer]

BeaLine

Thanks for the info, I reckon thats my best bet.

San Dieago and Globaliser

Tickets are the old style coupons and the info doesn't look good. Under Endorsement it states "Non Endorseable-Non Ref". Under fare basis it states"MHRI"

Tickets were issued by BA and each DUB-LHR-BKK return ticket was €1,296 so I stand to lose €2,600 unless my begging is up to scratch.

For anyone thinking of replying saying I should have taken out travel insurance sooner please don't, all I can see at night when I close my eyes is a travel insurance certificate dated the same day the tickets were bought!!!

[Globaliser]

Fare basis MHRI almost certainly means that your flights were booked in booking class M, which is a discount economy class. Although I don't know if it's different for BKK (no obvious reason why it should be), M class is the class that my discount consolidator tickets to Oz/NZ are usually booked in on BA and QF.

Your first port of call, if you haven't already exhausted your patience with them, is to find out from the travel agent exactly what the change/cancellation/refund conditions were for this ticket. If you still have the original booking documentation (itinerary/confirmation etc.), there might be something there. Consolidator tickets can sometimes be cancelled, for a fee, after ticketing but before departure - but this will be governed as much by the contract between you and the consolidator or travel agent as by the airline's fare rules. That's why you need the documentation you got at the time of booking. Sometimes these conditions will be repeated in an itinerary or invoice given to you when you are sent the tickets. (For this purpose, don't be too put off by the "non-endorseable non-refundable" endorsement on the ticket. That relates primarily to what the airline can do directly with you on the strength of the ticket. You need to find out what the consolidator/travel agent will do for you.)

The second line is then to take bealine's excellent advice. When you discuss this with sales/res, one possibility to ask about is whether the ticket is upgradeable. This doesn't necessarily mean upgrading to a different class of service, just a different booking class which is still an economy class fare. Sometimes, upgrading to a flexible fare is possible - then what you get for the extra money is the facility to change the reservations, although almost always the original non-refundable amount remains non-refundable. If BA tells you to talk to your travel agent first about this, then you could discuss this option with them as well.

Otherwise, it will be time to ask for a favour. In many ways, you are lucky that you are dealing with BA. But there is no guarantee of anything, you may be entitled to absolutely nothing and you will pretty certainly be asking for some sort of waiver of the rules, so pitch any letter accordingly.

Good luck!

[Edited to add:]
For the official BA line on this, go to the ba.com home page. Click "contact us" at the very top of the page, which will take you to "Ask BA". Go to Answer ID 1694, which is about "Travel arrangements following the hospitalisation/death of a passenger".

[FairPayer]

Globaliser

Excellent reply and the Ask BA information is spot on. I'm much more confident and prepared to go after a refund or credit note now based on all the helpful info I got from everyone.

Thanks