Under-16 on adult ticket: APD refund?

[25F]

A friend has booked a flight with BA for herself, a sixteen year old and a fifteen year old. Unfortunately she bought three adult tickets - so paid £87 APD for the fifteen year old, unnecessarily. I phoned BA and after a few attempts to explain the problem was told there was no way to convert the ticket and get APD refunded. Does that sound right? Or was I just being flanneled? I can imagine the systems not making any sort of allowance for this situation - although it's rather annoying that it doesn't flag it up when the dates-of-birth (which is on the booking) don't match the price paid.
I guess at the end of the day BA get to pocket the money.

[SpringHeeledJack]

The taxes should be a separate item fiscally, so in theory can, and should be refunded. That said, they might argue that friend knowingly booked an adult fare for a child to get out of the claim. I'm sure that airlines make quite a nice sum each year from taxes and baggage charges that aren't used and not claimed back by the passengers.

[25F]

Yep, *should* be refunded, as it is when a ticket goes unused. And obviously *could* be, given sufficient access to the database. But clearly the first line of customer defence doesn't have a button to click. Probably not worth going on the attack any further. Might try an email - if I can find an address to try.

[PAXboy]

We can bet that the accounting software has a special code for unrecovered APD and we'll never know how big that number is.

[S.o.S.]

That's a good question 25F. Please let us know any progress - or brick walls.