BA Non-refundable Tickets

[cb9002]

Can any BA ticketers help me with this one...

If BA non-refundable tickets are purchased through an agent (Expedia) and a change to those tickets is requested, will BA help with this? I realise there will be a fee involved.

My dad booked non-refundable BA tickets to a wedding, but the date of the wedding got changed and Expedia told him to stuff it rather bluntly - they told him as a courtesy gesture they would apply the price of the airport tax against the next bookings!

Thanks

cb9002

[Globaliser]

Were the tickets changeable? You need to look at the original fare rules for that. If you can post the route, and the fare basis (it'll be somewhere on the ticket as a string of apparently random letters and maybe digits like "VEUNBA" or "HLXWAP2") it might be possible to have a guess. (Or if you can't find the fare basis, even just the class that the tickets were booked in - that's the single letter immediately after the flight number on the ticket.)

Maybe what Expedia are telling you is that the tickets were not only non-refundable but non-changeable as well - "travel or bust". In that case, you should be entitled to a refund of the taxes, but if another booking is going to be made for the same route it may be easier to transfer the taxes over to the new booking.

If the tickets were changeable, then BA will normally expect the travel agent to sort it out before departure of the first sector. But you really need to know what your fare rules permit and don't permit.

[flyingfemme]

If the tickets are not used then you are entitled to a refund of seat taxes anyway - not as a matter of courtesy and not as a credit against something else.

[bealine]

Once again, it all depends on how restricted the fare is. If it's a £29 return...forget it! Yes, you are, in theory, entitled to a refund of taxes but, in reality, the administration fee involved usually exceeds the amount due.

In order to fairly compete with Messrs. O'Leary and friends, we have had to "harden" our treatment of restrictions. If you're caught up in traffic or get delayed on the train.......tough! The only exception is a "significant" delay (such as an accident on the M25) which can be verified.

Similarly, a "mistake" on the Internet when you inadvertently hit the wrong date, or the wrong time, will not be changed either!

It's very, very sad...but O'Leary started this off!

[galley-wench22]

If you buy a ticket through an agent, you will see the words 'AGENT - NON REF' written on the ticket.

This tells the airline or other agent, not to change the ticket or refund the ticket under any circumstances. You must always go to your agent.

Also, if the ticket is an APEX then there is usually a No changes/No Refunds rule with the fare. If this is the case no one will eb able to change the ticket. They only way out of the booking is if there has been a death of the passenger or close relative. Even if that has happened the airline will ask for a death cirtificate. When I work as a travel agent, I had a pax try it on, said a relative had died. When the aitrline asked for the death cirtificate, suddenly the relative had been reserected!!:ooh:

[cb9002]

Bealine. 29 quid? Afraid not. 1300 quid ,2x LHR-BOS and YVR-LHR. That's a lot of money to lose...

The tickets didn't say non-changeable as fair as I know, but they were e-tickets which haven't yet been issued.

Thanks for your help

[Globaliser]

I take it you mean £650 each for two people, LHR-BOS then YVR-LHR.

Although you don't give dates, I've dummied the following itinerary on Travelocity:-
14JUL LHR-BOS BA213
21JUL YVR-LHR BA84
Price £588.00 + £54.10 = £642.10 per person which roughly corresponds to the assumption above.

Fare basis for these tickets is VHXAPGB3 out and VFXAPGB3 back. V class is the second lowest class on general public sale, so we are talking the trans-Atlantic equivalent of about a £60 fare to Edinburgh. As you would expect, tickets are usually non-changeable in that class.

The cancellation/change/penalty rule for both of these fares is:-
CANCELLATIONS - TICKET IS NONREFUNDABLE/ / WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER/ / NOTE - WAIVER FOR ILLNESS ONLY APPLIES IN THE EVENT OF CERTIFIABLE HOSPITALIZATION/ / CHANGES BEFORE DEPARTURE NOT PERMITTED/ / NOTE - VOLUNTARY REROUTING NOT PERMITTED/ / INVOLUNTARY REROUTING PERMITTED VIA THE SERVICE OF BA/ / INBOUND CHANGES AFTER DEPARTURE PER TICKET CHARGE GBP100/ / NOTE - INBOUND RESERVATION CAN BE CHANGED ONCE FOR GBP100/ / UPGRADING - MAY UPGRADE ENTIRE JOURNEY TO RULE 4132/ 9542 AT A CHARGE OF GBP100/ / NOTE - IN CASE OF UPGRADE ORIGINAL CANCELLATION CHARGE WILL APPLY. IF UPGRADED TKT IS SUBSEQUENTLY CANCELLED/ / INVOLUNTARY REROUTING WILL BE PERMITTED VIA THE SERVICES OF BA.Unless the rule for your tickets was very different, it looks like Expedia is absolutely right. As has been said, you are entitled to a refund of the taxes (in my experience BA will do a full refund without any administration charge, unlike some low fare carriers we won't name) but if you are making a new booking at the same time it would be easier for everyone to transfer that credit across.

[cb9002]

OK Globaliser, you're probably spot on. Doesn't stop it being a pain in the ass though... thanks anyway.

And, 650 doesn't seem that cheap to me. I bought an STA fare two weeks ago - LAX-LHR one-way for 170 sterling plus tax on American Airlines - maybe I'll even be able to stretch my legs on their seat pitch... now that's good value!

[Globaliser]

I'm just sorry for your parents that there isn't any more welcome news. It certainly is a lot of money just wasted. (They're not mileage chasers, are they? They could fly it just for fun and miles ... :D )

Re-reading the rules, it occurs to me that they should ask if it might be cheaper to upgrade the tickets to the lowest available changeable economy fare, when compared to junking the tickets and buying new ones for whatever fare is available for the dates they really need. (I think that "upgrade" in this context doesn't have to mean into the next cabin.) If it is cheaper to upgrade, they also have the benefit that they will be holding more flexible tickets even if the originally paid amount will never be refundable.

The big difference between May/June and July is just that - getting into school holidays and summer holidays season in a big way. I think that for May this year you could still get BA trans-Atlantic returns from here for about £300 in one of the many sales.