BA Economy Plus: Change Flight on day of travel

[Vit]

Hello, appreciate this has been discussed before but it has been awhile since I came across such post last time. I was wondering if people are still doing this with any success and don’t mind sharing their experiences?

Need to be in London in September for a week or so and was thinking of booking cheapest (Economy Plus) and change the flight at 00:01am on the day of travel free-of-charge (subject to availability?). I have seen people mentioned about this before. Any pros/cons please?

Also does it have to be the same arrival airport (i.e. change from LHR to LCY and vice versa is okay?)

Cheers,
Vit

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Needs to be same airport for a free change.

[e14]

Same airport and there has to be space in the same cabin you are booked into. It’s also usually about 12.05 and in my experience doesn’t work 1 in 3 times on legs to the U.K. – so save the other contact centre numbers

[e14]

Oh and don’t check in either

[Vit]

Thank you both for the input. 🙂

[bruce2000]

Can you elaborate on this ? What do you need to do and what is the benefit? Thanks in advance.

[Gavin454]

I do it often, especially if I’m flying a route with a lot of daily flights such as LHR-GVA and it’s not totally essential that I get any one specific flight. Sometimes the savings are quite large. I’ve never had a problem, always able to swap to the flight I wanted. However, there is a risk the flight you want could be sold out.

When I’m flying from e.g. GVA back to the UK, the system seems to work based on UK time, so I have to wait until 1am to change my flight.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

bruce2000 wrote:

Can you elaborate on this ? What do you need to do and what is the benefit? Thanks in advance.

Short haul only.
Economy plus or club Europe cash fare(1) only but not BA Hols bookings.
Simple point to point trips – no connections.

After midnight can change to other flight that day for free (does seem to be UK not local time).

I have been able to SDC again after being checked in but not if I’ve generated the BP.

Needs to be availability in the same cabin
No change of airports allowed but possible for a fee (2)
Must be completed no later than 60 minutes before the new flight if switching to an earlier flight or 60 mins before the original scheduled flight time if switching to a later flight,

Done through MMB and the flight change option.

Advantages

Means if your plans change you can change your flight to suit.
Can buy the cheapest flight and try to change to what would have been a more expensive one for free.

Disadvantages

May not be able to switch if your desired flight is full
Reduced seat selection choices
The time frame limits I listed above

My personal policy is not to buy the cheapest flight if I’m not prepared to actually take it just in case an SDC isn’t possible. Don’t want a midnight scramble to change a 6 or 7am flight then find I can’t change it and have to make a mad dash to the airport.

(1) part pay with avios is oK though (the eg use 3,000 to get £30 off options) but not if you’ve Upgraded using Avios

(2) so you can’t switch a LHR flight to LCY for example for free but MMB would show you the price to do that

[Vit]

@Gavin454 Thanks for sharing your experiences. Very good to know. I am doing EDI and seems to be a handful flight a day anyway.

Also good point stated by @BAFIHGS, to not booked very early flight and try to stay up passed mid-night while not able to change the flight. Mine was another way around. More like a late evening flight and if I cannot change it then it just means I have to find something else to do. 🙂