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I tried calling BA (wouldn’t allow me online) to change an economy 241 booking to Istanbul, to Malaga instead. The agent on the phone was unable to do so despite spending 40 minutes on it and offered to refund everything (40k avios, 241 and £105) and asked me to book the Malaga flights online instead. She said that the avios and 241 would show immediately on my account and cash may take a week or so to arrive.
After hanging up I checked and she had deducted a further 40,000 avios for some unknown reason.
I called BA again and the new agent apologised and stated that he would refund the 80,000 avios (original booking and the new unexplained deduction) and 241 immediately and the £105 would take up to 10 days to come through.
Nothing has happened and I have spent a total of 1 hour on the phone for something that I thought would be straightforward. The number I rang both times was 020 3250 0145. Both agents had an Indian accent and I could hear other Indian accents in the background so I assume it was an Indian call centre?
In any case is there an alternative number that I can call to sort this out so that I can book my new flights? Or is there a way to escalate this to a supervisor? Or do I have to just call again and go through the whole performance again? I would like the 241 to be available asap as it is soon expiring. I can wait a while for everything else.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
HUACA.
Argh, this is so frustrating.
Sadly to resolve the situation in real time, so to speak, you will need to call again. Which call centre your call gets routed to seems to be fairly random, although the higher your status, the higher your chance you’ll speak to someone more experienced in the UK (in my experience).
Definitely worth putting a complaint in in writing once you resolve the issue, should net you 10k or so Avios.
Stay polite with the agents and keep the complaint factual.
There is a user on flyertalk called BA Refund Helper. It could be worth joining if you aren’t a member and sending them a private message
Otherwise weirdly I find calling the US number after 8pm via Skype usually gets me a UK agent !
Thank you @Richie, @PeteM and @SamG
I huaca’d and the new agent has stated it has gone off to some department and I won’t hear back till Friday… and to call them again if I don’t hear back. I am still on the phone to them as that option does not work for me. Honestly, terrible.
I have another 241 expiring next year. Can I use that to secure the booking and then get them to apply the voucher (expiring this year) when it is returned to me?
Again, thanks in advance.
Why did you not cancel online? Avios and 241 are usually refunded immediately. It sounds like you got a very poorly trained agent.
Sometimes they can swap vouchers around but again you’d need someone who knows what they’re doing.
But using a 241 to Malaga in economy is a terrible use of it, unless it’s expiring and you genuinely can’t do better.
I have another 241 expiring next year. Can I use that to secure the booking and then get them to apply the voucher (expiring this year) when it is returned to me?
I suspect that will muddle things even more sadly…
@NorthernLass – I did try to cancel it online, but the BA website wouldn’t let me and directed me to call instead. Availability is not great for the dates we want and it is expiring shortly.
@PeteM – Thank you, good to know.Final question – what if I booked all the seats I needed with avios… could I get the voucher retrospectively applied when it appears again?
Final question – what if I booked all the seats I needed with avios… could I get the voucher retrospectively applied when it appears again?
So I was going to suggest that… But, again, I suspect it’s going to be as much of a battle as trying to swap vouchers. The problem is most agents don’t have a great idea of what they’re doing and don’t get a huge amount of latitude in what they can do. Throw in systems which are also not great and it’s a pretty challenging situation. Still better than VS, to be fair.
@NorthernLass – I did try to cancel it online, but the BA website wouldn’t let me and directed me to call instead. Availability is not great for the dates we want and it is expiring shortly.
This normally happens when there’s been a change on the booking. Someone said the other day you can ask the call centre to reinstate the ability to self-service bookings. I haven’t tried this myself and would only be useful to you in the future in any case…
Thank you again. I would say all my (limited) dealings with VS have been great… I tend to find BA makes a mountain out of even small issues, but I do use them more, so perhaps I am just unlucky.
Good to know about reinstating self service booking, will be useful in future.
A further thought – that comes with some risk, but perhaps better than losing the seats. You could book the seats with full Avios now. Get the voucher back at some point hopefully soon. Then cancel the full cost seats (should be able to just pay £1 if all online) and rebook with the voucher? Assumes the seats go back into the inventory and no one else grabs them, of course!
Consider GIB if AGP isn’t available? Much nicer airport!
Update: All sorted finally! Thank you @PeteM, @SamG, @Richie, and @NorthernLass for all the help and prompt replies.
The lesson here is HUACAAAAA – Hang up and call again and again and again!
I got disconnected from the third agent while waiting for a supervisor and they never called back. Got an email from BA stating they needed to speak to me and I decided to call back and try again (although was tempted to call it a day having wasted 2 hours at this point)… got through to a fourth agent who I had to explain everything to again but she was switched on and competent and she managed to sort out my refund/booking problems during the call and book the seats I needed. Have had the e-ticket email as well so very relieved.
Thank you all again.
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