Pay Any Difference In Fare – Meaning???

[AndrewC]

Hi, maybe this is a basic question but hopefully someone here can confirm?

The BA Book With Confidence, Virgin Flexible Booking Policy, etc policies all allow date changes to a booked flight for no fee (but must pay the fare difference).

Supposing that the flight out has already been flown, and then I need to change the date/time of the return flight. And supposing that it’s a normal cheap ticket (paid in cash) that has a (say) 21 day advance booking requirement, and the proposed new date is now 3 days away.

I think it’s straightforward to work out the cost of the original return flight, but what is the ‘difference in fare’ calculated against?
– Is it the cost of the outward flight and new return flight if it had been booked at the same time that the original booking was made?
– Is it the cost of the outward flight and new return flight if it had been booked three days in advance?
– The cost of just the return flight, booked as a single, three days in advance?
– Something else?

[davefl]

Cant answer your specifics, but I had a miles booking in UC with Virgin that was an open jaw, flying into JFK and out of ATL.
I filled in the online form to change it to ATL both ways, and the SMS reply was that I needed to pay £1.30. When I finally got through a week later I was told it was now £1.10. That ticket was originally sold as PE and upgraded using the Virgin CC voucher.

So calculating it is impossible. How they got that small amount I have no clue. I do know that the amount i paid in taxes and charges overall was a couple of hundred quid more than the taxes shown on the website for a straightforward miles redemption to ATL.

[Thegasman]

Generally in the world of airline ticketing changes prior to departure of first flight on a coupon (ticket) are priced as if you were making a brand new booking on the day of the change.

Changes after departure of first leg are priced using historical fares (ie. what it would have cost to book that itinerary on the day you originally bought ticket).

You do need to fulfil the other fare criteria though. Eg. If you bought a cheap BA business fare in September with return leg on 1st February then it would likely be in the “I” fare bucket. If you were trying to change that today to a flight on the 3rd February then you would likely find there wasn’t any I class availability this close in so you would be faced with a hefty jump in fare based on whatever is available would have cost in September (flexible fare buckets are expensive no matter how far in advance you buy them).

If you were pushing the return leg back 2 months then you’d probably be ok & this can sometimes be best way of preserving value by getting the cheapest flight home on any carrier (potentially using Avios or LCC) then using that return leg for a future trip.

You should also expect any changes like this to need to go to back office team for fare calculation so not something to leave till last minute.

[AndrewC]

That makes sense, thanks.

Was wondering if all this stuff around fare flexibility would in practice be meaningless once I had already departed (for a short trip) as it would all be subject to a fare difference against a full fare last minute price. Looks like this is very possibly likely to be the case…