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Thank you to the people who helped me find a ticket to fly to the USA urgently to see my dad who is in ICU. I am now trying to change 2 x 2 companion voucher bookings for 4 of us in August as I won’t be travelling with them.
DH and DD are on one booking with a companion voucher – no issues
DS and myself are on another companion voucher – I thought I’d just ask them to remove me and the voucher and leave my son as a standalone booking so he could travel with them. They are also going to the USA but I am just having to go earlier.The lady on the phone said that the seat was only available because of the voucher so my only options are to either book a cash ticket (£2200 for economy) on same flight) or do a No Show at the airport. I said they would not allow my son on the plan and she said it’s a confirmed booking. She also said I would be able to reclaim the tax back as that’s allowed for no shows.
Could experts here PLEASE reply and advise. Just not in a position to spend £2k+. Would it be fine to not show up and the three of them show up. I can provide them with medical letters etc.
Once they scan the passport at the airport, would they know that it was a companion ticket? Do we check myself and him in. Has anyone been in the same position. This was a BA agent telling me but I am still skeptical!
It must be very stressful and I hope your dad is ok. Hopefully someone can clarify but the Ts and Cs are that you both have to fly (at least on the outbound) so I think there might be a risk of problems at check in; it depends whether you want to risk it. I really don’t think they can tell from your boarding card what kind of booking it is, but it is a huge risk to take unless you’re certain there won’t be any issues.
Technically you could cancel and rebook but I imagine it’s very unlikely that the reward seats would go back into the inventory with such high demand for any kind of seats currently.
Is your son old enough to travel on his own? I saw your first post but couldn’t log in to reply. I was going to say there is good availability on Virgin MAN-ATL direct if that would be any use.Thank you NorthernLass. I managed to find LHR-MCO and then booked a separate connection to ATL. They said I wouldn’t be able to rebook as the seat was only open to people with a companion voucher so in my case I won’t be using it so there would be no reward seat. Still very stuck. My husband and daughter are on same flight so my husband could seat them together. However, I’d need to pay £2200 for an economy ticket. Let’s see.
The more information you can provide, the more people on here will help. Dates, timings etc. I’m really sorry for your situation – it’s awful and unfair. Firstly, I’m guessing the £2,200 is a one-way economy fare?
I think your best course of action would be to book your son on the the same flights as your husband which I imagine is a return to Atlanta?
Depending when that is, it should be a bit less than £2,200. There are return flights with BA that are cheaper than that pretty much unless they are flying on 1st August. Your son will need to come home and there is no guarantee it will be with you.
How old is your son? If he is a minor then it will probably need a call to BA to book it and even that is difficult just now. I don’t believe you will be able to add him to your husbands ticket so it will need some sort of linkage.
Most likely you will be cancelling your 241 as it just sounds too risky to try and use it for your son only. Also, your return ticket on it would be automatically cancelled if you no-showed and they might not be minded to reinstate it even if you asked nicely.
So you will need to get back from Atlanta at some point. I know it seems weird to think about that but e.g. BA have availability with Avios on a fair few dates in August. You can book a realistic one and perhaps a second later one as an back-up/alternative. The cost to cancel the one you do not use would be £35 which gives you some flexibility and is a whole lot cheaper than buying a cash ticket nearer the date.
Hi. Me again. How many Virgin points and Avios do you have?
Depending on the answers to the prior questions, it might be your best bet is to cancel both 241s i.e. if your son now needs to rebook and travel with your husband. Virgin have various flights to a few places on the east coast in premium economy in early August e.g. Boston on 3rd and 5th of August. That would be a total of 82,500 Virgin points and £1,200. They’d probably need to overnight in Boston but could then pick up a cheap flight to Atlanta.
BA have pretty much no Avios seats to North America (although if you are Avios rich they could fly First to Atlanta on the 4th of August utilising one 241). But there is plenty availability coming back from Atlanta in Economy.
You didn’t say what class you were all originally travelling in. If you’d booked club it is going to suck downgrading.
But I suspect if I were in your position I’d want to get your husband and two kids on one PNR for both out and back so that you have flexibility with your plans and so that they are all definitely going to be kept together in the event of flight disruption.
Remember – cancelling the 241s will at least see you get a pile of Avios back as well as the taxes and fees minus £140 so doing this would likely be cheaper on a cash basis than paying £2,200 for a cash flight for your son.
I don’t know if this is possible, but could you not cancel your son on the 2-4-1 – just leaving you with a single avios seat and then do a name change? Probably not possible – others will have more knowledge re name changes etc.
They are likely quoting you for a one-way as others have mentioned.
Will BA cancel the whole outbound leg and leave your return intact (will be repriced)? That way you and your son have a return in the bag.
Then book your son a return with the outbound the same date as your husband and daughter and a return for any date in the future, just find the cheapest date as you have no intention of flying that leg.
Thanks all. Son is 13 years and the original flights are to Chicago to see a specialist so not flexible about other cities or date. husnand will need to take them to the specialist himself. Thank you all for your helpful comments. I think cancelling 2 for 1 and just biting the bullet and booking son on same flight seems to be the easiest, yet expensive, route.
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