Reward Flight Saver cancellation charge

[kieranfox]

I had LHR-BCN-LHR booked in Economy reward flight saver for 2 adults (£70)

I wanted to amend the date of the outbound which it wouldn’t let me do online as there were only Business seats available. I therefore made a separate business class booking (£50) for the outbound and called BAEC to cancel the outbound.

I have been charged £35pp (total £70) change fee for doing so. So I got a £35 refund of the original outbound charge but essentially have ended up paying £35 more for the privilege as it’s classed as an amendment rather than a cancelation to cancel one sector.

I read online that I shouldn’t end up paying more if the taxes are less than £35 which they clearly were. Have I been over-charged?

[NorthernLass]

What you’ve read relates to what usually happens when you cancel an award booking online. When you do anything by phone you’re likely to get charged any fees in BA’s policies, plus sometimes an extra £15pp if what you want to do can be done online instead of calling. You seem to have been charged the standard £35 pp change fee here, so it’s not actually related to the taxes you paid.

This is one benefit of booking separate legs – if you do decide to cancel one sector, on a short-haul RFS flight you only lose £17.50 pp and be able to keep the other sector unchanged.

[kieranfox]

Thanks. It wouldn’t let me do this online so seems a con for them to charge differently when their systems can’t cope with a simple change online

[NorthernLass]

It’s not a different charge though, once you’d made that booking any change or cancellation would incur £35 pp. If you want to reduce this liability, you need to book separate legs.

[kevinchoi]

kieranfox wrote:

Thanks. It wouldn’t let me do this online so seems a con for them to charge differently when their systems can’t cope with a simple change online

If you let them know (whilst on the call with them) that you were unable to do it online due to their systems, then in my experience they tend to waive the phone fee, but I think this is due to the call handler’s discretion