-
Sorry if everyone already knows, but my wife and I have been flying for over 30 years so don’t know if it’s a new thing.
We were flying LHR<->AMS and allowed to change to later flights on both directions for no charge (Club I bucket and Econ V, both cash tickets). Basically my wife was enjoying lunch too much and wanted to stay an extra couple of hours.
Is this a usual thing?? I guess it makes sense if later flights have lower loading, but it seems incredibly generous – especially as the fare buckets are normally non-refundable/changeable without a fee.
Yes, well known. If not that well known (clearly..) and I suspect not well used. It can be used to save money (if you’re willing to take a slight risk…).
Can be risky as I found to my cost last summer. Booked the first flight back to LCY ex AMS as it was cheapest but when I tried to move there were no other flights to move on to so mad rush to Schiphol at 5am!
Not doing that agaian
No, sorry. We were already booked and checked in (and paid for). Then we were allowed to change the flight for no cost – but not looking for a cheaper flight. The tickets weren’t fully flex.
Just happy to change the flight and spend a few extra hours eating/drinking.
For a same day change the tickets don’t have to be fully flex.
Any economy plus or club ticket bought for cash on a short hail point to point route can be changed for free until an hour before the flight. Being checked in doesnt change that eiter.
I have gambled a few times and so far won every time with this.
But one squeaky bum where I thought we would be spending the day at Heathrow. Thankfully BA changed the final row of business class into Economy seats at the last minute and we changed to a perfectly timed flight. And amusingly got row 6 to ourselves which is nice as a family of four flying economy without pre-booked seats.
I’ve realised it is not the best plan to book the cheapest first flight of the day unless you are happy to take it as staying up until midnight, if you then have no luck and need to be up at 4am, would be a very bad thing.
But for e.g. coming back from London to Edinburgh I am very happy to book the last flight of the day if it is cheap and then take pot luck.
One further point is you cannot swap London City for Heathrow which seems unsporting given that BA consider it one thing when rebooking us!
For a same day change the tickets don’t have to be fully flex.
Any economy plus or club ticket bought for cash on a short hail point to point route can be changed for free until an hour before the flight. Being checked in doesnt change that eiter.
That I think answers the one niggle I had. It has to be a cash ticket (however cheap) doesn’t it – not a points booking. Also can you do this in MMB – or do you have to call? I’m guessing given the midnight comment MMB is the place to go…?
Cash and flight only (no BAH), excluding HBO (ie Economy Plus as mentioned above).
From memory I think it pops up in MMB, although I’ve never actually got to use it as I’m normally on the cheapo fares.
Yes, I’ve done this in MMB – just go to change flight as normal
Cash and flight only (no BAH), excluding the three lowest economy fare classes (ie Economy Plus as mentioned above).
From memory I think it pops up in MMB, although I’ve never actually got to use it as I’m normally on the cheapo fares.
ah ok, thanks.
Sorry just edited my post to say excluding HBO, it’s not fare class dependent.
I have gambled a few times and so far won every time with this.
But one squeaky bum where I thought we would be spending the day at Heathrow. Thankfully BA changed the final row of business class into Economy seats at the last minute and we changed to a perfectly timed flight. And amusingly got row 6 to ourselves which is nice as a family of four flying economy without pre-booked seats.
I’ve realised it is not the best plan to book the cheapest first flight of the day unless you are happy to take it as staying up until midnight, if you then have no luck and need to be up at 4am, would be a very bad thing.
But for e.g. coming back from London to Edinburgh I am very happy to book the last flight of the day if it is cheap and then take pot luck.
One further point is you cannot swap London City for Heathrow which seems unsporting given that BA consider it one thing when rebooking us!
The different airports have different taxes and charges, so swapping them would require a recalculation/reissue etc. So it’s fair enough really…
Agree on the first flight of the day plan, I did it from Nice and had to stay up until 1am local time before it was showing €0 and availability was very tight – would have been awful if I had actually had to go on my booked 7am flight!
For a same day change the tickets don’t have to be fully flex.
Any economy plus or club ticket bought for cash on a short hail point to point route can be changed for free until an hour before the flight. Being checked in doesnt change that eiter.
That I think answers the one niggle I had. It has to be a cash ticket (however cheap) doesn’t it – not a points booking. Also can you do this in MMB – or do you have to call? I’m guessing given the midnight comment MMB is the place to go…?
Note that it’s usually midnight UK or thereabouts , so if you’re overseas it’ll be even later.
It was a civilised 4pm in San Francisco when I changed our BA flight up to Edinburgh from the one I had originally booked at 6:15am which would have been tricky to take given that it departed five hours and five minutes before our Virgin Atlantic flight landed at Heathrow!
It was a giggle.
First, only the 10pm was available. Then the 6:15pm appeared so I frantically took it as they were announcing last call.
And on landing at Heathrow the 2:15pm was then available so all was well in the land of Froggee.
Very lucky frog.
Question on this. I am flying Gatwick – Malaga on Saturday and wanting to change to an earlier flight, as my flight got moved later (only 25 minutes but makes a difference with a baby!).
When I go to manage my booking I can see that I can change it on the day for free, but does this include the BA flights that are operated by vueling on the same route? Or is it BA planes only?
ThanksThe different airports have different taxes and charges, so swapping them would require a recalculation/reissue etc.
Not when arriving. But probably easier for BA to just say no
I am flying Gatwick – Malaga on Saturday and wanting to change to an earlier flight
When I go to manage my booking I can see that I can change it on the day for free, but does this include the BA flights that are operated by vueling on the same route? Or is it BA planes only?
You can change to IB metal if available (which it isn’t on this route I believe) but I don’t think you can change to VY metal.
To be accurate, these are not BA flights operated by VY. They are VY flights operated by VY and marketed with a BA codeshare.
Thanks – that’s a shame. There really isn’t much information available about the same day change!
Do you know if it’s possible to change to Heathrow – Malaga?
Has to be same airports
Has to be same airports
For a 100% free change it does.
You can change airports if you pay any fare difference. Though I think the change fee is waived.
But given you can do this only after midnight UK time it could lead to some rather rushed travel arrangements.
It was a civilised 4pm in San Francisco when I changed our BA flight up to Edinburgh from the one I had originally booked at 6:15am which would have been tricky to take given that it departed five hours and five minutes before our Virgin Atlantic flight landed at Heathrow!
It was a giggle.
First, only the 10pm was available. Then the 6:15pm appeared so I frantically took it as they were announcing last call.
And on landing at Heathrow the 2:15pm was then available so all was well in the land of Froggee.
Very lucky frog.
All’s well that ends well @Froggee ! Didn’t you have internet on the plane to keep monitoring or was it the case that there just wasn’t any availability until you landed? 😅
I didn’t even think to check if there was internet on the plane. I had resigned myself to spending many hours at Heathrow with a very wabbit Kermit (he had almost definitely had a nasty bout of Covid delaying our return home) so had booked a day room at Heathrow so he could sleep.
I checked for earlier flights on a whim while waiting for our bags (we were self-connecting from Virgin to BA) and wasn’t even convinced it was the best call to change given how tired Kermit was. But he said he just wanted to get home. The dayroom only cost a fiver to cancel so off we went.
The kicker was that BA were selling four business class seats the night before at over £1,000 each (yes for LHR-EDI) and they had obviously taken a decision to shift the curtain forward a row which was what created the Economy class availability for us to switch to.
So the four of us had the six seats of row 6 to stretch out in which was a definite result.
I chronicled it at the time in a trip report. It was the one of doom where I fell out with the sister-in-law; we moved out of her guest house; I got Covid; Kermit celebrated my 50th by getting Covid; and we had to extend our stay because he was so poorly.
But that sweet same day change all made it worthwhile!
I actually did not know this! Thank you for sharing!
So I can manage the change from manage my booking page, anyone knows how long in advance can I try for the free change?Midnight UK time, wherever you are
Same day, as the thread title suggests! So from midnight on the day you depart. I think the latest you can change is 1 hour before departure.
Thank you Nico and NorthenLass
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
