Same Day Change Tale of Woo

[Paul]

One of the few benefits of flying BA as far as I am concerned, is the ability to change simple one way or return domestic or European flights on the day for no charge. I use SDC a lot.

Another benefit has been the ability to upgrade flights from the offers made on the app. This benefit however comes with a cruel sting in the tail as doing so immediately renders the booking impossible to manage for SDC. This in turn means calling BA at 1am in the summer and midnight in the winter. Till today a fairly painless experience.
Today I am going to Glasgow so I booked the cheapest possible flight, upgraded it when an offer was made as I have done many times and waited till today.

Issue number 1 is almost everything was rammed to options to change were rather limited. Twice I called availability appeared only for it to vanish while I waited for the silver line to be answered. This is the risk you take!

Issue 2 is the staggering lack of knowledge among BA res staff about this policy. This leads to extraordinary lengthy periods on hold.

Issue 3 is they are clueless about how it works. Twice they refused on the phone stating I had upgraded and consequently had lost the flexibility. This is simply tosh!
As a compromise they booked me on an earlier flight and said I could sort it out at T5.

Issue 4 No matter how useless inept and unhelpful the Indian silver line is, T5 staff are on an altogether different level of incompetence and unhelpfulness. I end up speaking to a supervisor (laughable title) who confidently stated that upgrading removes the flexibility and that in any event I had booked a cheap ticket!! Fine, but please just show me that policy and I’ll go away. I can’t do that! Ok so how do you know that’s the policy. “I just follow the rules” 🤦‍♂️ I checked in for my booked flight and left.

Issue 5 What in the name of all that is holy is the point of the individual who sits in the booth in the lounge? Seriously what is their role? They know nothing, have to call the same people I had spoken too and have never heard of SDC. It would be funny if it were not so appallingly frustrating.

So now drinking my way through the pretty poor selection of whiskey to numb the pain.

For the record I was polite, bordering on charming at all times but my frustration was showing that something so simple became such a major issue. At one stage I actually consider spending £500 on a one way to Glasgow and then pursue BA for it. In the end I chickened out for fear of what the OH would say! Arghhh

[Skywalker]

I was looking for a travel romance story based on your title “Same Day Change Tale of Woo”

[Scott]

Didn’t happen.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Skywalker wrote:

I was looking for a travel romance story based on your title “Same Day Change Tale of Woo”

I thought it was an esoteric Japanese game coming soon exclusively to Nintendo Switch 2

[JDB]

I believe BA is correct in saying that FCOD doesn’t apply to bookings that have been upgraded by fixed price online upgrades (as opposed to paying the fare difference). If you change the flight, including via FCOD, you lose the upgrade but can put the sum paid towards a change/upgrade.

This is set out in the promotional upgrade terms, and not “tosh” as alleged.

Even absent those terms, not sure how you would have structured pursuing BA for £500?

PS it’s not really very fair to insist on staff producing some policy document when I’m sure you know they don’t have that to hand. Their system knows the policy and staff, by design, don’t have the authority to override that. It’s also not fair to put the onus on hard pressed airport staff when the policy was in fact provided to you previously.

[travelmonkey]

So you wanted a club seat on flight A, but you deliberately booked an economy seat on flight B. Yup, I can see how it’s BA’s fault you didn’t get the flight you wanted.