Ian E

iTrader: (1)

I booked a return flight some time ago for £70 with British Airways. I can't make the outward flight now, so just want to use the return which I thought would be no problem. They say this is not allowed in their terms and conditions and the booking will be cancelled. If I want to go on the return flight I need to make a new booking and the price will be £600+.... If I cancel the booking they are offering to refund just the taxes minus a £15 handling fee...

Any one had a similar experience and is there a way around it?

Cheers,

Ian.

Fuzz

yea fly with easyjet

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Yep - funny you should say that - just looking at booking with them now. BA

Ederboy

Ryanair mate all the way

boxst

Hello

There isn't really a way round it unfortunately, your return is automatically cancelled as soon as you do not turn up to fly.

You will however find it cheaper to book a return instead of one-way, but you will have to use http://www.travelocity.co.uk or http://www.opodo.co.uk as British Airways do not like you booking via credit card for a journey starting outside of the UK.

Steve.

mart360

Ah the joys of a back to back booking...

we used to do this all the time, it was often cheaper to book two return flights,
and just use the outward portion on one, and the return portion of the other!!

oops my tickets for two seperate journeys got mixed up!!!

never had a problem,, if it got to expensive this way, the only other option was an open ticket.

Mart ( BA dont like you doing it, and also some of the other airlines)

bonkers

I would not advise doing that on a trip to the U.S - immigration would rip you a new one if they caught you.

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like my cheap Skiing holiday won't be cheap anymore...

Suprised at BA - maybe I should have read the terms and conditions properly. I'd be quite prepared to pay an admin fee to just use the return flight - and they could re-sell the outward flight. I've looked at using the outward flight and then getting a cheap flight back the same day but none available.

Cheers,

Ian.

Kiwi

This standard with most airlines !

No real way around.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

It doesn't work that way... Airlines use seat 'classes' and allocate a certain number of seats per flight to each class. The class is defined as the type of flight you wish to book.

Fully open - can fly anytime, rebook, cancel any time, fully refundable, yada yada is the most expensive (was called S class when I worked at BM)
Then you start getting more restrictive - only fly over a weekend, stay a certain number of days, non refundable, can't cancel - all the options.

Airlines look at the sales for a flight between two destinations, factoring in the time of the year, the time of day, previous history, no-shows, and work out what classes to book and how many seats to overbook. Yup, overbook. ALL flights are overbooked because people will not turn up... it's a constant gamble and there is some sophisticated software out there that estimates really accurately.

So, you book the big cheapy, you get no options. You fly when you say you will and you better damn' well turn up or you lose your money.