British Airways

A snowHead

I booked three seats for my sister and her two children about two months ago on the Gatwick - Zurich flight for 31st December returning a week later. I noticed last night that I had accidentally used my sisters maiden name (my surname) instead of her married name (I booked on-line via Opodo late at night, probably tired). Anyway I did'nt think it would be a huge issue but thought it prudent to sort out before reaching the aiport (nearly two months to go). I rang Opodo who thought it vey unlikely I would be able to change the ticket ! I assured them it was a genuine mistake (it was) and they offered to contact BA while I held. BA flatly refused to change the name leaving me with a usless ticket. Now I FULLY accept I made a mistake on booking but as I was'nt happy with the answer I rang BA myself and (politley) asked them to reconsider, they again flatly refused. I rang customer relations, they flatly refused, simply stating I'd entered into a legal contract (which I probably had). My point is that this really smacks of opportunism. BA told me ANY mistake not brought to their attention within 24 hours would then render any of their tickets useless ie wrong passport number for ID on arrival at check in, wrong ages etc. I have now had to cancel the first ticket and buy a new one (the same seat) at £110.00. Even Ryanair and Easy allow changes (£25) up to a few days before flying. I'm not expecting anyone to boycott BA on my behalf (my job Toofy Grin

)but I thought it worth mentioning their policy in the hope others can avoid the same problem by being careful when booking BA.

A snowHead

Frosty, pre 9-11 a friend or ours travelled wtih us to Menorca. Her sister-in-law had booked the ticket in her married name, but the passport was in her maiden name. They simply altered the ticket at the desk, but she did take her marriage certificate.
It may depend on the ticket type you book whether or not name changes are allowed.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Just checked with brother-in-law who works for BA-no name changes allowed on any tickets.

EDIT-He did give me this link though it really applies to newly-weds I suppose http://www.britishairways.com/travel/askbainter/public/en_gb?p_search_text=name+changes

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I know I'm the "mistakee" but it still seems a little unreasonable, thanks for checking though. I'm upset over the inflexibility, I'd expected to have paid £25 or so for a change.

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Frosty, I agree it's unreasonable, and so does he.

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Compunded by the fact that I (apparently) had a 100% non refundable ticket to start with........I guess I'm guilty of just assuming that it would be either refundable OR changeable but to find its neither was annoying.

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Disgraceful would be my take on this.

Would it be worth one of the mods moving this to a section of snowHeads with more passing traffic? Piste, Apres, News for example?

If it's wider publication saved others from an expensive and genuine mistake, it would be worth it IMO.

After all it is free

Thanks for moving this, whomever it was.

BA's total inflexibility is a pain. When I booked 8 returns to Geneva for early April next year, for £88 return each, I was invited to pay a little extra for flexibility. Turns out that the "little extra" was over £400 per head! It all made me extremely reluctant to book, normally I am an easyJet enthusiast. However, their schedule only runs until about 23 March - easyJet should think about making their winter schedules coincide with the ski season and take more business from BA. BA's inflexibility shows up in the most ludicrous manner if you try to book a single ticket. One time, when I was juggling flights and airports for an unexpected last minute visit back to the UK, BA's website wanted to charge me almost £1000 (that's right, one thousand pounds) for a single ticket from Geneva to London. An incredulous email to their "customer services" (sic) department elicted a standard computer generated reply about flexible pricing which just made me madder because it failed to address the specific point I bought up (which was that it would be vastly cheaper to buy two return tickets and throw away the other halves, and what sense did that make?). It's no wonder they're struggling with their pension fund...

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Although I've never had to do a name change on a BA ticket, a couple of weeks ago I changed the date on a 'no-flexibility' ticket which, IIRC, cost me £30 plus the difference between what I paid for the ticket and the cost of the flights I was changing it to. This meant that rather than loosing the whole cost of the ticket (minus a refund for some taxes) I was able to switch the ticket to the EOSB dates in April.

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It used to be the case that BA would let you change flights relatively easily if, say, you were booked on the 6pm from London to Edinburgh but made it to the airport to catch the 5pm. Not any more. I tried that the last time that I was down. The fee to change was more than it would have cost me to buy a new single ticket home, both of which were more than the total cost of the original return ticket booked in advance. I bought a coffee and a paper and waited the hour and a bit.

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So much for Customer service.

pam w, I have had a similar problem booking a single fare for my kids to travel down to Serre Che last winter, we ended up with Easyjet to Paris, and an overnight sleeper to Briancon. Total cost about 52 quid each I think. Mark Hunter, no prob wink

You know it makes sense.

Caveat Emptor. Sorry if I seem a little unsympathetic and I appreciate it's a complete PITA for you (and an expensive one to correct) but air passangers have really got to be so careful now. Not just in what they take on board but in ensuring that tey don't give th eairlines any excuse to fleece you of yet more money. Crying or Very sad

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Seems needlessly harsh. I sort of assumed that one could change names for a fee. There's no security aspect to it, so it sounds lke a rip off. Not BA's usal MO, in my experience. It makes my £13 to Ryan Ar for checking in online and not printing the ticket seem almost reasonable.

Mind you, I can't help wondering why the woman changed her name; bound to lead to complications,

A snowHead

It varies massively depending on what BA ticket you buy, the more expensive "economy" BA tickets are fully flexible, the much cheaper tickets are not.

Regards,

Greg

A snowHead

kitenski, website says no name changes on any tickets

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Customer service - that's what I like to see. I could understand them being inflexible were it within a few days of departure, but my God, how difficult can it be! If I were you I wouldn't have cancelled the other ticket - you should have kept it open and had the spare seat!!!

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I don't think we can complain overly. We seek the cheapest possible headline fares but the airlines are only able to provide them by making opportunistic profits elsewhere. On the plus side (putting aside environmental concerns), millions more people are able to afford to fly than used to be the case.

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oh and the website doesn't appear to stop all name changes....

We at British Airways need you to have your booking, ticket and your passport, all in the same name.
If you need to change your name on an existing ticket to match your married/maiden name in your passport, you will need to contact your local British Airways office.
Telephone numbers for your local British Airways office can be found if you click here.

Please note:Your ticket can be amended only upon receipt of the appropriate documentation (marriage certificate/ decree absolute) and a £25 reissue fee will be charged.

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richmond, no name actually changed I simply made a mistake and used my sisters maiden name when I booked on line and I completly accept if you make a mistake then you have to deal with the consequences but I just felt this was an unusual reaction from a large company operating in a competitive environment. It did'nt help that I booked via an internet travel agent and had no idea the ticket was non transferable or changeable (although I'm sure it was in the nano print). I have since looked at the BA site and it does say clearly say "no name changes". Others beware....

After all it is free

kitenski, to be fair to BA I think thats only for newly weds and I think it does go on to say that they now insist that the new name is on the passport and they no longer accept marriage certificates together with the "old" passports, perhaps I should ask my sister to get divorced before she flys thereby avoiding the need to buy a new ticket Toofy Grin

I do not understand why airlines take this approach, not exactly customer friendly.
Even £25 by EJ for name change is rediculous.
Electronic ticket are just that , there should be a faciltity on there website to make simple changes like name changes, passenger,address mistakes for FREE before say 12hrs dept or even less. I know if travelling to the US they pass on details but a caveat can be made for say "no changes up to 36hrs or something).
This is a pure money making exercise by the airline, nothing to do with security.Just like banks charging £€20 for money tranfer at the click of a mouse.

I hope some airlines will pick up on this & allow simple changes for free & maybe other will follow.

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My wife and I are travelling on the Eurostar in two weeks time. The tickets are issued in our married name, although her passport is in her maiden name. Eurostar have confirmed that we only need to take our marraige certificate and there will be no problem. Shame BA cannot be as flexible.

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hmm - i booked a ticket for my wife using my surname when her maiden name is still on the passport. phoned up and they changed it no problem. i did do this pretty quickly after booking though

similarly, i have phoned up when i was about to miss a trans-atlantic flight. ticket wasn't flexible but they put me on the next flight

i expect that this is because i fly with them pretty frequently and have a gold executive club card. airlines have very sophisticated customer service systems (or at least non-budget ones do) so i am sure that they knew i used them a lot and helping me out here would keep my custom.

fatbob, I agree with what you're saying about touts but they would be buying lots of tickets. In this case it must be obvious that Frosty is no tout. Surely if his sister has some proof of her maiden name (i.e. marriage certificate) then they could, for an admin fee, change the ticket. It's not like they don't have proof that her name used to be the one on the booking.

It seems to be a very inflexible way of working.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

fatbob,

Credit Card company s/w is very sophisticated it analyses locations,spending patterns,items ,addresses & crosschecks using complex algorythms.
Its not hat easy.

laundryman,

I know but very few are being sold compare to a few years ago especially short haul.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

rob@rar, exactly. I have to weigh it up each time, which shows that the airlines have pitched the flexibility vs price trade-off about right (for me at least).

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Frosty, I should have said 'should' not could.

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rob@rar, I have some fickle clients, who are apt to postpone meetings at the drop of a hat!

After all it is free

stanton,

I accept that there are security measures that could be adopted but what is the incentive for airlines? They segment the market more by flexibility rather than the actually seat you use.

In this case I'd have thought BA had more to gain in goodwill by allowing an obvious mistake to be corrected well in advance for a nominal fee but if its just a call centre Frosty is dealing with I wouldn't necessarily expect that much common sense to be shown.

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Just as a follow up I thought you may want to know how this finally finished. BA stuck to their guns, no name change, no refund. I took up Opodo's offer of a new ticket (£110 Sad

) but Opodo did arrange for a refund of the aiport tax of £48.50, only slightly negated by the Opodo admin charge of £25 for doing so. Not a disaster but all a bit tedious with plenty of time spent on hold to Opodo and BA etc.

Help!!

British Airways

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