They have allowed me a couple of times in the past to cancel the first leg and retain the second leg when I have been forced to change my arrangements. There was a code they could place on the booking to preserve the validity of the second leg. However, my last experience was several years ago now, so their procedures may have changed. Or maybe it depends who you ask or how good the reasons are. Sometimes it can be a lot cheaper to buy a return than a single so I suppose the general rule is there in order to prevent people taking advantage of this, though why that should be the case in the first place I have never understood.

I have had pretty good experiences with BA in the past when I have tried to do “strange things”.

One time I woke up in Brussels, looked at my alarm clock and saw that it was exactly the minute that my outbound flight for a trip back to the UK was due to depart…I had very much missed my flight, and I had non-exchangeable super cheap economy tickets. I immediately leapt out of bed and phoned BA to explain that I was very sorry I had missed my flight and to see what arrangements could be made – they told me to simply get to the airport when I could, and they’d just put me on the next flight. Fantastic service, completely unexpected, and no grief whatsoever.

Another time I was flying from Brussels to Miami for business, the flight was Brussels-London-Miami, and the reverse coming back. However I wanted to stop in the UK on the way back for my mum’s birthday party…so I booked a single eurostar ticket back from London, and kept my fingers crossed. When I checked in for the return flight from Miami to London, I asked that my baggage be only checked through as far as London, and not all the way to Brussels. I explained that I took full responsibility if I missed the connecting flight to Brussels, that I wouldn’t hold BA responsible for getting my on the last leg of the trip, and that as a British citizen I wouldn’t have any problems stopping in the UK. I would wager that most airlines would throw a fit at such a request, but BA allowed me to cehck my luggage only as far as London, pretty safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be rejoining them for the London-Brussels leg. Again; the ticket was a no-frills economy non-flexible deal, so no real excuse for having special priveledges.

From both of these experiences I always feel safe in recommending BA for going above and beyond…and they were my first choice for my honeymoon flight to Hong Kong last year.

Sorry to hear they didn’t work out for you, and I hope that your experiences aren’t indicative of a general decline in customer service. I think the advice to consider booking single legs rather than a return jouney is also pretty good, and something I will keep in mind for the future.

– Pete.

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