More to the point I can’t believe they did this to me!

Dear xxxx

And thanks for another prompt reply. Which again misses my points entirely…

I am not disappointed that I was unable to change my ticket. I realised that if I didn’t take the flight that I would be unlikely to get anything back apart from my taxes. I actually rang to cancel the first leg of the flight so that you could sell that part of my ticket on (all profit to you) and so that someone else could take my place as I would not be needing it.

What did surprise and disappoint me was:

1. Discovering that I wasn’t allowed to cancel just the first leg of my journey. Why can’t I use the return flight if I don’t use the outward flight and especially if I inform you in advance? Clearly there is nothing you can do if I ring up to cancel the second leg, or just don’t turn up, so why is it different for the first leg?
2. Discovering that if I hadn’t let you know – which, as I’ve explained, I thought was largely a courtesy – my partner would not have been allowed to travel either down or back. What if I had booked for twenty and not turned up – hospitalized or dead for example – would no-one be allowed on? Nor on the return leg?
3. Discovering that, bizarrely, I was not allowed to re-buy the seat that I was being forced to cancel meaning that I had to travel separately from my partner with all the inconvenience and extra expense that that entailed. This was either incompetent or punitive and either way is inexcusable. When I have discussed your various policies with friends, acquaintances and passers-by, this is when their jaws generally drop furthest.

I am sure that I am not the first person who has had to make other travel arrangements for the first leg of a booked flight and I cannot believe that it is in the interests of BA to alienate their customers so thoroughly whenever this happens.

Yours etc

——————-

And the computer-related advice?

When booking flights online, check to see if it costs any more to book your outward and return legs separately. On a non-scientific random test of a few sample flights I’d say that over 90% cost exactly the same, a couple cost a few pounds more and some actually cost less. Booking separately would certainly have saved me quite a bit of money and a great deal of hassle.