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We have experienced some difficulties relating to MMB and a GLA-LHR-HKG return itinerary (booked via 241 voucher at T-355) for this upcoming summer and I’d be grateful for any guidance or advice. To explain:
Following messages about changes a few months ago, I logged into MMB this month to check about our itinerary. In MMB, it highlighted prominently (with red text at the top) a cancelled GLA-LHR flight on the outbound. There were no other notifications about the other flights in the itinerary. Based on this, on the next screen, I only selected to edit the outbound portion of the itinerary (there is a tick box option to choose one or both outbound/inbound) and then I chose a new GLA-LHR flight. All seemed good at this point. When I got the email confirming my changes, however, I realised that the return LHR-GLA flight had also been re-timed to 2.5 hr later (now making for a 6.25 hr layover), which had not been highlighted.
In short, I feel that the way that MMB displayed the information was misleading and led to suboptimal flight choices for our trip.
I know that once you accept changes, there usually isn’t anything further that can be done and I should have been more careful. That said, it seems unfair that MMB only highlighted the cancellation, which influenced how closely I looked at other parts of the itinerary, and did not indicate changes elsewhere to the booking. I tried phoning immediately afterwards and the agent said nothing could be done as I’d accepted, which ordinarily I would understand.
So should I just suck this up as a lesson learned and persevere through the layover (or pay to change) or is there some other recourse/option?
Thoughts?
What did the ‘messages about changes’ that you received say? BA usually emails where there is a change of time of a flight, and I would certainly expect them to have done that with a 2.5hr time move.
They only highlight cancellations in MMB if I remember right, but if they told you about the retiming then they would have done all they needed to and if you didn’t react at that time then it’s hardly their fault. Is there another option for the return that you would have taken taken?
Is there another option for the return that you would have taken taken?
Yes, there is a new flight option that is near the time of our original LHR-GLA flight.
What did the ‘messages about changes’ that you received say? BA usually emails where there is a change of time of a flight, and I would certainly expect them to have done that with a 2.5hr time move.
They only highlight cancellations in MMB if I remember right, but if they told you about the retiming then they would have done all they needed to and if you didn’t react at that time then it’s hardly their fault.
I’ve just double checked my email inbox and it’s helped me remember a few things.
The re-timing email came first, but BA did not offer the option of changing flights, which I now recall I was not pleased about. Their email simply advised that the time had changed and MMB wouldn’t allow any amendments (does it need to be 3-hr+ change to allow free changes?). I figured the flight was ages away, however, where schedules could still change, so didn’t think it was worth fighting over yet and then I just basically forgot all about it.
So, I accept that I should have been more careful when reviewing my flights and there was a way for me to avoid this outcome. At the same time, I feel that BA’s systems have made this suboptimal outcome more likely (by not allowing a change in the first place and then not highlighting the change when the cancellation would have allowed me to address it).
At any rate, it seems like this will just be a lesson learned. Even if there were a way to dispute this or get it changed, it will probably take more time than just enduring the longer layover in our updated itinerary in the first place.
I’m not sure what the minimum time change is to allow free change – I’ve had a flight change by 3h 5m and I don’t have any options in MMB to alter.
I’m not sure what the minimum time change is to allow free change – I’ve had a flight change by 3h 5m and I don’t have any options in MMB to alter.
BA allows free changes (+/- 2 days) after a scheduled change of over 120 minutes with the only exceptions being same day returns, joining cruises and misconnections. After 240 minutes you additionally get a full or partial refund option.
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