Air Ticket amendments... Why so difficult?

[nigidivitch]

A colleague of mine is currently having a small nervous breakdown because he has messed up booking some flight tickets, and accidently booked the return flight to come back a week to late (from Bulgaria).  He's phoned up BA to try and amend these details, but they have said that he can't change the dates...  Does anyone know if there is anything he can do?  Apparently there are seats left on the flight he wishes to return on, but BA won't seem to budge?  Any help appreciated!

Thanks!!

[louadams6]

Honestly, they make me so mad! Sorry i dont have an answer but i do feel for your colleague. A friend of mine put the wrong initials down for a ticket once and had to pay over �300 to get it changed as he basically had to buy another ticket! Is there no way your colleague can cancel it and rebook? I would keep on at them and take it further. and in the meantime i would phone the citizens advice bureau to see if they are allowed to get away with this. Would be interested to know how you get on, good luck

[Narolines]

This is one reason why I will NEVER travel with EasyJet - their policy on amendments and refunds is unreasonable almost to the point of criminality! The other side of the coin - early this year we were in Cyprus for 2 months, and my mother was taken ill back here in the UK; for a time it lookeed as though we would have to come back early so I went into the local Cyprus Airways office to enquire about our options.  The lady behind the desk was very helpful and told me there were 2 seats available on the next Saturday (this was a Tuesday) and she would hold them for 48 hours for me; if I didn't return to confirm she would let them go to someone else. As it turned out we didn't have to come home early, so we turned up in due course at the airport to get on our booked flight home - only to be told that there were no seats for us as we had changed our reservation and then not turned up for the flight which had left 2 weeks before!   As it happened, the check-in girl was very sympathetic and she did get us on the flight we'd booked, and we've never been charged the �200 they would have wanted to fly us back 2 weeks early. Looks like you just can't win against the airlines, most of whom seem to make up the rules as they go along.  Except for BMI Baby, from whom I have always had EXCELLENT service and whom I would heartily recommend (no, I don't work for them!)

[Buenchico]

First, the negative bit:
Why,oh why, don't people read the small print when they book tickets? Full price tickets let you change flight details; discounted tickets usually don't. Tough!

Now, the positive bit:
Don't panic! It's easy to get back cheaply from Bulgaria to the UK (but it won't be quick!). Take the direct train from Sofia to Ljubljana (OK, its 21 hours but it's fairly cheap!). Then fly from Ljubljana to Stansted on Easyjet (typically around 20 quid including taxes). (Better still , spend a night or two in Slovenia and extend the holiday!).

Train times here:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Flight details here:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Chris