Exorbitant fees charged for changing flights

<p>On 19 May 2017 my wife, and I departed from our home in Pretoria East at 06:30 to OR Tambo airport in order for her to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town aboard flight BA6413 departing at 09:15. This was in terms of her work as a tour guide.</p> <p> </p> <p>Conventionally the drive to the airport would take about 30 minutes or less at that time of the day. Accordingly she would have arrived at least 2 hours before the departure of her flight. However, on this particular day the R21 between Olifantsfontein Road and Nellmapius Drive ended up being closed in both directions after a truck collided into a high voltage pylon. See http://kemptonexpress.co.za/148420/r21-closed-day-following-pylon-accident/ .</p> <p> </p> <p>The road was closed for the entire day and for a portion of the following day. This had a major negative effect for thousands of commuters as not only was the R21 closed but all other alternative routes became so severely congested that delays of 3 hours or more were being experienced in travelling to the airport. After waiting in the traffic for almost 2 hours we eventually we had no option but to divert to Centurion (which also took a lot of additional time) for my wife to catch the Gautrain to OR Tambo airport at additional cost of course.</p> <p> </p> <p>My wife had no option then but to take a later flight instead. This however ended up costing her an additional fee of R714 for BA / Comair to effect the changes in travel arrangements. This additional amount is to my mind exorbitant especially in light of the fact that we had no control over the events which necessitated this and secondly, given that my wife’s salary for the day was less than R1000, which means that almost her entire salary for the day went to paying for the change in flights. Furthermore, as it is her responsibility to be at the airport in Cape Town by the time mentioned in her contract, there was no way that these costs could be passed on to the company for whom she was working.</p> <p> </p> <p>I then contacted BA Comair's customer relations about this on 22 May 2017. Their response to my request for a more reasonable fee to be charged was - "All our fares are subject to availability at the time of booking and not all fares are the same. In the event of changes, customers will be charged our standard admin fee as well as a possible upgrade fee if the same fare is not available. The change fees vary as it depends on the specific fare booked. If that same fare is not available, the ticket will need to be upgraded to the next available fare as was the case on this occasion. Unfortunately we are unable to refund the change fees incurred".</p> <p> </p> <p>Bear in mind that this affected a considerable number of commuters flying with BA Comair. By charging such large amounts for the unavoidable changes in flights, the company seems to have made a windfall out of the misery of its passengers.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>