So I've made a bit of a "d'oh" on my parents' one way award redemption LHR HKG.
I booked them 2 single awards in Econ for travel LHR HKG in march. That was £426.12 in taxes in total, 40k miles (I booked this in the last sale)
With the sale announced yesterday I wanted to take advantage of that, so I called up and said, I wanted to upgrade them to PE, can we price it out for upgrade.
I was then quoted a figure of extra £73.59 per person, or £147.18 for 2, plus extra 20k miles.
I asked if this would not be an additional 16k miles only, as that's the reward seat sale fare at the moment. The agent went to check and came back to say that the sale fare is only for new bookings and upgrades to existing bookings are priced differently. Fair enough, I thought.
So then I asked how much it would cost to cancel and make a new booking. 56k miles, plus what I thought I heard as £530-something in taxes, and £30 in cancellation fee for the existing booking in Econ.
At this point I thought, OK I'm paying around the same amount in total charges, and saving 4k miles. Let's go ahead and cancel and rebook.
She quoted £573.3 for taxes and charges, which to my head was still a reasonable figure (£530 something for taxes and £30 cancellation + CC fee goes to round about that amount).
My husband mentioned the cancellation charge would be for per person instead of per booking, so I asked the agent, by which time she said it was per person instead of per booking. I'm not sure if she had said £30 per person or per booking previously.
At this point I realised I'd be paying more in taxes and charges, for spending 4k less miles. It was already too late to call stop so I could reevaluate, as the old booking had already been sent off to be cancelled.
So I had to proceed with the new booking, as my parents would still need to fly. My cc was charged. At that point I asked "it was for this booking plus the cancellation fee for the old booking, right?" At which point she clarified that the cancellation fee would come off the refund of the taxes. Then I realised the £573.3 was for this booking alone. And also £573.3 would have been the total taxes I would have paid if I had gone for the upgrade route.
So this all boils down to me not understanding the cancellation fee and process correctly, and have ended up paying more £60 in exchange for saving
4k miles, which is not such a good deal... If I had understood it correctly I would have gone for spending the miles instead of the £60. I suppose all responsibility down to me, but to a certain extent I made it clear what my objective was to the agent. At one point I said I'd be overall paying the same money but spending less miles therefore I will rebook but she didn't pick up on my incorrect reasoning.
Probably not much point to this post other than "I was given 2 options and I stupidly chose the more expensive one." At least I managed to achieve the goal of upgrading my parents. Ho hum.
I booked them 2 single awards in Econ for travel LHR HKG in march. That was £426.12 in taxes in total, 40k miles (I booked this in the last sale)
With the sale announced yesterday I wanted to take advantage of that, so I called up and said, I wanted to upgrade them to PE, can we price it out for upgrade.
I was then quoted a figure of extra £73.59 per person, or £147.18 for 2, plus extra 20k miles.
I asked if this would not be an additional 16k miles only, as that's the reward seat sale fare at the moment. The agent went to check and came back to say that the sale fare is only for new bookings and upgrades to existing bookings are priced differently. Fair enough, I thought.
So then I asked how much it would cost to cancel and make a new booking. 56k miles, plus what I thought I heard as £530-something in taxes, and £30 in cancellation fee for the existing booking in Econ.
At this point I thought, OK I'm paying around the same amount in total charges, and saving 4k miles. Let's go ahead and cancel and rebook.
She quoted £573.3 for taxes and charges, which to my head was still a reasonable figure (£530 something for taxes and £30 cancellation + CC fee goes to round about that amount).
My husband mentioned the cancellation charge would be for per person instead of per booking, so I asked the agent, by which time she said it was per person instead of per booking. I'm not sure if she had said £30 per person or per booking previously.
At this point I realised I'd be paying more in taxes and charges, for spending 4k less miles. It was already too late to call stop so I could reevaluate, as the old booking had already been sent off to be cancelled.
So I had to proceed with the new booking, as my parents would still need to fly. My cc was charged. At that point I asked "it was for this booking plus the cancellation fee for the old booking, right?" At which point she clarified that the cancellation fee would come off the refund of the taxes. Then I realised the £573.3 was for this booking alone. And also £573.3 would have been the total taxes I would have paid if I had gone for the upgrade route.
So this all boils down to me not understanding the cancellation fee and process correctly, and have ended up paying more £60 in exchange for saving
4k miles, which is not such a good deal... If I had understood it correctly I would have gone for spending the miles instead of the £60. I suppose all responsibility down to me, but to a certain extent I made it clear what my objective was to the agent. At one point I said I'd be overall paying the same money but spending less miles therefore I will rebook but she didn't pick up on my incorrect reasoning.
Probably not much point to this post other than "I was given 2 options and I stupidly chose the more expensive one." At least I managed to achieve the goal of upgrading my parents. Ho hum.
