How does the British Airways free same day flight change work?

Passengers on European flights with British Airways can avail of a free same day flight change if they wish. That means if your plans change and you need to leave earlier or later it won’t cost you anything.

It’s something that is handy for business people who might have a meeting run over or under. Obviously it only works on routes where there is more than one daily flight, but there are many of those within Europe on BA.

Who Is Eligible?

Many people are eligible for this as it turns out. People travelling on an Economy Basic fare, which is often referred to as the Hand Baggage Only fare, are out of luck. These are the cheapest fares and these are excluded from free same day flight change.

That means anyone purchasing an Economy Plus fare or above – which includes Club Europe business class – can happily do this. Quite a lot of flexibility for quite a lot people.

Changing Prior to Travel Day Is Expensive!

Let’s have a look at an example. I have a ticket in Club Europe from Dublin to London City and decided to check the prices online for the day prior to travel. When booking, I paid €127.99 for the one way flight.

As you can see above, the prices have increased quite a bit, which is par for the course when it comes to airline tickets. Urgent business results in last minute bookings and they cost more. The charge is usually the fare difference plus, as outlined above, a €130 change fee. That means if I go to Manage My Booking and select to change the flights, I get this. As you can see, it costs a minimum of €231 for the change and my most likely selection is €532. What an amazing price hike, so I wouldn’t even consider paying that.

Same Day Flight Change To The Rescue!

Naturally if I wait until after midnight on the day I want to fly, the same day flight change for free kicks in. When going to change my booking now, there was one flight to Heathrow and one flight to London City available. The one to LHR cost over €400 to change to, but the one to LCY was free, as per the rules.

That being said, rather than a long list of flights there was only that one to select as the other services are too busy. The advice is to make the change immediately after midnight, but I waited until I woke the next morning. Either way, it works perfectly!

Overall Thoughts

Same day flight change is a very interesting concept. Since you’ve already bought a ticket, what does it matter which flight you end up travelling on that day? The airline still has your money and the flexibility is very handy. Obviously the downside is that you will lose whatever pre-selected seat on your original flight and all the good seats may be taken on the new flight, but I think that’s a small price to pay.

You are not permitted to change your origin or destination using this, so the airports have to remain the same. You are literally only allowed to change the time of the flight on the original date you were flying, which I think is fair enough. Those that want to change destinations or whatever should pay the appropriate fees. So there you have it!

Have you ever used British Airways’ same day flight change functionality before? Is it something you use regularly or rarely? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.