# Aer Lingus ticket changing farce



## bamboozle (16 Oct 2007)

This morning I changed the return leg of a flight I have with Aer Lingus, the original return flight was €15, so I rang their help desk to be informed the additional charge was €55 which I booked, however I then checked their website and the price of the flight on that new date was also €15.

So if I had just booked a second return flight I would have been charged €46.35 including taxes, instead I was charged €55.  I then rang the aer lingus help desk asking why the extra cost and I was informed by some teenager on the phone that they had different prices on their system and they differ to the internet prices.

So basically they’ve freed up a seat from my original return date which they can now resell and they also hit me for an extra €55 for a flight that would be far cheaper if booked on the internet.

Thing is I’m sure they’re well within their rights to do so but it hardly fosters goodwill with flyers.


----------



## amgd28 (16 Oct 2007)

I think Ryanair have proved that fostering goodwill for customers is not a pre-requisite for a successful business. 
Like it or not, you will fly aer lingus again.
Had a similar situation a while ago, and yeah it sucks but what can you do?


----------



## ClubMan (16 Oct 2007)

Why did you not check the cost of booking a new flight (with _AL _or others) and just doing a no show for the original one before attempting to change the original flight? While changing the flight does free up the original flight which they can resell it seems logical to me that there might be more administrative overhead (and presumably cost to them) in doing this rather that you just buying a different flight. As such I'm not totally surprised that changing a flight might cost more than just booking a replacement and doing a no show on the original.


----------



## bamboozle (16 Oct 2007)

Yeah, I should have just booked a 2nd flight, in my defense I did it early this morning while half asleep!!

Valuable lesson learnt!!


----------



## Bootdog (16 Oct 2007)

Just be careful if you intend doing a no-show - if you've booked a return flight, and do a no-show on the outbound flight, they cancel your return flight also as far as I know, I think in airline-terms they "cancel the entire booking".


----------



## eimsRV (17 Oct 2007)

If you book your initial trip online with AL then you can also change your booking online with your reference number and some other details. This is useful as you can see how much it will cost before deciding to go ahead.


----------



## bamboozle (17 Oct 2007)

Wouldn’t let me change on line as I had booked tickets for 2 others, if I changed my return leg then it would automatically change the return legs for the other 2!!! So I had to ring up and be ripped off by their non-internet fare.
Of course no sign of a number or email address for customer services on their website


----------



## Megan (17 Oct 2007)

Megan said:


> Ryanair won't get you to London Heathrow. My son travelled with them to Heathrow recently. He was home on holidays and had a return flight with Aer Lingus but got a early call back to work at very short notice and he actually booked a flight with BMI cheaper then changing his flight date with Aer Lingus.



Maybe you first port of call should have been Askaboutmoney.com as the above is a post I posted here in August.


----------



## bamboozle (17 Oct 2007)

well to be honest if you're paying in excess of 3 times their internet price for a flight to be changed i would call it a rip-off, especially if they're already saving on your original flight being freed up for re-sale.


----------



## bamboozle (18 Oct 2007)

Darkdays, if you had read the thread you would have seen that I had tried to change on-line but as the original booking was for a group of people if I had changed on-line all members of the groups return flights would also have been changed, as I was the only one who needed to change details I had no choice but to ring up and pay 3 times their internet price.  
SO firstly its not a case of tough luck, secondly in my opinion it is a rip-off and finally I didn’t have a choice.


----------



## bamboozle (18 Oct 2007)

Yes, I did say the website provided a return flight for €15, however I was unable to avail of the internet price as if I wanted to change my flight on-line it would automatically change the flights for the people traveling with me.  As such I had to phone the ticket desk to change.
As you can see the title of the thread concerns ‘Ticket Changing’, not ‘buying a second ticket to avoid paying excess in changing your original flight’

If I chose to book a separate flight I could have availed of the cheaper flight, as I chose to change my original flight I was unable to avail of internet price.

Finally, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable in suggesting that if a company is unwilling/unable to facilitate change of tickets at a cost similar to what were available on line then the company is not exactly pursuing the most customer friendly approach.

I recently changed tickets at the Abbey Theatre’s help desk, no extra charges were incurred as they were happy to receive the custom, 

If I make a reservation at a restaurant and then ring back to change the reservation I don’t expect to be charged for 2 sittings, as a restaurant would be keen to foster goodwill, 

I’m fully aware that companies spout on about extra admin costs in these situations but I doubt the person who changed the tickets who being paid by commission.


----------

