When it costs more to change your plane ticket than buy a new one

Anticipation is a valuable part of any journey, and wisely, Peter Trapmore is already looking ahead to 2025. “Next January I am flying from London Heathrow to Dublin to connect with a transatlantic flight,” he writes. His British Airways flight departs at 6.30am. But now his onward connection has been moved to the afternoon.

“I wanted to move my flight to later in the day,” he tells me. “When I went on to ba.com to change the flight, the cost was £61. But a brand-new ticket is £40.

“I understand a change fee – but to charge more than the cost of a new flight does not make sense. Why does it happen?”

An excellent question. Peter has already paid British Airways to fly him from London to Dublin. Now he would like BA to switch him to a flight a few hours later. With five months’ notice, it looks absurd to charge him 50 per cent more to do this than to book a new flight.

To be charitable to British Airways, from the airline’s perspective there are two separate issues here. What is the appropriate fee for allowing a passenger with a cheap ticket to change their flight time? And what is the appropriate fare for a mid-morning, midweek short hop from London to Dublin, booked five months in advance?

The answer to the first question is a change fee of £60, plus any additional fare above what was originally paid.

The answer to the second is evidently £40. This is real bargain-basement stuff – almost as low as BA’s London to Dublin fares ever go, which is £39. Most of the fare is swallowed up by air passenger duty (APD, £13) and airport charges (£15).

Peter must have bought his original ticket at £39 to explain the £1 fare difference added to the £60 change fee.

Charges for amending flights generally work for passengers; I have availed of the option many times. They certainly work for the airlines. British Airways and its rivals, which have similar policies, regard flight changes to low-fare tickets as a significant source of revenue.

Anomalies like Peter’s, where a new flight costs less than the amendment fee, are rare. But when they occur, the rational course for the passenger is to buy a fresh ticket and become a “no-show” for the original departure. This does no one any good, as it blocks a seat that someone else might want.

Such anomalies are normally associated with Britain’s bonkers rail-fare system, and it should really not be beyond the wit of the airlines’ revenue-management teams to incentivise the passenger to move flights rather than hold two bookings. When the cost of a new ticket is below the change fee, they simply need to make the charge for amending the original departure slightly less than the published fare. In Peter’s case, that would be perhaps £35.

Having said all of that, I urge Peter to keep the original, painfully early flight. I am no stranger to the 4.36am Elizabeth line train from Paddington, because I am often to be found doing the “Dublin dodge”: buying one ticket to the Irish capital, which has APD of £13, and a separate onward ticket to avoid the full £84 tax for a transatlantic flight.

Peter’s onward flight time might change again, and revert to an earlier departure. Because he does not have a “through ticket” from London to North America, if the first flight is late then he will lose the second leg.

Just last month I used an early British Airways hop from London to Dublin to connect with a cheap WestJet flight to Halifax in Canada.

The BA plane left late and was held for a frustratingly long time on arrival due to a lack of ground crew. After sprinting through the airport I was the last passenger on board the transatlantic plane to Halifax.

Anyone who ends up with hours to spare at Dublin can always make the most of the mini-stopover with a 45-minute bus trip out to the beautiful coastal town of Malahide: a great place to de-stress.