Really cranky and need a rant.....

[Glup]

So I've just been told I can't fly. I'm 20 weeks pregnant and, without going into the dull details, the hospital has advised against it. I had booked flights within the UK for next week.

Cancelling or getting the flights changed will cost around £300, giving me back about £140. Immaturely, I am tempted by two options:

1. Going to the airport, checking in the luggage and then refusing to get on the plane. I know this would definitely cost BA loads more to rectify.

1. Rocking up and letting BA deal with the consequences. They shouldn't actually want me to fly. It would be very messy for them!

Alright, I'm not going to go for option number 2, but option 1 looks very tempting right now. Grrrrrr.

Suck it up, tbh.

This is what travel insurance is for.

Why didnt you find out whether you could fly before you bought the tickets

To be fair to the OP, it's not usual to be prevented from flying at 20 weeks is it?

Soooo... the HOSPITAL has advised against flying but you want to disrupt 100's of peoples holiday and business flights to punish BA!???
I'm very confused!!!

If you are only 20 weeks pregnant, why would BA refuse to let you on the flight anyway?

Erm, I don't think she's seriously suggesting actually doing either of these things, I think it's just letting off a bit of steam.

I flew at 25 weeks last time and there were no issues. I'd have been royally pissed off if I'd told I couldn't go. It was our last foreign break before parenthood!

Rant away! (But probably don't turn up at the airport and start screaming at people.)

How is this any of BA's fault?

I'm guessing you don't have travel insurance to cover the flight; that would be your fault, not BA's. I'm sorry you can't go, that must be disappointing, but it's not BA's fault and the T&Cs on refunds are normally very clear.

Yes, they're clear - the terms and conditions - but they are also somewhat unreasonable regarding how much you have to pay for insurance and changes and so on. I flew BA recently and they were nice about letting me on an earlier flight than planned (circumstances boring and irrelevant), but they charged a hefty fee. Fair enough, it was my request to change and they can essentially charge what they like, I know that if I don't like it, I can hang around for 4 hours and get my scheduled flight.
Neither flight was full, though - there were loads of empty seats, so it didn't cost them anything at all to have me on the earlier flight. They could have created good will (and a definite keenness on my part to fly with them again next time) by letting me on the earlier flight for free or for a less hefty fee. Sure, it's within their rights to do whatever they say they'll do in their T&C. But wouldn't it be nicer, and maybe even in the long run better for business, if in extenuating circumstances like the OP's they were a little less heavy with the massive charges? If changes etc reflected the actual costs to them, maybe plus a little?

I thought it was common knowledge that some airlines don't let you fly at 20 weeks. I don't understand why you didn't ask them in the first place.

Oh gosh.

No, you are allowed generally to fly until 7 months. This is a very unusual circumstance....one that definitely wouldn't have been predicted! Journey, don't know which airlines you are talking about or where your 'common knowledge' comes from. BA certainly let you fly until 7 months. This 'no fly' rule in my case has come from the doctors, not them.

Of course I'm not going to do either of the options- but £90 per ticket to simply change the dates of the flights or a £60 cancellation fee per ticket (plus the cost of the ticket) does seem very hard to justify. Whilst I know people are arguing that I should have had travel insurance- for a flight within the UK which I take regularly, it seemed a bit precious. I'm sure the ridiculous administration charges I have just paid, which gained BA £270 in roughly the course of 2 minutes is not going to be going to the wages of the admin staff involved.

Afussyphase, you're right about the good will. There are four other members of my family on the flight who also take the trip regularly. That's just under a thousand pounds between the lot of us. We'll be deliberately scoping out other companies for our next few flights!

Right. Thanks for letting me rant. Quite cathartic. Feeling better now!