The Brussels Dilemma: what should I do with my unwanted ticket?

Buyer’s remorse comes in many forms. My current regret arose from sheer carelessness when booking a flight. And after spending an hour in two separate conversations with the British Airways call centre in South Africa (the first was inexplicably terminated 30 minutes in), I am left with The Brussels Dilemma.

This philosophical quandary is nothing to do with deciding whether to include a diminutive spherical vegetable with Christmas dinner. Instead, it involves the merits (or otherwise) of gaming the situation to limit the damage caused by the errant purchase of a flight ticket.

The background: as you know, a strike by members of the PCS union working for UK Border Force begins on Friday 23 December at six airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Birmingham and Cardiff. I wanted to assess the effects first hand. So I came up with a cunning plan to fly into Heathrow – the busiest airport in the UK – on the first European arrival on Friday morning.

British Airways flight BA389 is due to arrive from Brussels at 6.55am, by which time I predict any problems at passport control will have become apparent: around 50 long-haul flights are scheduled to touch down at Heathrow before that.

So I searched online at ba.com for the first departure from the Belgian capital on 23 December, and was glad to see availability at €108 (£94) one way. Or so I thought. I cheerfully clicked through and paid for the ticket. Only on Monday, when I went online to check that all was tickety-boo, did I discover that the airline’s system had diverted me to a day earlier.

I had booked a flight that I didn’t want and didn’t need. How did I get it wrong by 24 hours? Well, when I replicated the booking, I spotted the small print reading: “We don’t fly that route on the dates you’ve chosen. Instead we’re showing you flights on other dates that you might find suitable.” Ahead of the strike, BA had taken all arrivals at Heathrow on the affected days off sale.

Mea culpa. I should have checked every detail carefully before hitting that “buy now” button. The Brussels Dilemma is: what do I do now, barely 24 hours before the flight is due to depart?

Cancelling will trigger a small refund of taxes and fees, but will still leave me £70 down for my error. British Airways and tens of thousands of its passengers are experiencing serious disarray following a systems failure, which triggered dozens of flight cancellations.

There is a non-zero chance that BA389 might be grounded, or perhaps delayed to the point where I can claim all my money back. To accept a fraction of my original payment, or hold out in the hope of a modest full refund? That is The Brussels Dilemma.

British Airways could solve the problem very easily. It is currently selling the very same flight for £482, which means that my seat is worth about five times what I paid for it. In a fully rational world, BA would contact me and everyone else who paid less than £100 for the flight and offer to buy it back at face value – with a £50 voucher attached.

Aviation and rational behaviour remain distant strangers, so instead I must choose whether to cancel or take the chance of recouping the cost of my mistake. Which would you choose?

Philosophically, there is no contest. From a purely selfish perspective, holding on to the seat is a valid strategy. But in a season of goodwill it is unjustifiable in terms of public good. Empty seats on planes are always wasteful. And were I to pretend still to want the trip, it could mean British Airways turns away someone who is desperate to fly. I have cancelled, and learnt my lesson: always read every detail of your trip before you book.