Mark Williams fumes over £12k charge hours before snooker final | Other | Sport

Mark Williams has taken aim at British Airways after claiming that he was charged a whopping £12,000 to change a flight from Monday to Wednesday. The Welshman is due to return home following his endeavours at the Xi’an Grand Prix but has been forced to push back his departure from China after progressing to the final of the tournament.

Williams, who reached the final of the World Snooker Championship in May before losing to Zhao Xintong, has been in fine form at the Xi’an Grand Prix but has been pushed all the way during his run to the showpiece match. The 50-year-old defeated Yuelong Zhou 5-2 in his opening clash before beating Barry Hawkins and Lyu Haotian 5-4 in his next two encounters. Those victories secured his place in the semi-finals, with Williams going on to dispatch Daniel Wells 6-3 in the last four.

The final of the Xi’an Grand Prix will be played on Monday, with Williams set to take on reigning Masters and British Open champion Shaun Murphy.

But ahead of the match, Williams’ attention was temporarily taken by his upcoming travel plans.

And the veteran snooker star made his feelings perfectly clear as he wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Nice airline. @British_Airways, 12k to change my flight from tomox to Wednesday, time to start flying with a different airline. Wtf do they get the prices from.”

British Airways replied to the post as they commented: “Hi Mark. Please send us your booking reference via DM so we can double-check this quote.

“We’ll also need you to confirm your full name and contact details. We may need to ask you a few more questions for data protection.”

And Williams simply responded: “You put me through to a bot, cheers.”

Williams will become the oldest winner of a ranking event if he can get the better of Murphy in the Xi’an Grand Prix final.

But the Welshman dismissed that feat as an achievement as he explained in the aftermath of his victory over Wells: “Being the oldest? That’s not really a record, is it? If I did manage to win it, Ronnie O’Sullivan or John Higgins will probably beat it in a few months’ time anyway.

“It’s nice to be in the final, and if I can win a tournament, it’d be great. It’s great that I’m still somehow doing it.

“If you’d given me the quarters before I came out, I’d have bitten your hand off. If you had given me the final, I’d have bitten your whole body off.”