British Airways clamping down on dropped final legs of ex-EU tickets

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• Talay says:

  20 Jul20 July 06:41

  I have had routing completion issues but not from a fare perspective; I was ex NRT via BKK to LHR and stopping in BKK for longer than a non visa allowed number of days was a concern to the airline at NRT.

  As to this childish BA “directive”, then I honestly don’t see how they could enforce it. Evidence exists that they do not at present and unless they were to penalise every single no show, then you would have differentiation in policy which would be unworkable.

  The only way I could see it even marginally being more than a pipe dream is if a new ticket condition was introduced but can you imagine the chaos that would cause for the business sector ? Again, unworkable.

• BA clamping down on missed final ex-EU sector - FlyerTalk Forums says:

  20 Jul20 July 06:54

  […] hearsay, I thought the below would be of interest to FTers: https://headforpoints.com/2015/07…ex-eu-tickets/ It's interesting that the author speculates that an immediate missed connection is less risky than […]

• Loos says:

  20 Jul20 July 06:56

  I m not sure it is always the case but there is an alternative to that.
  While booking a flight to New York i was looking at different possibility, i noticed that the cheapest was taking a Return fly from Oslo or Luxembourg passing through London (300£) while the same flight from new york would cost around 450£. Now the interesting part is if that booking a multi destination LUX – NYC(via LHR) and NYC – LON cost me only 306£ while booking via American Airline.

• Alan says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:01

  I think this is probably more an issue for those who live in London – I’d have to book a return to EDI from LHR anyway and once Little Red disappear that could only be with BA. Given that’s not an option if trying to miss your last leg then you’re stuck travelling to another London airport – personally I’d prefer just to enjoy the lounge and extra points, then connect on to my EU destination and home from there. AA are strict about denying FF points on their cheap Caribbean fares for those who miss the last leg and I agree that BAEC account closure is the most likely consequence, rather than court action. Personally I wouldn’t want to risk that given my Avios balance!

• where2travel says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:17

  The strange thing here is that they seem to be going after the wrong group.

  So for my ex-FRA flight to HKG, I have deliberately but the final London-Berlin leg several months after the return flight to London. For a small fare increase, I get the start of a weekend away in Berlin when I want it.

  Presumably it’s those that book the same day final legs that are most likely to skip it, no? And that’s the scenario they’re not bothered about?

  • Brian says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:40

    Good point. As you say, if you weren’t intending to take the flight, why would you bother booking it for much later??

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 09:23

    The through-checking of bags makes it difficult unless you take the last leg from another airport. You can book Germany flights from City Airport though …

• RB says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:19

  Interestingly I booked an ex EU with BA on Friday and noticed for the first time that in the email there was “A Very Important” message that stated that not checking your bags to the final destination could lead to additional charges being levied. It seems as though BA are attacking the practice from various fronts. Fortunately, the ticket rules allowed me a free stopover in London on the return and so for the first time I will be using the final leg – even if it is to start my next ex EU trip!!

• Joe says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:31

  Hey BA (as I’m sure you’re reading), before you start worrying about this, can you sort out why it’s currently taking around 6 weeks to manually process a refund…

  • Mark says:

    20 Jul20 July 07:45

    Which is actually a breach of consumer law. They are legally obliged to process refunds within 30 days, if they don’t then take them to court, it’s the only way they will sit up, listen and learn!

    • JQ says:

      20 Jul20 July 17:00

      Well that may be so, but how many people would be happy to just wait for 6 weeks and get a full refund rather than having to bother going to court (which would incur some sort of costs even if BA ends up paying a bit more)

• CV3V says:

  20 Jul20 July 08:23

  I’m surprised BA’s IT can handle this, given that it couldn’t sort out the correct procedure for managing the clocks going back in November for my ex KUL flight.

  I’m also surprised this is BA’s attempt to counter the middle east carriers. If I fly from Europe then its ‘direct’ to a middle east hub before onward travel. With BA it means flying back to Heathrow, enduring various delays, queues and a below average lounge experience, followed by using a business class product which can’t compete with the likes of Qatar. If I lived in Germany this isn’t how I would want to get to Hong Kong!

  • @alastairtravel says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:55

    I can assure you that the BA IT team can handle identifying this practice.

    The issue to me is what is enforceable.

  • Luke says:

    20 Jul20 July 10:08

    This is the point – if you were going to the trouble of taking an exEU, why go BA?

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