British Airways clamping down on ex-EU tickets – our first example?

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• Godfrey says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:17

  Which US airport was this from, does anyone know if LAX check in staff are as strict ?

  • Davey says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:28

    I have just returned from an ex-EU to LAX and upon check-in for the return to LHR I was told by the agent that she has no option but to check the bags to LHR only as the connection to Milan was the following morning. This was an AA flight so maybe their policies differ to BA. In any case, an overnight connection certainly seems to help.

  • 1nfrequent says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:38

    I flew from LAX in March on an ex-DUB and I was told that my bags had to be bookd though to DUB because it was “BA poicy”. I was actually happy with this as I had a few days planned in DUB anyway but the check-in agent told me that BA was clamping down on it.

• Maciek says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:28

  Well, there’s another solution: one can insist on having the bags released at the connecting point. Since the luggage cannot fly without its owner, it will have to be unloaded if you don’t board the plane. This obviously causes delays and frustration to other passengers, so I’d suggest telling the ground staff as early as possible that you’re not taking the next leg and reminding them that they would have to unload your luggage one way or the other.

  • John says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:05

    Definitely don’t think this is good advice. You won’t be flying on One World ever again and if you delay an entire flight for a hold search in any US airport, doubt you’ll be crossing the Atlantic again on any airline (or ship).

    You’ll also get to meet some very irate security officials.

    • Maciek says:

      17 Aug17 August 08:09

      I think we’re talking about dropping last leg in EU here.
      No airline can force you to take the flight. You may well feel unwell and want to stop your journey “here and now”.

      • John says:

        17 Aug17 August 12:08

        Force – or insist as you put it – any airline to delay a flight to unload baggage in the circumstances you describe and there will be trouble.

        Not only will you have issues with the carrier but the rest of their alliance when trying to make future bookings.

        Just chill out and take the extra leg, and not threaten to piss other passengers off as you put it.

        Or try hand baggage only.

        • John says:

          17 Aug17 August 12:19

          Should have written “implied” rather than “as you put it.”

          Reiterate the chill out advice though. We’re supposed to be travelling for pleasure, not to get into unnecessary grief with often hard pressed and badly paid airport/airline staff.

    • Calchas says:

      17 Aug17 August 10:00

      The policy is not applied in the USA so it won’t matter. Also I don’t see what the “oneworld” marketing brand has to do with security policy

      • John says:

        17 Aug17 August 12:10

        Good luck with that theory!

        • Callum says:

          18 Aug18 August 02:26

          Theory!? There is NO such policy. Your claim that asking for your bag back at Heathrow will result in you being banned from OneWorld is beyond ridiculous.

          BA has no power WHATSOEVER to ban you from other airlines, and why on Earth would Qantas care about you dropping a leg from London?

          Unless your connection is incredibly tight it’s also quite unlikely to delay the flight anyway.

  • Calchas says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:59

    It won’t cause any disruption in Terminal 5, once you miss conformance your bag will be deleted from the manifest and simply won’t get loaded.

• Docklandsguy says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:46

  There is nothing new here.
  If you ask in the US, they would rarely let you check your bags for part of the trip.
  I guess the reader in question had to be very pushy to be referred to the ticket desk…
  Agree totally with the other comments, people who have benefitted of such a massive price difference should be prepared to fly the last leg and use the journey back of their positioning flights.

• Ozbar says:

  17 Aug17 August 07:46

  As mentioned before..we always travel with hand luggage. If you’re planning an Ex Eu trip and plan on dumping the last flight…fly with hand luggage. Its not that difficult..if my wife can do it..with all the garbage she used to bring..anyone can do it.

  • Crazyukman says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:05

    I booked one of the recent £1k deals with Cathay from ARN to BKK (via LHR and HKG). Does CX have a similar approach to BA regarding dropping the last sector of an ex-EU fare? I’ve already booked my domestic flight from LHR to EDI so I don’t want to lose that. But normally I’m grateful for the extra 40 TPs on the final sector! Also do I check in for all of the sectors on the return or just not the last one if I don’t intend to take it? TIA…

    • JQ says:

      17 Aug17 August 08:14

      CX certainly doesn’t like HKG residents doing ex-TPE fares and will not permit short-checking or having a substantial “layover” in HKG

      I have no idea what their opinion is on ex-EU, especially since your last leg would be on BA. If you booked TPE-HKG-LHR-HKG-TPE with the long-haul on BA and connection on CX, what do you think BA would say when you arrived at T5 for the return?

• James says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:01

  Just out of curiosity, would not flying the final leg cause any problems with your Avios / TP points? I imagine you certainly won’t get them for missing the last flight back to Dublin, but what about the points for the main transatlantic sector back to London?

  • JQ says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:16

    So far no problems but it remains to be seen if BA will start cracking down

  • Alan says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:14

    No issue at present, but AA ate certainly aware of the practice in their neck of the woods (where tacking on a Caribbean origin/destination markedly reduces the cost) and they withold crediting miles until the that last leg has been flown.

• Jimmy says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:06

  So, if this pax had relented and let their bags be checked through to Dublin but then not got on the plane … where would the bags be? Surely not on the aircraft to Ireland without their owner?

  Because that really would be a security issue.

  • Maciek says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:10

    Yeah, the bags would get unloaded potentially pissing off the airline staff, luggage handlers and the passengers…

    • Jimmy says:

      17 Aug17 August 16:39

      …to which my response, as the pax who had his bags checked through to where he didn’t want them, would be “Well if you’d done what I’d asked…”

      I foresee this situation happening more and more as a natural consequence of BA trying and failing to clamp down on this.

      • plastikman says:

        17 Aug17 August 21:45

        supremely selfish. sense of entitlement is staggering….

        • Jimmy says:

          18 Aug18 August 07:23

          Your sense of missing the point even more so.

          If the airline, in the normal course of events, is happy to off-load the bags halfway then pax can expect that to be the case.

          If the airline suddenly decides it wants to change procedure on a whim, the airline can damn well expect fall-out from that.

          The only “supremely selfish … sense of entitlement” is from the airline bullying its way into a position to which it knows perfectly well it holds only a untenable and untested legal right.

  • Calchas says:

    17 Aug17 August 10:02

    They will sit in the long term storage area until you claim them.

• Nick says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:08

  Blimey…….slow news day raffles?! 🙂

  Im surprised you gave this coverage….for the sake of not repeating take your flights its a condition of sale. Anyone that gives BA staff grief over this is usually the same kind of arsehole that just has to be the very first person off the plane who cant wait more than one millisecond and stampedes everyone out the way because im so important….you know who you are!

• oyster says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:12

  In my opinion dropping the final leg is greedy. And we all know what greed does to golden geese like exEU fares.

  • James R says:

    17 Aug17 August 08:51

    I have a hard time understanding the warped logic that could attribute this to greed.

    If you’re making that argument, then taking Ex-EU fares when you’re not “legitimately” departing from the EU is just as greedy. Is it not also more “greedy” to take up space in a lounge, potentially take someone’s seat (if it’s an overbooked flight), just to fly a final leg that you have no interest in taking?

    It may be unwise… But greedy it is not.

    This isn’t a golden goose… BA doesn’t offer these fares out of charity. It’s just the state of the market.

    • oyster says:

      17 Aug17 August 09:46

      They may not be able to do much about the fares but they could easily change the rules to prevent tier points and Avios being awarded on UK based frequent flyer accounts. And if they did, who could complain?

      I just happen to think that flying the last leg (in CE, with extra TPs and Avios) is hardly a hardship when faced with a fare saving of thousands of pounds.

      If you want speed and convenience then pay for it with direct UK departures.

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