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

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• Phil says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:37

  If you do not take your final leg but you have been issued boarding cards, what is the implication for the departing flight. Is this delayed whilst they wait for the missing passengers?

• Steve says:

  17 Aug17 August 08:46

  This may be a blond question, but if your return legs are US to LHR, then LGW to DUB. Does that mean they have to unload your bag at LHR. Assume they don’t transfer between airports?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:03

    Yes this is an easy way to skip the final leg without negotiating with check in staff. I think this is mentioned in the article.

    • Steve says:

      17 Aug17 August 09:46

      Thanks, worth remembering next time, save any issues.

  • mkcol says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:03

    Spot on – they go around the carousel at LHR for you to collect and take with you, yourself, to LGW to check drop them off for the LGW-DUB sector.

    • Steve says:

      17 Aug17 August 09:45

      Thanks, I didn’t really think about that when booking. Next time I’ll make sure to choose the flight departing out of different London airport. This time I’m ok cause only taking hand luggage. But definitely bare that in mind when need to check a bag.

      • plastikman says:

        17 Aug17 August 21:48

        bear

• Danksy says:

  17 Aug17 August 09:12

  Interesting; on my return from HNL-DUB i was delayed by 24 hours in LAX (weather and faulty radar on the plane meant we lost 6 hrs and all flights back to the UK were full!).

  On my original itinerary I had fully intended to take the flight to DUB and then fly from DUB to BRS (where I had left my car). As it transpired due to the delay I had to skip the DUB-BRS due to not having an extra day’s leave.

  The check-in desk were adamant that they wouldn’t re-route my bag to come off at LHR and were very “shirty” when i explained my predicament. I even showed them my connecting flights from DUB-BRS but they wouldn’t budge.

  In the end we left the terminal and I went home via Taxi, and called AA to get my bags routed bag from DUB to home. This was a real hassle – one that could have been avoided by a sensible discussion in the US (that noone was willing to have with me!)

  In the end I had to drop 2 non flexible flights with extra baggage fees from DUB-BRS incurred a taxi charge of £150 and then AA had to get my bags couriered to my home!

  It’s a shame that people abusing the system have created others that play by the rules problems!

  • Lady London says:

    17 Aug17 August 12:55

    I do hope you claimed the approx 600 euros? you were due under EU261 for that delay.

    I would not have put up with that. If an airline inconveniences me due to their own problems I expect flexibility. Sadly, this may vary with BA, according to status.

    At a minimum I’d send in all the receipts and demand my extra expenses back that were caused by their delay and intransigence. Then I’d do the EU claim after that just because they shouldn’t get away with treating people that way.

    • Danksy says:

      17 Aug17 August 13:54

      @LadyLondon – I was flying J too! I tried BA but they denied all liability since they weren’t operating the flight that was delayed. (It was AA). BA said that since they were responsible for the LAX-LHR-DUB leg it wasn’t their problem.

      I’ve lodged a complaint and request with AA, as the flight was ticketed HNL-DUB.

      It will be interesting how I get on; I suspect nowhere! 🙁

      • Alan says:

        17 Aug17 August 22:39

        AA seem to be fairly generous at handing out flight vouchers with them, so that’s a possibility…

• Richard says:

  17 Aug17 August 09:14

  Here’s a thought… don’t book this final leg in the first place. Use “Multiple destinations” tab on the booking websites instead of “Return”. Example… DUB-LAX outbound and LAX-LHR (or MAN in my case) inbound, and let the search engine do the work. MAN-DUB is regularly in the region of 10-20 quid (Ryanair/Aer Lingus under a separate booking), and you terminate the trip at MAN which is where you started the whole thing. End result = no hassle 🙂

  • Alan says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:21

    That depends on the fare though – some of them jump markedly in price if not returning to the origin (or one of the origin flights for that fare, eg out from AMS return to BRU might price fine)

    • Richard says:

      17 Aug17 August 10:59

      I agree Alan. I regularly use DUB-YYZ (via LHR) and LGA-MAN (usually via ORD/YYZ) and the fares are very low. Granted, I do have to make my own way Toronto to NY but I have a reason to be in both places, and cost for this leg is either 4500 Avios (+£29) or a cash ticket around £80. Overall, I’m still saving a good sum over a straight UK-US return.

      • konagirl says:

        18 Aug18 August 09:14

        I agree entirely with this. If you don’t want to take the last return leg, book an open jaw exEU-XXX-LON (or whichever your local airport is), be happy with the discount on APD and fare from the outbound and accept the fare increase by ending your journey in the UK. If you think the fare is too much more than the EU return then suck it up and take that last leg and pay for the re-positioning back to the UK. That is the game we play. If you book a return fare and consistently don’t take the last leg of the flights then you aren’t being honest.

        Train fares in to (terminating at) London cost more than fares via London to Greenwich, so it’s not just the airline industry that has strange/market driven fares. It used to be that you had to break your journey to use two separate tickets on the same train where in some circumstances cost less than the direct fare (i.e. you were supposed to get off the train and back on again!) although that has been relaxed now.

        • Richard says:

          19 Aug19 August 17:59

          (Nods in agreement 🙂 ). The other thing I noticed is that leaving to come home from a different airport that you landed in can make a large difference too, if you’re prepared for the surface travel/hassle of getting there after your time overseas ends, e.g., travel to New York but depart for home from Boston (which may even transit through JFK too!).

• Ian says:

  17 Aug17 August 09:35

  Sorry, but I think BA should have refused his request.

  If he had just booked an overnight in LHR then it would not have been an issue.

  If people wish to avoid paying the UK taxes, then they must be prepared to do the full journey. Or book two separate flights. Simples.

  • mark2 says:

    17 Aug17 August 10:00

    I agree.
    I always wonder whether any of the people who take this opportunity to avoid paying tax then rant about other ‘wicked tax avoiders’.

  • JQ says:

    17 Aug17 August 21:36

    This is nothing to do with avoiding tax. The additional tax is only £162 but savings are usually £1000+

    • mark2 says:

      17 Aug17 August 22:19

      so that is £162 tax avoided. It is the principle that matters not the amount.
      There are other savings too.

      • Jimmy says:

        18 Aug18 August 08:39

        So I imagine you’ll be getting on your high-horse about how BA pockets AA fuel surcharges when booking on ba.com, when the fuel surcharges themselves don’t even exist?

• ts77 says:

  17 Aug17 August 10:07

  To avoid any real drama:

  – Take carry on luggage only
  or
  – Change airports in London (LCY/LGW)
  or
  – Take the final leg

• Polly says:

  17 Aug17 August 10:13

  Just fly ex EU on QR or another OW , then just position yourself there and back. You still get TP and avios, and less risk all around of annoying BA. Let’s not kill another golden goose, for goodness!

  • Richard says:

    17 Aug17 August 11:04

    Quite right. Have done this multiple times without grief 🙂

  • CV3V says:

    17 Aug17 August 11:26

    Exactly, for cash tickets why endure the hassles of flying to Europe, to then fly into LHR, to then fly back out (and all of it with BA). Flying out of the EU direct with Qatar sounds a far better idea. Only issue is this doesn’t work (yet) for flying to the US.

  • Nick says:

    17 Aug17 August 11:58

    I don’t think I’d ever bother dropping the last leg – too much hassle, too much risk. Not worth it. It’s flagrant abuse of the fare to do so – equivalent of travelling short on a train ticket. I still don’t really buy the logic behind the huge difference in fares if departing ex-EU, but them’s the rules, so you have to play by them.

    The only exception I’d make to that is 1) genuine serious ill health; and 2) the situation set out by Danksy above, where the airline’s own error means you do not have time for the last leg. I think that in those situations, the airline should allow you to get off at LHR.

• Cheshire Pete says:

  17 Aug17 August 10:14

  Complete opposite happened when I flew ALC-MAD-LHR-MAN year before, they said we would need to either collect our bags at MAD or LHR and would not check thru as they said it wasn’t possible. All One World flights.

  I never believed this for 1 minute and have since done the same journey again fully checked thru, which brings me to the point that sometimes it’s just the happen chance of the checkin staff on duty knowing / not knowing the procedures.

  Interesting also I’ve had bags checked through involving multiple booking numbers, and they happily piece them together and check it all through. Which brings up the point if you did have a flight backed booked to Dublin via LHR and then a separate booking to bring you back to London, would they then do the full check thru back to London again !

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