British Airways stops ‘two ticket’ bag transfers and disruption protection – even to BA flights

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Peter Taysum says:

  12 Jun12 June 13:35

  I spoke to BA today to see if they’d link PNRs for reward flights booked on separate tix, as I couldn’t get the website to route me NCL LHR MAD VLC and return. It wanted to route me NCL LHR/LGW VLC and I find the coach between LHR and LGW less attractive than the 1st class lounge… So opted for another flight – I quite like the lounge at MAD after I stopped off AMS GIG in November thanks Rob! 🙂

  No, was their answer but check in has discretion to check through luggage using manual baggage tag input… (As per Andrew above).

  Next time I’ll book via BA Gold for free using up their time… for as long as I keep it…

• Tony says:

  12 Jun12 June 15:28

  As other have asked, why have BA/oneworld taking this decision, would be helpful if someone does get a response/explanation so that we can perhaps rationalise? Bill P refers to costs involved, these are incurred anyway as the bags are still processed? In a separate post he refers to United having no record of connecting flights, my understanding is that if you have ticket numbers then the flights can be found?

  We recently travelled to Lima via São Paulo (BA then LATAM), we only had a short connection and we were able to check our bags all the way through (flights booked separately). We would have likely had issues making the connection if we had to go through passport control, collect our bags, and check in again. I can not see what the issue is, at the BA desk in Manchester all the counter staff had to do is find the LATAM flight from the ticket number and print luggage labels and boarding passes for the connecting flight.

  All this seems to be doing is creating extra stress for passengers, passport control, security and check in desks!? It strikes me as insane/irrational or am I missing something?

  • harry says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:40

    The simple answer is cost savings (various) with the obvious downside of inconveniencing customers.

    There’s no issue that the systems can’t cope with multiple PNRs.

    The less obvious answer might include dissuading people from buying ex-EU fares.

• Lady London says:

  12 Jun12 June 19:07

  Let’s be intelligent about this.

  If LAN had agreed to check my bags through AKL-SYD-DOH-MUC-LON, as they should have done in AKL under OneWorld rules three months ago, then if QR had lost my luggage on any of the later legs I believe LAN could have been the airline responsible for any costs even though they were only the first OneWorld flight and the rest were QR. So perhaps OneWorld is seeking a more fair allocation of costs in case of irrops.

  However 3 months ago when the baggage check-through was a OneWorld privilege, LAN contracted staff at AKL simply refused to check my luggage through and refused me access to the lounge even though the rest of my flights that day were on OneWorld in Business. The nastiness of the LAN contracted staff at AKL when I dared to politely challenge them after they refused to check my luggage through mentioning is this not a OneWorld rule, was beyond belief. It was sustained nastiness including making me repack all my bags to suit their lower baggage allowance, including my hand luggage, which took me over 1 hour. and cost me $150 for an extra bag that I then had to pay for as it was over their allowance which was lower than my OneWorld allowance on QR for flights I was taking the same day. Luckily I was checking in at 5am with 3 hours to spare before the flight. Then, as I had suspected from their campaign of nastiness because I had dared to politely question their refusal, they sat me in the back row of a huge airplane right next to the toilet. I knew they would do this from their behaviour, even before I looked at the ticket as I got on to the aircraft. It had me in tears as I had just had to leave my father whom I had not seen for three years who was not very well, and who died 4 days later. Cabin staff were great when they saw me in tears but my treatment by LAN’s contracted staff in AKL, who I think might be Air New Zealand staff contracted to check in for all alliances there, was vicious.

  I will do everything I can not to fly LAN or NZ out of AKL again. I’ve given up the idea of flying LAN to South America this year. The LAN contracted checkin staff in AKL, were disgusting.

  • harry says:

    12 Jun12 June 20:03

    Sorry to hear about the recent loss of your father. It does strike a slight chord as I remember when I said goodbye to my grandfather – who coincidentally was going to fly to spend his last days with my Aunt in Bay of Islands NZ – I knew I would never see him again but of course his death was not so likely, so soon.

    I am a bit surprised you feel the NZ people were not very pleasant, but I cannot question that. We found everybody pretty friendly when we lived out there. However, they can occasionally be a bit screwy & resentful of Europeans & our comparative wealth, maybe you caught somebody on a bad day.

• Luke says:

  12 Jun12 June 20:11

  Nightmare.
  I’m off to BKK from CDG with QR. Flight from LHR to CDG with BA, then the reverse on the return. An 18 month old and a 3 year old in tow as well as probably 6 cases as its for the Christmas break. I’m BA Gold and therefore loyal so far to One World, but this will change things.
  Does anyone know what to say to get a refund from QR? It was a Promo fare that was running at the start of January.
  I will then look to go with QR from BHX the next time there is a sale on!

  • harry says:

    12 Jun12 June 20:16

    You mean connection in Paris is impossible given the time available & checking in luggage etc?

  • Majunga says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:05

    Hi Luke,
    I did a similar trip a month ago:
    LHR-CDG on BA
    CDG-DOH-JNB on QR
    a couple of things to keep in mind:
    – BA arrives at CDG 2 and QR departs from CDG 1: it is a pretty lengthy connection as you need to take a shuttle so I would allow at least 2 hours now that you will need to recheck your luggage in Paris.
    – On the way back, you should use the Cathay lounges at BKK and CDG. Rob wrote a very good review of the Paris one last month
    https://headforpoints.com/2016/05/01/review-cathay-pacific-ba-lounge-paris-charles-de-gaulle/

• Sagereid says:

  12 Jun12 June 21:56

  My Tweet “@British_Airways discriminating against customers flying from the regions on separate BA tickets by not checking through their bags.”

  @British_Airways Reply
  Jun 11
  …… If you’re connecting on to a BA flight on the same day this should be possible.

  • harry says:

    12 Jun12 June 22:08

    you think some dope on the tweeter @ BA is senior mgt?

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jun19 June 18:02

    ‘should be’. Well that’s very reassuring. Thanks BA.

    So it’s not guaranteed. And we are supposed to grovel to BA staff to get an exception, every time?
    Or does BA just wish to discriminate against anyone who is forced to use separate tickets, for whatever reason.

    When I put my previous comment I was not aware that BA is stopping all privileges arranged for passengers across the OneWorld Alliance. I presume the OneWorld allliance is breaking up then. After all, BA is kind of the lead airline in the OneWorld alliance, just as LH is for Star Alliance.

    No possible reason to ever choose a OneWorld flight anymore on a connection then. As I have done many many times consistently around the world. And paid considerably higher fares than I would on non-OneWorld alliance flights that were available. And sat on worse aircraft and taken worse flight timings than I could have, on better airlines. Bye bye OneWorld.

    It occurs to me that now they have secured the relevant governments’ agreement to their price-fixing cartel, sorry correction “route sharing” agreements across the Atlantic (like the BA/AA/IB/AY Transatlantic route-sharing) and they are also securing route sharing agreements from South America on key routes, it looks like the OneWorld alliancenow has permission to operate as a cartel and ***** the customers price-wise as soon as fares start to go up again. S, so they don’t need the OneWorld alliance anymore. Well **** you BA and OW.

    • harry says:

      19 Jun19 June 18:11

      [simpering honey sweet tone of voice from BA babe]
      I’d like to inform you that customers travelling on separate tickets do not enjoy the same benefits as a customer travelling on a through ticket.

      Benefits of purchasing a through ticket are:

      Single contract covering all the flights on the ticket.
      Through check-in.
      Most significant baggage allowance.
      Disruption handling.
      Customers choosing to travel on separate tickets.

      Separate contracts for each ticket.
      Cannot be accepted for through check-in.
      Different baggage allowance may apply to each ticket.
      Disruption guidelines only apply to the ticket with a disrupted flight.
      If they are not accepted for through check-in:

      Do not use Minimum Connecting Times.
      They will have to collect their bags on arrival at the destination on the ticket.
      They will have to re check-in at the departure airport of their onward travel.
      Different baggage allowance may apply to for each flight.
      If the arrival flight is delayed they are eligible for normal compensation (i.e. EU Legislation) for the delayed flight only.
      They cannot claim any costs associated to their onward flight if the arrival flight is delayed
      I’d further like to take this opportunity to explain the oneworld guidelines for separate tickets are as follows:

      Only customers with separate tickets issued in the same PNR will be accepted for through check-in.
      Customers must be transferring to/from a oneworld partner.
      Separate tickets do not have to be issued on the same carriers tickets as long as the carriers are membrs of oneworld.
      Customers holding separate tickets are only eligible for disruption assistance after they have been accepted for through check-in.
      We want to make sure the service we offer our passengers is consistent and fair. Having policies in place, helps us do this so it’s clear for our customers what they should expect from us and in turn, what we expect from them.

      Thank you for choosing BA.

• Xavier says:

  13 Jun13 June 01:57

  I can’t understand why *O carriers are doing that to themselves. While *A announces more integration, *O announces disintegration! What’s the point of an alliance?

• Tony says:

  13 Jun13 June 05:20

  I also sent BA a message yesterday:
  :
  @British_Airways Why have you stopped ‘two ticket’ bag transfers, going to upset many customers, myself included? https://headforpoints.com/2016/06/11/oneworld-through-checkin/

  @myresponse Not sure what you mean, Antony. If you have BA flights on different bookings, you can still check bags through. If you have 1/2

  @myresponse Not a flight with a different airline it would depend on an interline agreement. This has always been the case. What happened? ^Hel

  @British_Airways Not any longer, BA and oneworld have changed their policy, see this article and comments https://headforpoints.com/2016/06/11/oneworld-through-checkin/

  They obviously did not even bother to follow the link… So BA media/communications are not aware of policy change, maybe a few other people should send BA a tweet??

• jhk says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:28

  what is going on with BA each time they change and we get less and less service, strange because when you see other airlines we get more and more like CX and KLM they give more service and get more. is it because the new COO our man from Vueling may be he needs to go back to a cheap airline and get the service back at BA.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.