Reply To: BA never issued Avios e-ticket

[JDB]

Wiseoldman wrote:

There are things we need to take care of; passport, visa..making sure kids are taken along. Is the booking showing in the app real that is definitely on BA, have the airline taken the necessary oayment points/cash definitely on BA. When the petrol guage shows the tank is full we are allowed to rely on that and not have to check inside the petrol tank that there is actual fuel in it.

I am not advocating every incident should result in compensation but lets not just blame everything on the individual.

There are some people who will do the work; making sure contracts are read, FAQs are read, dots and dashes are correct..but to expect everyone to do this is unrealistic and is a game we should not allow. Trust in fellow being and systems.

It’s just absurd to put all this on BA. They make mistakes and so does the passenger. They are dealing with hundreds of thousands of tickets and some things go wrong and slip through the net. You only have to check one small set of tickets; it’s not a big ask.

If you go to the theatre, Wimbledon or any similar event, do you not check your tickets and all the info carefully and make sure you take them with you or have them downloaded for every member of the party? If you go by train do you not either allow time to buy a ticket or check you have the necessary paper or e-ticket with you? If you are the organiser of group travel, do you not check all the tickets and arrangements or do you just leave it to chance that the providers have done everything right? If you park your car in on street parking that requires payment, do you expect the council to chase you to pay or do you take responsibility for ensuring you have paid? If you forget to pay are you going to challenge a penalty on the basis they should have taken greater steps to warn you to pay?

Just because we have moved from paper tickets to e-tickets, are you suggesting that this means the passenger no longer needs to check anything? It’s pretty obvious whether one has paid for an air ticket or not. It seems so incredibly casual and totally contrary to all the posts one reads here of people chasing low three figures of Avios and pennies here and there not to notice or pretend not to notice whether they have paid for a ticket for a major event like a holiday.

The implication of your post is also that we don’t need to bother to check anything now we only use e-tickets, but if it goes wrong we should run to nanny and seek compensation. It is incredibly easy to check one’s ticket and it’s a really basic and fundamental part of travel planning, along with knowing your passport is valid, any visa, electronic travel authorisation etc. is in place, together with hotel confirmations for the right accommodation/dates, all tours further travel plans correct.

Much more fun of course to play to the crowd and blame big bad BA.