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We recently returned from a trip to Japan we booked a year ago in CW. Everything seemed fine until we tried to check in on line (using BA app) 24 hrs before return flight and it said it was unable to and we’d have to use check in desk.
When we arrived and tried to check in we were taken to one side and told our return flight had not been “ticketed”, whatever that meant. The gentleman said we need to “phone avios and sort it” or they could not board us. When I said I had no idea who I would even call or what number to use, his best advice was the same one we used a year ago!
After much frantic googling for a number we tried both USA and Japan numbers listed on BA site but no one was answering. To say we were getting frantic by this point was an understatement.
Luckily the guy dealing with us had decided to also try to call BA and got through to someone in London. After much toing and froing he handed phone to me saying they wanted to speak. The BA guy told me our return flight ticket had not been issued because we had not paid an £874 balance. I told him we had paid everything and had never received any request from BA for any additional money. In desperation we paid what he was asking for so we could board, having no time left to enjoy lounge access or relax.
On our return I raised a complaint with BA and they have just come back us. They are very apologetic and explained the confusion was caused due to a “scheduling change” which caused an error. They have refunded us the additional money and credited us 20000 avios as an apology.
I have to say, their email was very apologetic and I am glad we have our money back plus compensation. I just thought it might be interesting to others and a warning if we ever are unable to check in on line again, to not leave it to getting to airport before questioning it.
So sorry to hear this, that must have been an awful start to the trip. Sadly you are a victim of BA’s woeful IT and extraordinarily poor customer service at the airport
The airport staff are useless. If the computer says no they have no option but to call the same numbers you can, it’s pathetic. You were booked and ticketed and any half trained agent should have been able to see this.
You are far from alone. I was once forced to pay almost £2000 to board my OH on fully flex ticket which had been changed. It took 6 weeks to get the money back with the actual amount being just £95! In my case no IT blip just incompetent staff from airport to reservations and back office!
20,000 Avios for such dire handling is paltry. Had they offloaded you you they would have been on the hook for Full EU 261 compensation.
Having just re read you post it sounds like the e-ticket simply had to be re associated to the booking! That is such a basic function and every check in agent is trained in it. Only last week the handling staff in Dublin did this for me and it took 20 seconds!
Thanks Paul for sharing your experience and while I would not wish it on anyone, it’s nice to know we are not alone! You are spot on that the check in staff were hopeless (and frankly a little rude, at least at first, when theybtreated us like we had done something wrong).
It was the return flight and given that we were effectively stranded abroad, there was more than a little feeling of being hijacked for money given we’d had no inkling of the issue awaiting us.
It was all incredibly stressful and I am so glad of forums like this, and people like yourself, that will help us deal with this if it ever happens again.
It was the return flight and given that we were effectively stranded abroad, there was more than a little feeling of being hijacked for money given we’d had no inkling of the issue awaiting us.
.Yes, almost certainly a simple re association of the ticket. You booked a round trip, the return schedule changed and due to BAs IT, the ticket number was stripped from the return sector. It happens a lot. The ticket number is however visible in the booking and there is a simple entry to link it to the sector and hey presto all is well. There is only ever a problem if the ticket number is not known but that could not be the case here as the outbound sector was all good.
It would be a different matter if you had 2 separate bookings however.
As for the staff ….a great British original!!
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