BA flight (AA codeshare) denied boarding due to boarding passes being invalid?
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My two sisters visited me in NYC and were meant to fly back from JFK to AMS via LHR. They had recently changed their flights to allow more time for transiting, utilising the flexible policy from BA. They flew to JFK with BA without a problem, but when at JFK they were denied boarding by the AA ground staff due to ‘their booking not being in the system’. However, they had checked in, and even had seat numbers. Any question or ask for help was immediately shot down, and they were told to go to BA instead, as it was “not their problem”.
They headed to Terminal 7, and although the BA desk had closed as it was late at night, some friendly BA bagage handling staff was able to help them. They said they had no clue why they weren’t allowed boarding, as their booking and boarding passes were all legit. They were rebooked on an Iberia flight the next day, resulting in them being home almost 24 hours late, due to no fault of their own.
Any idea how to go about this? I’m guessing they should contact BA about this? I feel like they should be entitled to compensation due to the long delay, although the flight was obviously not delayed/cancelled. Not sure how they can prove this? Unfortunately they didn’t get the name of the AA staff.
Is it possible that the new flights weren’t ticketed? This seems to happen from time to time. I’m not sure who’s liable for any delays associated with this though. Very poor response from AA staff though.
Thanks – they sent me pictures of their physical boarding passes, which were printed at the airport (which I didn’t think would even be possible had they not been ticketed). Either way, I’ve sent a complaint to BA to start off with and see what they say. It’s crazy to me AA was able to do this, without offering the slightest of help.
Thanks – they sent me pictures of their physical boarding passes, which were printed at the airport (which I didn’t think would even be possible had they not been ticketed). Either way, I’ve sent a complaint to BA to start off with and see what they say. It’s crazy to me AA was able to do this, without offering the slightest of help.
Do the boarding passes have ticket numbers in the pictures.
I just had another look, and compared their boarding pass to one of my older AA boarding passes, and you’re right: there’s no ticket number. Would AA or BA be at fault here? And how is it even possible to print out boarding passes at the airport, including seats, without actually assigning ticket numbers? I feel like BA is going to blame AA and vice versa.
If BA didn’t ticket the revised itineary, then it’s their error.
If BA didn’t ticket the revised itineary, then it’s their error.
That may be the case, but unfortunately it doesn’t really help whose error it was. If the operating carrier from JFK was AA, there are no UK261 rights, so no compensation due for the effective denied boarding or resulting delay. It appears the pax accepted the rerouting as well rather than standing their ground, so after the event the best hope is a gesture of goodwill from AA most likely in the form of a travel voucher or a few Avios from BA.
I’d want my overnight and extra meals reimbursed at a minimum due to BA’s incompetent performance of a service ie failure to ticket what had been paid for resulting in inability to use the service at the time it had been booked.
See if you can get them to say what the problem was. Keep records of every call. As soon as it’s clear it’s their failure and not yours or AA’s, send a letter by signed-for post recounting the conversation/email with your request for reimbursement. If you can calculate how many avios your reimbursement is worth to you, plus some for the inconvenience, you could try to get a big enough chunk of avios in a conversation first.
If you’re not getting far enough value-wise then send a very nice letter saying how inconvenient it was and you are £x out of pocket due to this (attach receipts) and asking them to put it right. Say you’d like to hear from them within three weeks.
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