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This is today’s chat thread.
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I’ll preface this by saying I checked the flight time, and the flight wasn’t delayed as a result of his action, but I’ll keep it vague to protect the guilty.
OH was ticketed from America on AA into Heathrow and then connecting to a European destination. Classic ‘drop the last leg’ itinerary, all ticketed through BA. Couldn’t check in online, so checked in at the airport, HBO. Check in staff insisted on checking him through to final destination, even though he hinted that he may not be able to take the final leg. At Heathrow he exited the airport. At what point would the ‘last leg’ gate realise he wasn’t going to appear? Is there any risk, eg on a short connection time, that the gate staff may be expecting a checked in passenger to appear and hold the gate open to the last possible moment? Is there anyone you can tell at Heathrow that you won’t be taking the flight? It’s annoying as at the very least it could prevent someone on standby being able to take the flight, at worse it could delay a flight, even if only from an early departure.
Perfectly normal for check in staff to check you in for both segments of a connecting flight. The check in staff expected your OH to fly to the final destination. On arrival at LHR, he should have stayed airside and would have needed his boarding pass for the second flight to clear transit security and proceed to the departures area.
Trying to check in for only one segment is asking for trouble.
People often miss flights. The second flight would not have waited for him.
US Airlines are cracking down hard on skip lagging, and people who do it regularly might find themselves banned.
@Tracey I really wouldn’t worry about it, no shows (for various reasons) have been a common thing for many many years, airlines will have routine procedures to deal with all the issues you are concerned about.
The biggest issue with no shows is if the passenger has a bag which makes it onto the plane, that will then potentially cause delays when the passenger doesn’t show (which isn’t the case here).
Just as well be had no bags. They would have been checked through, especially by AA who are absolute Rottweilers and short checking.
If the onward flight was BA the conformance time of -35 or thereabouts would be when they were offloaded and any standby on loaded.
It’s pretty slick and so you should not be concerned about it.
I would however never ever hint that I might drop the final leg, indeed I usually book the latest possible connection where allowed, up to 23hrs59mins after arrival. AA staff in particular are encouraged to stop this.
My last experience from LAX had AA staff offer to “help” me by selling me another ticket as I wanted my bag to LHR only. My onward was BUD the following day! At LHR I was able to get my bag back but it’s effort and hassle. The irony is I was going on to BUD I just didn’t want the bag too
No bags was deliberate for this reason! I just thought of short connection times where ground staff may be looking for passengers to hurry them along. On the outbound he only just made the connection, 75 minutes between flights, both from T5. When he arrived at the gate everyone had already boarded.
BA ticket on AA, so I don’t know who would be banning him, in any case this would be a first offence in a long time.
At what point does T5 conformance kick in on a connecting flight?
At T5, I believe the conformance is 35 mins before flight to have gone through security/boarding pass scan. I’ve been refused a pass through connections at around 30 mins prior in the past.
So if this doesn’t happen you’re not going to be on that flight and BA knows it.It will be interesting to see how this pans out, made a purchase in August on my Plat card which earned a 10% offer rebate, the transaction was charged in full. I’ve just had a refund which has been split into two, I’m expecting the rebate to be taken back but what if it doesn’t? Bank error in my favour maybe?
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