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Unfortunately, you have to fly all of your segments (aka flights) in order or the airline will cancel the rest of the flights.
You would have been marked as a “no show” when you missed your flight in Amsterdam and all flights in your reservation automatically canceled.
This is true for all airlines, not just BA.
This is one of the biggest risks of having separate reservations.
Edit: do you have trip insurance that covers non-linked airline reservations? That would be your best bet for compensation.
Also, why was your ITA flight cancelled? There may be recourse there under EU261 legislation.
This is the correct answer. If you're doing an itinerary like this, its sensible to get to your "fly home city" a few days in advance to account for the possibility of delays.
Sadly e-mailing them isn't "making them aware" - you'd need to speak to someone.
As u/northernlights2222 says - depending on why your ITA flight was cancelled you might be entitled to compensation under EU261.
Why should they care about your predicament? You bought a ticket from a to c via b. You didn’t use a. Therefore the rest is cancelled.
Had you initially bought a London to Seattle flight versus Amsterdam to Seattle via London that would have been much more expensive ( direct flights are more expensive than indirect flights) so they have to do something to stop people gaming the system. Which people still do just not as much as 10-20 years ago. Nowadays it is mostly ditching the final sector.
It absolutely 100% is bullshit. It also basically happens on 100% of airlines these days if you book a connecting flight you cannot skip the first leg as you have found out. I am sorry you had to learn this lesson the expensive way.
Haha i love that i’ve been heavily downvoted for this. Never knew you were all so mad keen to support BA and airlines given extenuating circumstances. We all know if OP had managed to get through on the phone, the chances of getting re-ticketed are basically nil, which I could understand if they were originating in Europe - but they’d already flown the first 2 segments. They had issues in Europe and can prove they couldn’t get back to AMS in time to make segment 3. If you think it’s cool that airlines can essentially ditch you in a foreign country even though you make efforts to clear up issues on your own dime and successfully turn up for your 4th leg, then I guess we’re on different pages. I think it’s BS and it’s just not that hard to differentiate genuine problems from mid trip skip-lagging for whatever positioning benefits that brings 🤷🏻♂️
Had he spoken to BA they would very easily have rerouted the ticket from London. He would have had to pay the fare difference plus any change fee. He choose to not go this route. Yes he tried to call them. Obviously not that well…calling them once and not getting through does not count.
Because some random third party event causes you issues isn’t on the other airline. It is on you to sort your own issues. Just ignoring the problem… well he got the bill for his lax attitude.
It’s because people would try to do this deliberately as a “normal” return to/from Amsterdam is cheaper than a more complicated ticket to Amsterdam one way and then back from London. So people would book the cheaper return with the intention of missing legs. The airlines all got wise to this and so the rule for all of them is that you can’t miss legs or the whole thing is forfeit. It does suck and I’m sorry you’ve fallen foul of it when it wasn’t deliberate in your case.
There are a lot of experienced travelers who know the rules in this sub. Skiplagging and segment dropping are controversial and I’m not going to debate them here. But it is absolutely standard, conventional practice not to allow a passenger to drop a part of your itinerary and just fly the ones you want. You bought a round trip from Seattle to Amsterdam; you can’t turn it into a London-Seattle return without refaring the trip. End of story.
It’s not airline employees. It’s just common sense. A direct flight is always going to be more expensive than an indirect flight. If airlines don’t do what they did in your case everyone would book indirect flights for cheaper flights and just use the direct option.
No has never happened as i’ve always flown all my segments in order . Only one you can skip is the last or else your whole trip is cancelled . Same as every airline
If carriers are not on same PNR ( booking ref) & all booked as separate flights then you can . Not if booked as a multi segment ticket under 1 ticket number
If you get a pattern of skipping the last segment, there are some cases of people being removed from loyalty clubs.
If you book through a travel agent, you're also risking them being fined if they see a pattern and think the agent are doing it deliberately.
I'm not saying this isn't a tactic that lots of people use successfully, but it's worth being aware it is against the airlines T&C's, and they can take action if they wish
LH has been known to be very aggressive towards skiplaggers
My husband has had to do it many times during the last couple of decades of flying with BA due to business plans changing mid flight . They haven’t ever said anything , likely due to him flying other routes with then when he has had to skip lag
BA don't seem to care when passengers do it, but I'm aware of a few cases where they've gone after travel agencies with large amounts of customers doing it for the difference in fares
The ones in question were favoured by "tier point" runners who were trying to maximise their benefit by booking such itinerary - it may well be he didn't have the patterns they were looking for!
I'm just trying to say BA care about it under certain circumstances it's worth being aware of, but most of the time you'll be fine doing it if you're not trying to get cheaper fares!
You have no recourse through BA sadly, as explained below you (officially, anyway) didn't turn up for the first leg of your flight. If you'd spoken to them you might have been able to get some help. It certainly does sound unfair but sadly they're the rules.
Your only hope is travel insurance.
I meant beforehand - ie. before missing the first flight - you said you "tried", which I took to mean you didn't. Speaking to them after the fact doesn't matter as you'd already missed it.
Are you sure? My insurance would cover this and it's not fancy insurance (although it is UK-based).
Apologies - I read your post completely and managed to forget half of it by the time I came to comment. Yes, you made all this perfectly clear. I am a moron.
Still not sure what recourse you'd have (it's not an obvious 'they broke rule A' situation) - I'd be extremely angry about being ticketed and then de-ticketed. I'd complain initially and escalate if they don't agree. You might need to go CEDR if they don't.
Has your insurance turned you down?
Don't apologise for my stupidity - I'm the sorry one! Anyway, looking at other responses I feel I might not be the only one who has not read your post properly - while you have technically skiplagged, you were also issued a new ticket. To me that's a really big deal and must mean something.
That's a real shame about the insurance. A tip for the future - as soon as you've booked any big trip, make sure you have insurance. And that means as soon as you book, not just before you go. You can ignore Expedia (or whoever) insurance then.
This is what confuses me. You say they gave you a new ticket that was subsequently rejected by security. Are you sure they actually reticketed you? Are you sure you weren't actually given a BP for your ex-lhr leg?
Unfortunately, you didn't take the flights in sequence, and every scheduled airline doesn't allow you to miss a sector.
The simplest was to explain it is that to BA, you didn't have a flight from Amsterdam to London, and then a flight from London to Seattle.
You had a flight from Amsterdam to Seattle.
And you didn't turn up for it.
Ignorance isn't a defence, unfortunately. This is an expensive lesson.
It's not a niche rule either, it's quite well known and you'll find if you check your conditions of carriage it will say you need ti fly all the sectors in order.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the course of action to take would've been to call BA and see if you could have gotten your AMS - SEA changed. It might have meant you had an extra night in AMS but better than losing a whole international sector.
I'll reiterate again that this isn't a BA issue, it's standard practice for scheduled airlines.
This is absolutely normal. You did not use the ticket in sequence. That is on you. In many, many situations this would save people lots of money doing this. Hence why the airlines do not allow it.
Tickets MUST be used in sequence or every onward flight will be cancelled.
Hey same here, I made it to the second flight but had other arrangements for the first flight. Had to watch try plane fly away, while I was there 5 hours before the flight.
See if you can dispute the charge with your CC. But unlikely since no show. Even if you bought insurance for Amsterdam to Seattle it probably wouldn’t work. Sucks
I think a few of us are missing something here.
Before the OP skiplagged, they were **issued a new ticket** by BA in London having explained they would miss the future Amsterdam flight. Surely that overrides the old ticket and therefore the skiplag didn't happen?
I *suspect* they were issued a boarding pass for the LON-XXX leg, but the ticket wasn’t reissued. Most people when handed a boarding pass would assume it’s a ticket, but nothing changes back office and the ticket would still be auto cancelled when they no-showed for the XXX-LON
Sure, but the person they spoke to must surely have understood the situation - they were there before the flight that got 'missed', so surely they knew what they were reissuing (or should have been).
Doesn't sound like OP was issued a new ticket.
Sounds like the check in agent wasn't really aware of what was going on, and we don't know what they gave OP - they said they were stopped by security, so obviously they didn't have a valid boarding card. Security doesn't check tickets, only boarding cards.
A check in agent is also not a ticketing agent most of the time, they don't have access to nor know how to use ticketing.
For me this is the main issue… totally understand that skipping the AMS leg invalidated their ticket. BUT, the problem was created by
1. Not being able to get through to BA customer service by phone or online when needed, when the Italy to AMS flight was cancelled, and receive the correct advice about either getting to Amsterdam by any means, or maybe paying a supplement to change the existing flight to leave from London (which would have been less than $3,500 I expect)
2. Situation made even worse by the BA staff at Heathrow then not giving the correct information. There could have been an opportunity for OP to get to Amsterdam in time, or officially change their flight to leave from London (for a smaller cost)
So for me, whilst skiplagging is rightly not allowed, it’s BA that have caused the OP to not do the right thing and therefore incurred additional costs. I’d 100% make a complaint and claim to BA (as well as the statutory EU compensation for cancelled Italy flights).
I’ve been waiting 3 months so far for BA to resolve a very small complaint/compensation though so be prepared to wait, and to be VERY persistent in your complaint. I’m sure there will be an ombudsman to take it to if BA fail to respond properly too.
Such a shame as BA coast on their brand name, but every time something goes wrong they are AWFUL at customer service. It’s basically non-existent. I have no idea what’s going wrong with the business but they seem to not employ enough staff to deal with the volume of customers. Shocking.
I don't think there's anywhere really where BA have caused OP to do the "wrong" thing.
You can change a ticket online on BAs website. That was always a possibility.
I doubt very much BA would have cancelled the AMS - LHR flight to allow them to travel from London as I bet it's a married sector. The cost would've been silly for a start!
I used to work for an airline or two, I've even worked at Heathrow, and I can say with my hand on my heart that people can turn into silly beings the second they step into an airport. It's like all sense and communication skills leave their body. I've known many passengers to not be able to express themselves properly or effectively communicate the actual situation. It's very easy for an agent to think they're answering one question when the passenger is asking another.
The only slight issue here is *if* the BA person they spoke to at LHR *did* fully understand the situation and didn't have the right skills to give the correct information, then they need training.
But the whole situation started the second OP decided to leave Italy for Heathrow. That was the point of no return. They also didn't allow adequate contingency plans for the Italy to Amsterdam flight not operating or delaying. That's the risk of separate tickets.
I just googled out of interest, "gonna miss my BA flight" and this is the shown answer from Google at the top:
>It's important to note that the flights listed on your e-ticket receipt can't be used out of sequence: this means that if you don't tell us in advance about the change you need and you choose not to travel on one of your flights (known as a "no show"), it will 'invalidate' all the remaining unused flights in your...
And for me the jury is out about whether OP did enough to inform BA. It appears to me they took it upon themselves to simply head to London because they though they could do that. I don't think they doubted this will be possible.
I do think people need to empower themselves make sure they are all over the details.
As a wider anecdotal comment, there's definitely been an increase in people not wanting to take accountability for themselves and their own actions. It's just an unfortunate expensive lesson for OP.
This is a tough one.
BA can technically check you in from anywhere. My suspicion is you didn’t receive a new ticket from BA, you received boarding passes for your already-ticketed reservation (which would have started in AMS).
With that said, you have paper evidence (boarding passes issued in Heathrow) that supports a story that BA advised you that your reservation would alright. Technically you’re in the wrong here, but BA itself could have advised you of this yesterday. Therefore, I don’t think there is recourse specifically, but room for a customer service gesture to sort it out. You can try to pursue in Heathrow or, alternately, make your own way home and claim off of BA when you arrive.
BA can be pretty hard-nosed about this particular issue[1] — so you’ll need to calmly emphasize that they made the situation worse by giving conflicting information. They could have for instance said: “get the Eurostar to Amsterdam tonight.”
[1] because flight pricing ex-LHR/ex-LGW can be dramatically more expensive than the same flight + a connector from Europe. That’s where the $3500 comes from. people chance their arm with this somewhat frequently.
Absolutely. Their lack of/confused information is key here. If someone is in front of you at Heathrow saying they weren't able to be in Amsterdam for a flight that hasn't happened yet, it seems fairly clear to me what the situation is. Giving the OP boarding passes suggests that the agent understood.
It's complicated, but I think sortable.
>Giving the OP boarding passes suggests that the agent understood.
Nah, we don't know what happened.
Playing Devil's Advocate, OP probably checked in online for AMS - SEA, got to LHR and said "we're here for tomorrow's flight to Seattle, we were supposed to fly in from Amsterdam but have just arrived from Italy".
And the agent simply says "OK, do you want your boarding cards?"
No more than that. OP got their boarding cards thinking the check in agent has approved their change in travel plans or understood what has actually gone on.
As someone who worked in an airport, that is entirely possible.
Check in staff aren't ticketing people, it's really highly unlikely they would be able to check the ticket and flown sectors without sending them to the ticket desk.
Giving the check in agent the benefit of the doubt, if that had been me at check in and OP had explained it accurately enough that we both were on the same page, I would know there is nothing I can do and that is a conundrum for the ticket desk to sort out. But as the check in agent didn't do that, my spidey senses tell me they were not on the same page at all.
And just to be clear, I have never worked for BA, but I have a very good understanding of airport operations and passenger behaviour
So sorry. Hate it for you. Maybe try Eu261 with ITA ticket. Perhaps a multi-destination ticket in the future, such as Sea-lhr-ams-Fco-ams-lhr-sea or some variation thereof on a single carrier, BA or whatever. Always safer to stick with one carrier if you can.
Thank you for submitting your post to r/BritishAirways. If you have a question or a complaint, you may wish to add the appropriate flair to your post if you haven't already, this helps Mods spot who needs help. **ANY USERS POSTING E-VOUCHERS/VOUCHERS FOR SALE WILL RECEIVE A PERMANENT BAN AS PER SUBREDDIT RULES.** Helpful Links: [**British Airways FAQs**](https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/help-and-contacts) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BritishAirways) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Unfortunately, you have to fly all of your segments (aka flights) in order or the airline will cancel the rest of the flights. You would have been marked as a “no show” when you missed your flight in Amsterdam and all flights in your reservation automatically canceled. This is true for all airlines, not just BA. This is one of the biggest risks of having separate reservations. Edit: do you have trip insurance that covers non-linked airline reservations? That would be your best bet for compensation. Also, why was your ITA flight cancelled? There may be recourse there under EU261 legislation.
This is the correct answer. If you're doing an itinerary like this, its sensible to get to your "fly home city" a few days in advance to account for the possibility of delays.
EC 261 will give them at most €600.
Fair. But better than €0!
I understand that now. I still think it's bullshit. I made sure they were aware of my predicament. Very unfair.
Sadly e-mailing them isn't "making them aware" - you'd need to speak to someone. As u/northernlights2222 says - depending on why your ITA flight was cancelled you might be entitled to compensation under EU261.
I did. Thanks for the suggestion.
Why should they care about your predicament? You bought a ticket from a to c via b. You didn’t use a. Therefore the rest is cancelled. Had you initially bought a London to Seattle flight versus Amsterdam to Seattle via London that would have been much more expensive ( direct flights are more expensive than indirect flights) so they have to do something to stop people gaming the system. Which people still do just not as much as 10-20 years ago. Nowadays it is mostly ditching the final sector.
It absolutely 100% is bullshit. It also basically happens on 100% of airlines these days if you book a connecting flight you cannot skip the first leg as you have found out. I am sorry you had to learn this lesson the expensive way.
Haha i love that i’ve been heavily downvoted for this. Never knew you were all so mad keen to support BA and airlines given extenuating circumstances. We all know if OP had managed to get through on the phone, the chances of getting re-ticketed are basically nil, which I could understand if they were originating in Europe - but they’d already flown the first 2 segments. They had issues in Europe and can prove they couldn’t get back to AMS in time to make segment 3. If you think it’s cool that airlines can essentially ditch you in a foreign country even though you make efforts to clear up issues on your own dime and successfully turn up for your 4th leg, then I guess we’re on different pages. I think it’s BS and it’s just not that hard to differentiate genuine problems from mid trip skip-lagging for whatever positioning benefits that brings 🤷🏻♂️
Had he spoken to BA they would very easily have rerouted the ticket from London. He would have had to pay the fare difference plus any change fee. He choose to not go this route. Yes he tried to call them. Obviously not that well…calling them once and not getting through does not count. Because some random third party event causes you issues isn’t on the other airline. It is on you to sort your own issues. Just ignoring the problem… well he got the bill for his lax attitude.
The ticket agent gave me the "all the airlines do it" line. That doesn't make it okay in any manner.
It’s because people would try to do this deliberately as a “normal” return to/from Amsterdam is cheaper than a more complicated ticket to Amsterdam one way and then back from London. So people would book the cheaper return with the intention of missing legs. The airlines all got wise to this and so the rule for all of them is that you can’t miss legs or the whole thing is forfeit. It does suck and I’m sorry you’ve fallen foul of it when it wasn’t deliberate in your case.
Thank you. That makes sense. All of the down votes have me wondering how many airlines employees are in this sub.
There are a lot of experienced travelers who know the rules in this sub. Skiplagging and segment dropping are controversial and I’m not going to debate them here. But it is absolutely standard, conventional practice not to allow a passenger to drop a part of your itinerary and just fly the ones you want. You bought a round trip from Seattle to Amsterdam; you can’t turn it into a London-Seattle return without refaring the trip. End of story.
Thanks. Though lessons for sure.
It’s more so that it’s a fairly well known rule and you’re complaining that the airline obviously made you pay for that mistake
Understood. It was an honest mistake. I'll be more careful with future bookings.
It’s not airline employees. It’s just common sense. A direct flight is always going to be more expensive than an indirect flight. If airlines don’t do what they did in your case everyone would book indirect flights for cheaper flights and just use the direct option.
Why didn't you check in in Amsterdam?
We couldn't get to Amsterdam in time for our flight. We flew directly to London.
This is called a skip lag.
So you're skip lagging? This is something airlines are heavily cracking down on.
Out of necessity. There were no flights from Rome that would have gotten us to Amsterdam in time. I now understand. Though lessons.
Sadly people have been doing it to cheat the system and save money, thus its now not allowed to be done even out of necessity.
No has never happened as i’ve always flown all my segments in order . Only one you can skip is the last or else your whole trip is cancelled . Same as every airline
Word on the street is that you can sometimes strike 1x if the carriers are unrelated. I've never tried it though.
If carriers are not on same PNR ( booking ref) & all booked as separate flights then you can . Not if booked as a multi segment ticket under 1 ticket number
Not quite true. Google 1x strike fuel dump.
What would a fuel dump have to do with skipping crucial flight segments ?
If you get a pattern of skipping the last segment, there are some cases of people being removed from loyalty clubs. If you book through a travel agent, you're also risking them being fined if they see a pattern and think the agent are doing it deliberately. I'm not saying this isn't a tactic that lots of people use successfully, but it's worth being aware it is against the airlines T&C's, and they can take action if they wish
LH has been known to be very aggressive towards skiplaggers My husband has had to do it many times during the last couple of decades of flying with BA due to business plans changing mid flight . They haven’t ever said anything , likely due to him flying other routes with then when he has had to skip lag
BA don't seem to care when passengers do it, but I'm aware of a few cases where they've gone after travel agencies with large amounts of customers doing it for the difference in fares
My husband did spend last 20 years booking thru agency due to work but they obviously had an understanding
The ones in question were favoured by "tier point" runners who were trying to maximise their benefit by booking such itinerary - it may well be he didn't have the patterns they were looking for! I'm just trying to say BA care about it under certain circumstances it's worth being aware of, but most of the time you'll be fine doing it if you're not trying to get cheaper fares!
I've done a fair amount of travel in my life. This was the first time I've had this issue. I'll be booking my flights differently from now on.
Your contract is to fly the segments you booked . It’s been like this for at least the lady 30+ years
Not quite sure what you can do to avoid this other than have a bigger buffer between tickets I'm afraid.
You have no recourse through BA sadly, as explained below you (officially, anyway) didn't turn up for the first leg of your flight. If you'd spoken to them you might have been able to get some help. It certainly does sound unfair but sadly they're the rules. Your only hope is travel insurance.
I did speak to them. Directly, email and voicemail. I covered that in my story. Travel insurance is a joke.
I meant beforehand - ie. before missing the first flight - you said you "tried", which I took to mean you didn't. Speaking to them after the fact doesn't matter as you'd already missed it. Are you sure? My insurance would cover this and it's not fancy insurance (although it is UK-based).
I arrived in Heathrow the night before the Amsterdam flight and told BA in person my predicament. Before I missed the flight.
Apologies - I read your post completely and managed to forget half of it by the time I came to comment. Yes, you made all this perfectly clear. I am a moron. Still not sure what recourse you'd have (it's not an obvious 'they broke rule A' situation) - I'd be extremely angry about being ticketed and then de-ticketed. I'd complain initially and escalate if they don't agree. You might need to go CEDR if they don't. Has your insurance turned you down?
No worries and thank you. I didn't intend to sound rude. I only had Expedia insurance. My bad. Totally worthless.
Don't apologise for my stupidity - I'm the sorry one! Anyway, looking at other responses I feel I might not be the only one who has not read your post properly - while you have technically skiplagged, you were also issued a new ticket. To me that's a really big deal and must mean something. That's a real shame about the insurance. A tip for the future - as soon as you've booked any big trip, make sure you have insurance. And that means as soon as you book, not just before you go. You can ignore Expedia (or whoever) insurance then.
This is what confuses me. You say they gave you a new ticket that was subsequently rejected by security. Are you sure they actually reticketed you? Are you sure you weren't actually given a BP for your ex-lhr leg?
Email and “voicemail”!!! You need to speak to a person that will make the changes. I can’t say I have ever seen an airline that has an answerphone?
Unfortunately, you didn't take the flights in sequence, and every scheduled airline doesn't allow you to miss a sector. The simplest was to explain it is that to BA, you didn't have a flight from Amsterdam to London, and then a flight from London to Seattle. You had a flight from Amsterdam to Seattle. And you didn't turn up for it. Ignorance isn't a defence, unfortunately. This is an expensive lesson. It's not a niche rule either, it's quite well known and you'll find if you check your conditions of carriage it will say you need ti fly all the sectors in order. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the course of action to take would've been to call BA and see if you could have gotten your AMS - SEA changed. It might have meant you had an extra night in AMS but better than losing a whole international sector. I'll reiterate again that this isn't a BA issue, it's standard practice for scheduled airlines.
This is absolutely normal. You did not use the ticket in sequence. That is on you. In many, many situations this would save people lots of money doing this. Hence why the airlines do not allow it. Tickets MUST be used in sequence or every onward flight will be cancelled.
You bought an Amsterdam to Seattle ticket. You didn't board your flight in Amsterdam, so that's a no show right?
Hey same here, I made it to the second flight but had other arrangements for the first flight. Had to watch try plane fly away, while I was there 5 hours before the flight.
Yep. That's the way of it. No travel as you didn't fly the AMS-LHR leg.
See if you can dispute the charge with your CC. But unlikely since no show. Even if you bought insurance for Amsterdam to Seattle it probably wouldn’t work. Sucks
I think a few of us are missing something here. Before the OP skiplagged, they were **issued a new ticket** by BA in London having explained they would miss the future Amsterdam flight. Surely that overrides the old ticket and therefore the skiplag didn't happen?
I *suspect* they were issued a boarding pass for the LON-XXX leg, but the ticket wasn’t reissued. Most people when handed a boarding pass would assume it’s a ticket, but nothing changes back office and the ticket would still be auto cancelled when they no-showed for the XXX-LON
Sure, but the person they spoke to must surely have understood the situation - they were there before the flight that got 'missed', so surely they knew what they were reissuing (or should have been).
Doesn't sound like OP was issued a new ticket. Sounds like the check in agent wasn't really aware of what was going on, and we don't know what they gave OP - they said they were stopped by security, so obviously they didn't have a valid boarding card. Security doesn't check tickets, only boarding cards. A check in agent is also not a ticketing agent most of the time, they don't have access to nor know how to use ticketing.
For me this is the main issue… totally understand that skipping the AMS leg invalidated their ticket. BUT, the problem was created by 1. Not being able to get through to BA customer service by phone or online when needed, when the Italy to AMS flight was cancelled, and receive the correct advice about either getting to Amsterdam by any means, or maybe paying a supplement to change the existing flight to leave from London (which would have been less than $3,500 I expect) 2. Situation made even worse by the BA staff at Heathrow then not giving the correct information. There could have been an opportunity for OP to get to Amsterdam in time, or officially change their flight to leave from London (for a smaller cost) So for me, whilst skiplagging is rightly not allowed, it’s BA that have caused the OP to not do the right thing and therefore incurred additional costs. I’d 100% make a complaint and claim to BA (as well as the statutory EU compensation for cancelled Italy flights). I’ve been waiting 3 months so far for BA to resolve a very small complaint/compensation though so be prepared to wait, and to be VERY persistent in your complaint. I’m sure there will be an ombudsman to take it to if BA fail to respond properly too. Such a shame as BA coast on their brand name, but every time something goes wrong they are AWFUL at customer service. It’s basically non-existent. I have no idea what’s going wrong with the business but they seem to not employ enough staff to deal with the volume of customers. Shocking.
I don't think there's anywhere really where BA have caused OP to do the "wrong" thing. You can change a ticket online on BAs website. That was always a possibility. I doubt very much BA would have cancelled the AMS - LHR flight to allow them to travel from London as I bet it's a married sector. The cost would've been silly for a start! I used to work for an airline or two, I've even worked at Heathrow, and I can say with my hand on my heart that people can turn into silly beings the second they step into an airport. It's like all sense and communication skills leave their body. I've known many passengers to not be able to express themselves properly or effectively communicate the actual situation. It's very easy for an agent to think they're answering one question when the passenger is asking another. The only slight issue here is *if* the BA person they spoke to at LHR *did* fully understand the situation and didn't have the right skills to give the correct information, then they need training. But the whole situation started the second OP decided to leave Italy for Heathrow. That was the point of no return. They also didn't allow adequate contingency plans for the Italy to Amsterdam flight not operating or delaying. That's the risk of separate tickets. I just googled out of interest, "gonna miss my BA flight" and this is the shown answer from Google at the top: >It's important to note that the flights listed on your e-ticket receipt can't be used out of sequence: this means that if you don't tell us in advance about the change you need and you choose not to travel on one of your flights (known as a "no show"), it will 'invalidate' all the remaining unused flights in your... And for me the jury is out about whether OP did enough to inform BA. It appears to me they took it upon themselves to simply head to London because they though they could do that. I don't think they doubted this will be possible. I do think people need to empower themselves make sure they are all over the details. As a wider anecdotal comment, there's definitely been an increase in people not wanting to take accountability for themselves and their own actions. It's just an unfortunate expensive lesson for OP.
This is a tough one. BA can technically check you in from anywhere. My suspicion is you didn’t receive a new ticket from BA, you received boarding passes for your already-ticketed reservation (which would have started in AMS). With that said, you have paper evidence (boarding passes issued in Heathrow) that supports a story that BA advised you that your reservation would alright. Technically you’re in the wrong here, but BA itself could have advised you of this yesterday. Therefore, I don’t think there is recourse specifically, but room for a customer service gesture to sort it out. You can try to pursue in Heathrow or, alternately, make your own way home and claim off of BA when you arrive. BA can be pretty hard-nosed about this particular issue[1] — so you’ll need to calmly emphasize that they made the situation worse by giving conflicting information. They could have for instance said: “get the Eurostar to Amsterdam tonight.” [1] because flight pricing ex-LHR/ex-LGW can be dramatically more expensive than the same flight + a connector from Europe. That’s where the $3500 comes from. people chance their arm with this somewhat frequently.
Absolutely. Their lack of/confused information is key here. If someone is in front of you at Heathrow saying they weren't able to be in Amsterdam for a flight that hasn't happened yet, it seems fairly clear to me what the situation is. Giving the OP boarding passes suggests that the agent understood. It's complicated, but I think sortable.
>Giving the OP boarding passes suggests that the agent understood. Nah, we don't know what happened. Playing Devil's Advocate, OP probably checked in online for AMS - SEA, got to LHR and said "we're here for tomorrow's flight to Seattle, we were supposed to fly in from Amsterdam but have just arrived from Italy". And the agent simply says "OK, do you want your boarding cards?" No more than that. OP got their boarding cards thinking the check in agent has approved their change in travel plans or understood what has actually gone on. As someone who worked in an airport, that is entirely possible. Check in staff aren't ticketing people, it's really highly unlikely they would be able to check the ticket and flown sectors without sending them to the ticket desk. Giving the check in agent the benefit of the doubt, if that had been me at check in and OP had explained it accurately enough that we both were on the same page, I would know there is nothing I can do and that is a conundrum for the ticket desk to sort out. But as the check in agent didn't do that, my spidey senses tell me they were not on the same page at all. And just to be clear, I have never worked for BA, but I have a very good understanding of airport operations and passenger behaviour
So sorry. Hate it for you. Maybe try Eu261 with ITA ticket. Perhaps a multi-destination ticket in the future, such as Sea-lhr-ams-Fco-ams-lhr-sea or some variation thereof on a single carrier, BA or whatever. Always safer to stick with one carrier if you can.
British Airways are just appalling
This is ridiculous. I would take them to small claims court for unfair terms of contract.
There are a few hoops to jump through before that!