No-show clause BA887
I've got a complaint in, having seen what other people have written, I doubt whether I'll get much change out of British Airways. But having missed my 09:15 outbound flight on Wednesday 2nd March (I'll accept the blame for that, even though I was the victim of a very slow-moving Tube system across London, loads of dead stops, and I ended up there at 8:30am 15 minutes after check-in had closed), I was directed to another desk where I paid more than the original return ticket for a flight that evening from Heathrow to Bucharest. I was with the woman at the ticket desk for about an hour, so you would think that, if my return flight had been cancelled, I would have left her knowing about it. But no....
So, on 23rd March I left my friends' place in Ruse, Bulgaria, at 9am, because a taxi driver was picking up a group at Bucharest airport and so offered me a cheaper fare if I could go at that time. On arriving at the airport, I tried to check in at one of the machines, but it didn't accept my passport, so I had to wait until 1:30pm when the check-in desk opened, for a 3:25pm flight. It was then that I found out that I did not have a return ticket. No-one in the airport could help me. No BA agents were there at all. The only thing I could do was phone a British number from my mobile, fortunately I had plenty of credit. By the time I got through and had been told there was no possibility of talking to anyone that could do anything to tell me what had happened to my ticket, I had to buy a single ticket, at £316 (a price that reflected the fact that they had me by the short and curlies). Strangely enough I got through checkout a little late only because the Romanian airport employees left one member of staff there waiting for my phone call to end. It would have been hilarious, not, if having paid this for the flight, they had said I was too late for check-in, which I've no doubt would have happened in Heathrow.
Having got onto the plane, it was half empty! I had a triple seat to myself, as did everyone level with me and behind me. In front, very few middle seats were in use. They obviously didn't re-sell my seat.
Whilst looking for advice on the internet, I discovered that some airlines no longer operate this policy, specifically RyanAir. So, I intend to start another thread in the general section, trying to get a list of who does and who does not.
Meanwhile I feel a fool, simply for using British Airways against my own better judgement. With all the technology available these days, their website does a splendid job of obfuscating information on how to make a complaint, though I found it in the end and submitted one.
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