The story of how I lost 190,000 Avios Miles, $1600 in fees, purchase replacement flights at last minute pricing of $3820 and then drive 4 hours to get home. Thanks to British Airways.
Firstly, I do assume partial responsibility for not checking in the night before but the hotel we stayed at had no WiFi and I assumed the Check In at Edinburgh Airport could have done it for me. All views expressed in my story below are my opinions only. However, BA made multiple mistakes and mishandled the situation. They have shown that they will not assume any responsibility.
In September of 2018 we purchased 4 tickets returning from the UK to Ft Lauderdale. We used all our saved up Avios miles, which took a very long time to accumulate, so that we could fly business class. This cost us 190,000 miles and $1591.41. When discussing the booking with British Airways, I was aware that this was only from Gatwick to Ft Lauderdale. I had to pay for the flight from Edinburgh to Gatwick. We booked that separately. Unknown to me, this was now 2 separate bookings and not a connecting flight.
At Edinburgh airport we asked to check in all the way to Florida and was told they are not connected and we could not do that. I again asked if we could at least check in separately for that flight and then check the bags when we arrive. I made it clear to the agent that we had 1 hour and 20 minutes layover. She said it was not possible. I understand that this is not true, they have the ability to do the check in anywhere. (British Airways mistake #1). She also said it would not be a problem, that there was plenty of time and she also said that she marked our bags for the connection so they would come off quickly. She told us to collect our bags and go directly to check in for the next flight and it would be fine. Again, NOT TRUE. Check in closes 1 hour before and she did not tell us this (British Airways mistake #2)
Arriving in Gatwick, there were only about 8 people collecting bags. It took over 30 minutes for the bags to come out. I asked the bag agent and she apparently could not call anyone to check on what was taking so long. When they finally came off (British Airways mistake #3), we ran to the priority check in counter. The agent said we were 4 minutes late & check in had closed. She looked completely lost. She had no idea who to call or what to do. She tried calling a number of people, not sure who, but nobody answered. There was no supervisor on duty. She got up and down about 5 times, trying to ask questions of other people, but could not get anyone’s attention. She literally just gave us a blank stare and said, “I don’t know what to do”. She was completely undertrained and had no way of asking for help. (British Airways mistake #4). I actually felt sorry for her.
Finally, she said to go to the booking counter, there was a supervisor there that could help us. There wasn’t! (British Airways mistake #5). The agent at this counter was more concerned that we had used Avios miles than anything else. She kept saying that we don’t have any miles flights available. This is not what I wanted, I just wanted them to call the gate and get us on. The flight was not even ½ full and we still had 40 minutes to make it to the gate. Then, almost like a lightbulb went off, she said, wait the first booking was separate. This makes the connection 100% our responsibility, you should have allowed more time. I could not believe what she was saying and she refused to help. She said we would have to pay for a new flight and it would be very costly. Then said she had nothing available (British Airways mistake #5).
As a last resort, she suggested that we could go on standby but chances were very slim that we would get on a flight with a family of 4 and it would be costly and no guarantee that we would make a flight.
By this time it was obvious that we had missed the original flight, thanks to British Airways poorly trained staff, lack of supervisors, inability to contact any of their own company by phone and finally, denying any and all responsibility (British Airways mistake #6).
She suggested that we could try other airlines and I decided to see if Norwegian Air had availability, rather than risk it with standby.
I figured we that we would just get credited by BA after the fact. We were able to get a flight to Orlando and from there had to rent a car to travel 4 hours to our original destination. I chose to do that and took my case to British Airways twitter account, @british_airways.
The Twitter agents were even more unhelpful. Refused to accept any responsibility or aid in a refund / compensation in any way. They refused to allow me to communicate with a supervisor (I suspect because they do not have any). They seemed to delight in the fact that they would do nothing for me and there is nothing I can do about it. I will be posting all the twitter communication shortly.
The End Result of British Airways Incompetence, Undertrained Staff and Lack of Supervision.
- British Airways only agreed to refund a portion of the taxes on the tickets, less cancellation fees. They cannot tell me what this figure is but as of now, I have lost the $1591.41 in costs to make the booking.
- British Airways refuses to refund the 190,000 Avios miles used for the booking. They claim these are non refundable because I did not make my flight.
- I paid an additional $3820.74 for 4 one way tickets back to Florida.
- I rented a car for $84 and drove 4 hours from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale
Conclusion
The simplest solution would have been for an agent to call the gate and say that we were there. Since this was “too difficult”, I would have settled for a simple refund of the fees and miles and move on. This too was too much to expect. As a result I have decided to make as many people as possible aware of the potential cost of doing business with British Airways or wasting your hard earned Avios miles with them.
Needless to say, I will never fly British Airways again. Both because of our treatment, but also because when they appear to be stretched so thin that no supervisor is available in person, by phone or online and not even their own agents are able to contact anyone by phone, you have to wonder where else they have been stretched so thin. This is very concerning.
