BA/BMI have treated me really badly
 

I recently caught a flight (or tried to) from LHR to Riyadh. The ticket was sold by BA and operated by BMI. On following the online check in process on the BA webpage, I was taken to a BMI page which stated online check in remained open until 30 minutes prior to departure. As I subsequently discovered, this is incorrect and when I turned up at least 42 minutes prior to departure following online check in, I was not allowed to board. BMI and BA both admitted that the website was wrong but I was forced to buy another ticket for almost £2k before I could take the next plane. :mad:

BA and BMI have so far refused to correct the situation by refunding the additional ticket cost, or to pay the €500 compensation, in both cases in breach of directive 261/2004.

I am going to sue them if they don't sort it out.

Does anyone think they're in the right on this?? :eek:

What have BA said?

If the BA website says you have to arrive more than 42 more minutes before departure but the BMI website has 30 mins then
the issue is which one is correct.

Does the BMI site still have the 30 mins figure? if it does save the page as a mht file or similar.

jimster99 This is very bad luck and clearly part of the merger not working. I suggest you gather the papers needed for the Small Claims Court.

Write and tell BA what data you have (printed especially) and what your deadline for a resolution is and include a photocopy of the front page of the SCC form filled in with their name! Send it recorded delivery and get the proof of delivery ordered when you post.

In the old days, check in desk staff had autonomy of common sense - but that was steadily removed by the accountants throughout the 1990s - following the LAST recession. :hmm:

I had a small problem with Marks & Spencer, a credit that had not been credited but charged a second time. I was able to go to customer services. A manager was called and, after careful consultation of me and the paperwork, the double credit was made as it was common sense. BA don't do that any more. THEREFORE, take them to Court because NOTHING else will move them. They cannot afford for you to publicise this.

Whilst waiting for them to respond, check the details of the UK Consumers Association (Which?) and all formal routes of complaint for passengers and theire related (independent) transport support groups. Check your bank / credit card accounts / etc. and collect all the originals and copies. Write a blow by blow account - with times and dates - whilst it is still fresh in your mind. If you are able, get it countersigned and dated by a reliable source and seal it. It's a small move to prove that what you say in court in n months time is what you said originally. But it won't go to court but you have to threaten - in a fully serious way. £2k is a BIG loss for their stuff up.

Have all the fire power ready. Please do report back.

Oh, and welcome to the SLF Fourm! :ok:

Head over to Flyertalk.com and get some advice on the BA forum.

The following is from flybmi.com

Online Check-in is available on bmi operated flights. This service becomes available 24 hours before the scheduled departure time and will remain open right up until 30 minutes before departure for UK domestic and Western European shorthaul flights, and 45 minutes prior to departure for all other routes.


Online check-in closes 1 hour before departure if travelling from Addis Ababa, Almaty, Amman, Amritsar, Baku, Beirut, Bishkek, Cairo, Casablanca, Dammam, Freetown, Jeddah, Marrakech, Riyadh, Tbilisi, Tehran, Tripoli or Yerevan.

From RUH, not TO. The OP was travelling from London to RUH. The one hour check-in time applies to flights from RUH and other cities according to the note in red. Therefore the 45min latest time applies.

'TO RUH' would appear to be 45 minutes then.

If the OP turned up 42 minutes prior to departure that would make them too late and the airline is correct.

Yes, you're correct of course, the poor OP was 3mins late - I hope he hadn't been delayed in the queue. Unless, of course, that the website has been updated very recently.

If the OP (who presumably is now in RUH) is still in contact, it might be an idea for him to check any onward or return sectors on the original booking, as they may well have been cancelled if he was considered a no-show on the outward leg that he was prevented from boarding.

In my day it was all very different.........180secs! Unless of course we were overbooked.

Should have got to the airport earlier, end of !

Thanks for all the replies. The website said 30 minutes and it still says 30 minutes so they don't have a leg to stand on in my view...:

https://www.flybmi.com/check-in/en-g...r-booking.aspx

Unless they have updated it and I'm looking at a cache of the old page...in any event, I have taken screen shots in case it is updated (but presumably they would have a record of doing this).

Several BMI and BA staff members were also very rude. I'm tempted to "name and shame" one of them in particular who accused me of lying about what the BMI website said.

To make it worse (i) the check in desk agent refused to ring the dispatcher at the gate for 10 minutes - if they had rung straight away I would probably have got on the flight, and (ii) the check in desk agent also refused to print my boarding pass even though I had already checked in online - if he had done this I could have abandoned my luggage and still made the flight. A BMI supervisor then told me they were all losing their jobs and didn't care any more about passengers making their flights or not. It was a total omnishambles. I've had bad experiences with both these airlines in the past, but nothing so bad as this!

Personally I feel BA have worked very hard to ensure a smooth transition from BMI. I also feel that leaving check in to the last minute is asking for trouble as there are bound to be problems, especially if you have to run to the last gate in the terminal. Try checking in for TLV. I believe 4 hours is usually required because of all the strict security.

I will never understand why people have to leave check in until -30 ETD. However if there is a contradiction on websites then a court will have to decide which is correct. If it had been me I would have checked a few days before rather than making a test case!

Whilst some of us may indeed, and rightly so, consider 43 mins a tad tight at an airport like LHR, it doesn't make it an excuse for a carrier to confuse passengers with conflicting and/or incorrect information online (that's of course if the OP has the facts correct). This isn't exclusive to BA/BMI by the way. It can be very difficult, almost impossible, to convince staff that there is an error since they are so often at the receiving end of such type of accusations when they are indeed in fact invalid.

For operational reasons, it may well have been impossible to accept the 'late' passenger. I think most people who work in aviation will understand that.

Given the confusing circumstances, the airline should have accepted responsibility and been prepared to rebook him for no extra fee.

Very poor customer service.

I flew BA on a BMI route last Sunday, I got this email before departure...

then following the more information link....

If he didn't get something like this for the Riyadh flight (different terminal), then it means that the original airline information should still apply.

Mutt

Two comments,

The airlines continue to drop the ball on how they deal with their customers when it comes to code share flights. They have a contract with the passenger, not the operating carrier. It is their terms and conditions that apply to the contract and a reference that "in case of a code share the operating carriers rules apply" leaving it to the passenger to find out for themselves what that actually means, is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH. (sorry for shouting).

In a different jurisdiction the regulator (US DOT) have warned the airlines that such references are not valid, and many have updated their COCs accordingly. But, obviously, not BA.

It is the airline that chooses to code share, they could interline instead, and when they do they need to make sure the passenger is properly informed of the contract terms that apply to them.

In this particular case BA had the arrogance to say that BDs CoC applies, then refused to honour them.

My second comment is BA is very poor at dealing with service recovery, even with those that have status. I was a Gold Ex club with them when they screwed me about costing me a days holiday and leaving me stranded at Heathrow a day before a CC strike. Not even an apology, they just ignored me until I went away which I have done. I burned all my accumulated miles and have not paid them for a ticket since.

However, don't threaten them that you will never fly with them again, this just gives them a reason to ignore you. Lie to them, why not they've lied to you, and say you would love to fly with them again.

Well, this is odd - are there two different websites for BD online check in then? Certainly the one the OP refers to seems completely clear, so where is the one referring to 45min to be found then?

And I repeat my warning for the OP to check the rest of his itinerary hasn't been cancelled.

To sue them you can file a County Court claim online at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Money Claim Online require that all reasonable attempts to resolve such a matter out of court are exhausted before filing, when I successfully sued Eon previously I wrote to them asking that they confirm that all reasonable attempts to resolve this outside of County Court have been exhausted whilst letting them know that "I'm taking you to County Court you baskets" ... or words to that effect.

As soon as you file and pay the online fees and the subsequent court fee, and on the proviso that BA are going to lose, then they're going to be paying your court and other legal costs, travelling expenses, their lawyer fees etc.

To quote my ex boss Sir Freddie Laker, when referring to BA, "Sue the Bastards" :)

In my experience the English Small Claims Court system works exceptionally well, and usually without actually involving the court.
Given that the case appears to be quite straitforward ( It is their website - they are responsible for any errors or inconsistencies it might contain), prepare all the documents including the court submission and send photocopies to the airline, giving them an appropriate time in which to pay up.
You only need to involve the court if the other party fails to pay, which I have found seldom happens.

yeah - the moment you file with the Court the matter will move from "Customer Services" to Legal - who actually employ people who can read and decide