Missed connection on different PNRs: how helpful is BA?
All this fog and cancellations has made me nervous. In a few days I'm flying LHR-CPH with BA and onwards to Thailand with TG. These were booked separately.
There's a nice long 4 hours in CPH so thing ought to be fine, but I wondered what would happen if the BA flight is delayed or cancelled. I know that BA has no obligation to care about my onward plans from CPH; and likewise I know that TG won't care about what happened to me before I get to CPH. But in practice, according to people's actual experience, might BA be kind enough to sort things out?
I was once in a similar situation connecting SAS to BA on different PNRs and when the SAS flight was cancelled they rebooked me on the next day's BA flight at no charge. Are BA likely to be as nice?
I checked travel insurance by the way (Amex platinum) and they'll pay out $250 towards onwards travel in this situation. Which will not get me very far towards Thailand!
Location: Relocated from the highlands of Scotland to Tampa, FL
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 2,026
Quote:
Originally Posted by zchapk9
Thanks everyone. I thought as much.
Anyone know of an insurance policy that pays out enough for a walk-up longhaul fare in this kind of situation?
I had a look a while back and was surprised to find that my Amex Centurion insurance wasn't that great either. I think it's $400 which again is pretty useless in that situation.
I checked travel insurance by the way (Amex platinum) and they'll pay out $250 towards onwards travel in this situation. Which will not get me very far towards Thailand!
there are different types of insurances. the ones with credit cards, IIRC, is for delays, not interruptions. maybe you should look into other insurances that will cover your trip being interrupted in the sense that you cannot continue on it.
i took out this kind of insurance for a big trip through asia where i had to make connections between airlines that were not on the same PNR.
All this fog and cancellations has made me nervous. In a few days I'm flying LHR-CPH with BA and onwards to Thailand with TG. These were booked separately.
I would be worried. If it was BA to BA, no problem. They have looked after me wonderfully well. However, you are talking about non-OW flight on a route that BA serves (and therefore you booked with BA's competition...) here. BA has no obligation to rebook you. Even more so if the delays/cancellations are outside BA's control. I strongly suspect you will be on your own if you misconnect.
With the issues at LHR such as fog, snow etc, I would not do this connection without a fantastic travel insurance that covers the situation in full.
In fact, for inter-alliance transfer on a separate ticket for personal travel, I have a policy of "no connection under 12 hours", so that the misconnect would be fairly unlikely.
Programs: BA gold, *A gold, SPG gold, HHonors (silver)
Posts: 860
I was quite well looked after jointly by BA and AA during a missed connection. BA put me up overnight, AA provided onward flights. Different matter on cross-alliance itineraries I suspect.
__________________
I do not speak on behalf of British Airways, which is unsurprising as I don't work for them.
Anyone know of an insurance policy that pays out enough for a walk-up longhaul fare in this kind of situation?
The LloydsTSB worldwide one which comes with their gold account would allow you to buy a new ticket in the same class as the flight you'd missed. (You might not be able to choose the carrier).
Programs: Many. Too many. I came here to cut them down. I failed.
Posts: 705
Airlines like Thai can be wonderful or horrendous. I've had SQ & MH make changes they didn't have to by simply being nice.
If you find yourself at Heathrow staring at a long delay to Copenhagen, with the possibility of missing your connection, i'd suggest trotting over to T3 and speaking with Thai Airlines to see what they can do - either delay your flight for a day, or even look at flying you out of Heathrow. And smile and some warmth can make wonders happen.
Is it a BD Miles+Cash? If so then I would be even more worried that TG will do little to help you out and pass you between themselves and BA/BD. Perhaps it would be safest to go the previous night?
On the positive side, the weather seems to have changed from today. I'm not a meteorologist but I don't think fog will be a major concern early next week. No significant delays to CPH today.
As has been said, Lloyds is more generous but I thought their cover was £1000.
Yes, I've been checking the weather and it does look better next week (except in Phuket which is torrential rain, great).
And yes, BD miles+cash. I thought I was being dead clever booking CPH-HKT instead of LHR-BKK-HKT as we saved £160pp on the APD. A reward flight saver up to CPH seemed like a good use of miles.
I rang round a few travel insurance companies and they say: they don't cover connecting flights; they only cover missed departures if you miss your ex-UK flight; and at this late stage with the weather already bad, bad weather will be excluded from the policy. I'm not surprised about the last bit I guess.
Smiling nicely at TG at Heathrow may be a good last resort too. We have a very cute 10-month old who can often be deployed to enhance a charm offensive in such circumstances.
Meanwhile I'll see if earlier flights to CPH open up and then will have to explain to the other half why we're starting our holiday with 7 hours in Copenhagen airport.
