flatlander

So, I'm going from London to Stockholm then directly to Beijing. Our corporate travel agents ignored my recommendation to book a (cheaper) LHR-ARN followed by ARN-(LHR)-PEK-LHR and instead booked me an LHR-ARN-LHR return (in ET) and an LHR-PEK-LHR (in CW). All on BA.

The timings are LHR-ARN (two days in Stockholm) ARN-LHR-PEK (week in Beijing) PEK-LHR. The connection time in LHR is 2h40m so it meets the LHR MCT.

I am expecting BA in Stockholm to be able to check my bags through to PEK since it's all operated and marketed by BA.

Am I right to think that I don't have any protection against a misconnect in LHR, because there are two separate tickets?

In practice, what does BA tend to do in such situation if you grovel - does anyone have any experience?

I already checked what the later OneWorld options are in case it all goes wrong

KenJohn

2 hr 40 mins sounds like plenty of time.

At LHR, if you are delayed in-bound, BA will put you on the next available BA flight even though there is no protection.

BA are unlike to put you on another airline, OW or otherwise.
I'm surprise, you didnt take Finnair via Helsinki to Beijing. Must be faster.

revan

Fixed that for you

flatlander

This put me off them. I know I'm likely to get the new seats on AY HEL-PEK but I prefer the CW I know in this case where I must get some rest on the flight.

Good news that BA offer misconnect protection even on separate tickets - previous reading made me think they did not. Is this strictly only for connections through LHR?

Thanks for the help.

Paralytic

BA do not officially offer misconnect protection for separate tickets, but anecdotal evidence is that they will usually help. You're at the mercy of the agent dealing with your request, however.

flatlander

Aye, that's what I thought.

Ultimately it won't be me footing the bill if the response is demonic laughter from under the counter and an offer of purchasing a ticket at the walk-up fare for the next flight - fortunately!

kauppias

Edit: seems like I was misinformed sorry disregard

Often1

There are threads on FT of varying experiences. There is no protection of any kind between separate tickets and EC 261/2004 would not apply to any delay beyond LHR on the change between itineraries.

You are entirely at the mercy of the individual BA agent you draw as to whether they rebook you, if they charge you and so on. Reports here are that you would most often be acommodated on the next available flight at your option in CW or below (your choice to wait for CW if that's what it takes).

The issue here is not MCT (does not apply because that is simply a given carrier's willingness to accept the risks of a misconnect) or practicalities (2:40 is plenty), but delays.

Presume that if this gets screwed up, you are on business travel and that your corporate TA will fix this rather than having you in the middle.

Land-of-Miles

BA have always been pretty good in looking after me when connecting from separate itineraries for what it is worth.

Tafflyer

This is unfortunately so often the case. I would price out your option on ba.com and pass it to your management with a recommendation to change the corporate TA. The reason for forcing all travel via a specific TA is to save costs and not overpay. The ex-EU itinery would certainly have been cheaper as well as ensuring EU261 protection in the case of IRROPS. You are also unnecessarily paying APD.

flieduk

As a GGL, I would expect nothing less.

flatlander

Indeed, MCT has no bearing, I only mentioned it to illustrate I'm not trying to do the impossible or even the rather dodgy. It's all about delays as you say.

In the end the corporate TA and admin people will sort it out, but not without some effort on my part, I'm sure. Not least because it could seriously cost them. In the end this is likely to go fine, but this info (from all contributors) is useful for my upcoming discussion with the travel manager.

corporate-wage-slave

Are you sure it is 2 separate tickets? A half decent travel agent could ticket this quite readily, with mixed classes, on one ticket. In fact unless there was a really odd combinability issue (HBO ticket?) it's more work for them to separately ticket. If it was one ticket the clearly there would be no issue. Most travel agents would only split a reservation like this after the client had been very clear advice as to the dangers, since the TA would not want to be held responsible for a last minute J ticket had to be issued. If it is two I'd wonder about the agent's competencies.

As it happens, I agree that if there was a problem you would almost certainly be accommodated on the next flight if there was space, perhaps initially on a standby basis if you are Emerald (though the BA Blue may impress them more...). This is more likely at Flight Connections airside, particularly if you can argue that BA should have run the incoming service on time, so don't go out for a cigarette when you arrive in London! Landside would be less forgiving. And you are correct about MCT, if the connection was below MCT then the agent is far more likely to tell you to get on your bike.

nbevan

I have yet to see a case on FT where someone has not been protected in this situation. AA has a published policy for protecting people on separate tickets, and I think it very likely that BA has the same policy, but does not publish it. So there is no evidence that it is just at the whim of the agent.

And MCT is relevant, as it is unlikely that an internal policy would protect anyone missing a connection that had less than MCT.

IAN-UK

Only happened once to me, but BA simply popped me on the next flight, quite routinely, no comments.