mfhstid

Hi All,

I'm having problems with an Avios booking, MAN-HKG.

The original booking, in CX's premium economy, was made in March and ticketed correctly.

A couple of days ago, I called BAEC to enquire about upgrading the outward leg to Business. I was told this was impossible because the original booking was made using Avios plus Money. Fair enough. I'd continue with the existing itinerary.

That's where the problem started. The agent appears to have amended the original booking, changing the outward segment from PE to Business, without reissuing the ticket. I'm now left with a ticket which applies to the return journey only.

I've called both CX and BAEC multiple times to try to resolve this. CX staff are adamant that the ticket as it exists applies only to HKG-MAN, and that I won't be able to travel on outward leg. BA maintain that the ticket is valid for the whole journey.

I'm inclined to believe CX here. I think that what needs to happen is that the ticket needs to be either reissued or revalidated so that it applies to both outward and inward legs. The problem, however, is communicating this to BAEC staff; despite multiple calls and several HUACAs, that is not proving straightforward.

There's a degree of urgency here as I'm travelling in 24 hours. Any advice appreciated.

corporate-wage-slave

Find out your ticket number, either by calling BA or perhaps via classic.checkmytrip.com on the e-ticket tab. Then see if the CX website throws up the same details. Unfortunately the CX website does not allow you to just enter the BA ticket number, but you may get some clues via the PNR.

Since you've already rung several times, your best bet is to go to the airport about 30 minutes before you normally would, try to check in there. If you hit a problem then call BAEC, or get CX to do so. So go armed with the relevant telephone numbers.

SinoBritAsia

CX is renowned to be slow and pretty poor on the ticketing front on Avios bookings. I was relentless in contacting them. See CX for details. Call their Hong Kong or London offices.

mfhstid

Thanks for the response and sage advice. I know the ticket number already. Checkmytrip and the like show clearly that the ticket applies to HKG-MAN only. The outward journey has been removed from the ticket by BA, but continues to be visible in the reservation.

I'm not convinced this is any way a CX problem. It's simply that BA made an erroneous change to an existing ticketed reservation. CX staff have been helpful and knowleadgable in their responses to me.

Often1

Agreed. If it's BA-ticketed and you arrive for a CX flight without a ticket (presuming that CX has not cancelled the reservation as unpaid sometime between now and your flight), nothing will happen until you can get BA to reinstate the ticket.

Try one more call to BA and then do a three-way call with BA and CX in which you essentially say, "I am just the passenger, what should I do here?"

mfhstid

After calls to seven BA agents, one supervisor and three CX staff over the course of a morning, I managed finally to convince BA that the ticket needed to be revalidated. Despite the supervisor's continued protestations that everything was fine (and CX's to the contrary), revalidation worked instantly and I was able to check in.

I shouldn't be surprised, but the quality of BA call centre staff leaves me deeply underwhelmed.

JAXBA

Flights can't be 'removed' from a ticket but a ticket can become disassociated from a flight. Your ticket probably looked perfectly okay to BA, it just needed to be re-associated to the affected flights, which is exactly what happened once BA finally revalidated...

Footloose2

A similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. LHR - AKL - LHR booked through BA using BA and CX metal. A few weeks before the travel I used Avios to upgrade BA HKG - LHR to First. When I tried to check in for CX flight ALK to HKG, I was told that I was not booked on the flight. The CX staff were completely unhelpful, saying it was a BA problem and I should call them in London and no they did not have a phone with outside access. No, there was nothing they could do, end of. Fortunately 2 staff at the Qantas desk were wonderful and were able to re issue my ticket. They were appauled by the attitude of the CX staff. I just made it into the last seat on the CX flight and enjoyed my BA A380 flight too.