Iberia denying existence of my booking

Old Aug 13, 2014, 1:56 pm
  #1  
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Iberia denying existence of my booking

I'm looking for some expert advise with an issue I have.

I made a booking way back in January with a high street travel agent in the UK that involved multiple flights from LHR to Peru via Madrid and return via Rio, with Iberia, LAN and TAM. Everything seemed fine at first but recently there has been an issue with Iberia denying the existence of my first flight, LHR-MAD.

LAN and my travel agent say that all flights are booked fine, with tickets issued. Iberia, however, say that they have no record of the LHR-MAD segment and that I should speak to my travel agent. I'm stuck going in circles at the moment between the two.

My biggest concern is arriving at the airport and being told there is no booking and my holiday gets messed up from the start...so much so that right now I'm planning on being at the airport many, many hours before I need to be!

Has anyone had a similar issue? Or can advise on how to proceed? I'm really stuck right now stressing that there is going to be a major issue.

Cheers! wombattoo
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Old Aug 13, 2014, 3:10 pm
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Let your TA sort this out. If necessary, do a three-way call with your TA and IB.
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Old Aug 13, 2014, 3:14 pm
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Let the TA earn his commission. Things like this are the reason to use them in the first place. It is his problem to solve, and he needs to do so immediately, today, without question.

Do you have ticket numbers for all the flights?
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Old Aug 14, 2014, 10:15 am
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Originally Posted by wombattoo
Everything seemed fine at first but recently there has been an issue with Iberia denying the existence of my first flight, LHR-MAD.
This is a very unusual statement.

Iberia are unlikely to have contacted you on their own initiative to make such a statement - so what happened that spurred you to ask Iberia about this particular flight? How did this "issue" come to light? Why did you contact Iberia directly, rather than relying on your Travel Agent? You presumably have a PNR issued by the travel agent - can this be viewed on the Travel Agent's website, or on a site like CMT or ViewTrip? Is the LHR-MAD flight now missing when you look at your confirmation? Was it ever visible in the confirmed itinerary? Do you have a printout of your confirmed ticketed itinerary as given to you by your Travel Agent in January? Can you obtain a printout of your current itinerary as provided by your Travel Agent?

Or - and this would be even more unusual - are you saying that Iberia previously confirmed the existence of this flight (whether that means you asked them, or you were able to view it on their website), and are now saying the exact opposite? Has something materially changed with Iberia - or is this just the first time that you have "asked" them?

On multi-airline bookings, it is not unusual for each airline involved to have its own, internal PNR, each of which may be different from the Travel Agency's own PNR, and which the TA may not even have notified you of. It may not even be immediately apparent to you that each airline (or, in your case, maybe it is only Iberia) refers to your booking via a different PNR: There are many different GDSs/booking platforms, and it is possible that the Travel Agent used a platform that is different from the platform used by Iberia, hence the need for different PNRs (each airline would have their "own" way of looking up your reservation, and giving Iberia the wrong "code" will, naturally, lead to a denial of the existence of any such booking). If you directly asked Iberia about a booking and gave them one of these other non-Iberia PNRs, then they really would have no idea what you were talking about, and would tell you that they had no flights in their systems for your surname and that PNR - but this would not be unusual.

Are you sure you're not just asking Iberia/checking their website with the WRONG PNR???

I recently travelled on a ticket bought via a travel agent and issued on Virgin Australia stock; although none of the sectors were actually operated by Virgin Australia. The TA used Amadeus, and hence I had an Amadeus PNR - this was also the PNR used by airberlin (for their flights on the ticket). Virgin Australia, however, had a completely separate, non-Amadeus PNR (which is mentioned in the confirmation, but you have to go looking for it). When I checked in with Etihad, who operated the remaining flights under VA flight numbers, it turned out that they had another PNR, which was separate to both VA's PNR, and to the TA/AB's PNR, and which I only discovered once I checked in with Etihad as the operating airline. Nowhere had this third PNR been mentioned anywhere, in the confirmations, or when I looked at my booking via AirBerlin or Virgin Australia's websites.

Hence, my TA-provided Amadeus PNR only worked when using CMT or the Air Berlin website - using this PNR with Virgin or with Etihad gave me the "no booking found" standard error. My single itinerary therefore resulted in the creation of 3 different PNRs, one each for each of the airlines involved, and each airline said "there is no such booking" unless you use the right PNR for the right airline. It is not always apparent that this happens, and I suspect this is what has happened in your case.

In short: even if you cannot get Iberia to confirm the existence of your booking in its entirety, the fact that any/all of: Travel Agent, TAM, LAN confirm the Iberia flights, means that you have nothing to worry about.

Only if the Iberia flight is missing when you consult your itinerary via your Travel Agent, LAN, or TAM, should you be worried about this.

Last edited by irishguy28; Aug 14, 2014 at 10:42 am
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Old Aug 14, 2014, 10:24 am
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Try calling Iberia and asking them to find your booking using your ticket number (rather than PNR), name, flight number, and date of travel. Then ask them for the PNR in their system and carry this with you when you travel. Try finding the itinerary yourself on the IB website with the IB PNR and print the result to also carry with you.
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Old Aug 17, 2014, 9:24 am
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Thanks for your responses and advise. I have again called the TA and asked them to look into this, despite assurances that all is fine.

To answer irishguy28, "How did this "issue" come to light?" - I tried checking the booking on the iberia website to simply be sure that everything is ok, fill in any pre-departure information and also find out when check in opens. Just generally checking all was ok. From attempting this, the issue came up.

From your responses the problem could quite possibly be that the two PNRs I have aren't for Iberia, hence them not finding the details. Having said that, I did give them the ticket number I have and again they couldn't find the details. Is there a separate ticket number for each flight?
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Old Aug 18, 2014, 2:09 pm
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Sit back and assume everything goes to plan.
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Old Aug 18, 2014, 3:36 pm
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Originally Posted by wombattoo
From your responses the problem could quite possibly be that the two PNRs I have aren't for Iberia, hence them not finding the details. Having said that, I did give them the ticket number I have and again they couldn't find the details. Is there a separate ticket number for each flight?
There can be many (many) PNRs involved in some bookings with multiple operating airlines involved.

As for ticket numbers: You can have multiple flights across different airlines all on one ticket. Or, you can have multiple tickets involved despite all being with the one airline - it can depend upon a mix of how it was implemented and which fares (and rules) are involved from the airlines, etc.

I don't think you have cause to worry, it is most likely just a question of the wrong references.

Using your booking references (PNRs) and the public access website of the different GDS providers (checkmytrip.com for Amadeus, virtuallythere.com for Sabre, etc, etc) you might be able to pull up your reservation enough to see what ticket numbers are being used, and what sectors they cover.

Doing this might also show references to some other PNRs you are not aware of!

Obviously there are two separate parts to everything being ok, having tickets for the whole journey and being booked onto the flights. If you can see ticket number(s) covering the whole journey the ticket bit is certainly fine. Ultimatly Iberia should be able to confirm you are booked on their flight if you give them the date, flight, name, ticket number etc.
But make your TA do some work!
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