Award booking not ticketed - does it happen often?

Had this happen twice in the last 12 months:

Booked an intra-Europe cash+miles award online on ba.com. Got a booking confirmation, everything seemed OK.

Before departure, the online check-in refuses to work because "no ticket number has been issued" (the reservation is still there). A call to BA reveals there was a problem charging my credit card, while the credit card issuer says there was not even an attempt by BA to charge it. While sorting this out on the phone, they manage to charge the very same credit card without any problems. When I finally get to check in, the best seats are of course already gone

One day this will happen on a Sunday (with the hotline closed), and I will not be able to travel and probably also lose the miles

Am I just unlucky, or does this problem happen often? Do you always check that your reservation has been ticketed?

At what point does it become "ticketed"? I've only ever checked MMB and my credit card and if it's present in both places that's it as far as I'm concerned.

Not sure if this is a similar issue but i've booked over the phone before (or indeed online) and it generates a PNR so you can use MMB and charges my credit card but can take a while (Anywhere between a few hours and a week!) to generate the e-ticket number.

When the e-ticket issues and you get a number starting 125-

I am not suggesting this is the OP's fault, and clearly BA should have contacted the OP earlier to resolve the problem. However, there are quite a few stories about non-ticketing for all carriers (not just BA) which I have seen where the issue is only discovered at check in. It is enough for me to check when the booking is made that there is a e-tickect number as shown on the bottom of the receipt, and that the ticket number shows in checkmytrip or my flights app.

Was OP's incident exclusively on BA or were there other carriers involved.

This issue is much broader than BA because IATA convention gives other carriers 72 hours to confirm space. While the reasons for this are an anachronism, the convention remains. If, after 72 hours, the other carrier does not confirm, BA should cancel and notify its pax.

All of this places the burden on the passenger to affirmatively check that there is an actual e-ticket # for every segment on every carrier of a route. This, in addition to a reservation.

Can I ask, would you have different e-ticket numbers for every segment in a mixed carrier routing? Surely that makes them different tickets? I thought you would always get one e-ticket number with possibly different PNRs for each carrier?

My experience is that I get one 125- number but that may include BA segments, AA segments, IB segments etc.

Exclusively on BA (FRA-LHR-BHD-LHR-FRA). Last year, it was on BA too.

Last year, I made three award bookings on the same day with the same credit card. Two were ticketed (FRA-LHR-GLA, NCL-LHR-FRA), one was not (FRA-LHR-MAN-LHR-FRA).

I guess I'll start checking e-ticket numbers from now on

Edit: Just noticed a difference in confirmation emails. When ticketed, the confirmation email simply said "BA e-ticket receipt", without a separate reservation email. When not ticketed, the confirmation email said "BA travel reservation", promising a separate email with the e-ticket receipt (which never came).

I have had a few re-ticketing issues when UUAing, although in MMB it shows as confirmed in the new class when I tried to select seats in advance it wouldn't let me saying that it hasn't yet been ticketed. I could also see that my card hadn't been charged (although the points always disappear straight away) for the change in taxes. When I looked at the flight in my BA app I could see there was no ticket number there either. I called and they said I need not worry I was confirmed and they ticketing team re-ticket on a priority basis so as my flights weren't for a few months I am just in a queue, surely enough after a few more days I got an automated email that I had changed the booking and it had been re-ticketed (and my card charged).

Interestingly on one occasion over the phone I upgraded from WT to WT+ using cash and then UUAed to CW (it was a amazing good price and I couldn't believe it). I didn't get re-ticketed for ages and out of the blue had a voicemail on my mobile saying I had to call them regarding an upgrade on my upcoming JFK flight. It was a Friday night and past 8pm before I realised I had the message so I just left it until Monday morning and luckily I did because when I called on Monday they said I had been charged the wrong price, it should have been quadruple but out of good will because they couldn't get hold of me they re ticketed it anyways and met the costs internally

A bit OT however..... how do I find an avios.com BA flight award ticket number?

Answer - checkmytrip. I guess it wasn't ticketed when I checked yesterday.

It should be on your e-ticket receipt under payment information - you should get a receipt emailed to you after booking. Alternatively, go to checkmytrip and put your PNR in.

I've noticed that whenever I call BA to book a ticket using my AmEx, it takes forever to process and get it ticketed. Was a good thing yesterday when I decided to change my itinerary a bit and called at about 23.5h after booking it to cancel and rebook...

I've done this. Booked with avios 4 hours before flight, went to check in at airport and they said it wasn't ticketed, quick phone call and it was done

You can have one e-ticket number per four segments and per passenger. If you've fewer than four segments on one trip, you can also have multiple e-ticket numbers if you're using carriers who don't accept each other's e-tickets.

Each carrier will normally issue a separate record locator.