In Brief: Couple Misses Flight Thanks to Overturned Fish Truck, Gets Reimbursed After Deciding to Carp-e Diem
Jesse Tabit April 24, 2015
Even though British Airways told them there would be no issues with their late arrival to the airport, a man and his wife ended up having to spend $5,000 on another set of tickets. Sam Gladstein and his wife were on their way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) last month when they were delayed by an overturned fish truck on Highway 99. Gladstein says he called British Airways twice while he and his wife were stuck in traffic to inform the airline they were going to be late for their flight to Paris.
Both times he called, Gladstein claims, customer service employees told told him they had until 6:30 p.m. to check-in for their 7 p.m. flight. Gladstein and his wife allegedly made it to the SEA ticket counter at 6:25 p.m., but airline employees refused to let them pass and informed them it was too late to make their flight. The couple was then forced to spend $5,000 for a flight the following day. After several complaints, the airline finally agreed to compensate Gladstein for the tickets on Wednesday.
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I arrived for an international flight at exactly T-29, got checked in, walked through priority security and accompanied to the gate by a supervisor. Was AA Plat at the time.
@ERYEAL: There is no customs involvement, so it takes same time as a domestic flight. Airlines can always get a person through priority security to make their flight. I have checked into a BA flight from BOS at T-25m with checked bags once. The check-in lady told me it was too late but when I insisted she asked her supervisor on next desk and especially mentioned that I was BA Gold. Supervisor said OK to check-in and phoned the GA to let me in. Priority screening was pretty quick and I made it to the gate at T-10. I have a feeling that having status with them helped me and am not sure how they handle non-status pax.
At the end of The Day its a he said/she said, the couple were late due to an accident [Thats what Travel Insurance is for] Also doubtful they ever spoke to a Customer Service employee BA, have most of these in Bangalore. IMHO they should not have been reimbursed. The case should have been thrown out of court. Transatlantic APIS is usually needed 60 mins before in order to deny boarding to anybody on the "No Fly" list. Hence the 1 hour check-in requirement. EU flight passengers already have far more protection than any other flyers. Without the airline being held financially responsible for factors outside their control. OK maybe the Passengers could have been put on Standby for a flights another day, but as I have noticed from past Flyertalk postings the "Flat Tire Rule" already appears to be much abused.
Ticket counter at 6:25pm for a 7pm international flight take-off time? They still have to check their luggage, go through security, and get to the gate.
Does BA not have the "flat tire" rule that most US carriers have? Who does the ground handling at SEA for BA? Terrible! Glad they got their money refunded.