Thanks for the explanation, and information expanding on the DPA.

One of the issues I had on Friday morning (bearing in mind I hadn't had any sleep by this point..). At 9am (once the BA CR offices opened) I telephoned BA Customer Relations to ask the all important question of "what happened, and how did we get to the point we are currently at".

I was told by BA Customer Relations (BA CR) that they couldn't discuss anything to do with it as I wasn't the passenger or named as having authority to discuss the flight.

I asked what I needed to do, and was told that I needed to get my Aunt phone in and speak to BA CR and give BA her permission to allow me to discuss the flight.

I told the BA CR agent that my Aunt really was in no fit state to telephone and do this as she was still too upset by the whole issue, and asked if there were any other options.

She could e-mail us her permission. There is a link on the BA website to contact BA CR, I was told, so I said I would speak to my Aunt and try and get her to do this.

I managed to get hold of my Aunt in her hotel, and asked her to see if she could use a hotel computer (bearing in mind she is completely computer illiterate, and doesn't have any BAEC account).

I talked her through the website, and guided her to the BA part to contact BA CR and got her to put in all of her details, name, address etc, and a comment in the notes section authorising me to allow BA to discuss any and all aspects of her flight, and she sent it.

I gave it half an hour, and I got a BA CR Case ID (I got her to put my e-mail address as the e-mail conact info, seeing as she doen't have e-mail herself), so I thought great. All done, I can phone up now and see what has happened.

So, I telephone BA CR again, and tell them that I have had my Aunt e-mail her permission, and was told by the BA CR agent that he couldn't accept this as authority to discuss her flight as "it could have been anyone" who e-mailed it.

I asked why I had been told this would have been acceptable, but he just said again, he couldn't discuss her flight with me. I again asked what he needed then, to be told that he required a signed letter authorising me as a named person that BA were allowed to discuss the flight with.

I asked him how she was supposed to get a signed letter to him...she is stuck in a hotel at the airport. That's what is required, he said.

I told him that BA seem to be making the rules up as they go along. Firstly I am told an e-mail would suffice, then that's no good, now I am told that it needs to be a signed letter...I was also initially told that she could phone in, although I didn't want to hassle her any more than is absolutely necessary, and he said he would accept a telephone call.

So, despite me not wanting to hassle and upset my Aunt any more, I had to telephone her again in her hotel room, and ask her if she was up to phoning BA and speak to the CR department and tell them I can talk to them about her flight.

It wasn't ideal, and I hated asking her, as I could tell she still wasn't happy (it was about 11am by this point), but if I wanted any sort of answer, I had no choice.

So, I gave her the BA telephone number, and left her to it.

I gave it an hour (as the phone line had been quite busy), and then I telephoned BA CR again.

Initially they couldn't find any note of her having phoned in, but I assured them that she had phoned in, despite my concerns, so he went away. He came back to tell me that they had now found a note on her flight details, and he transferred me to someone else.

The lady I spoke to at BA CR simply said "what is it you want"? I replied that wanted to know what happened and why we are at the position we are at at this current time. And all she said was that she would initiate an investigation, and get back to me sometime towards the end of next week.

I was shocked, as I wanted some answers that day, but the lady was having none of it. We deal with complaints in the order we receive them, and I am doing you a favour by moving you up the queue, so next week is the earliest we can do.

I realised that there was nothing I could do at this point, as she was really not forthcoming with anything at all. I was very disapointed that I had put my Aunt through the unneccessary hassle of e-mailing BA CR and then telephoning them, for in effect, nothing.

An hour later I had the telephone call from BA CR telling me that they had taken a quick look at the booking and as it was a BMI flight it was nothing to do with BA and so they have closed the investigation, as there is nothing to investigate.

I asked the lady (the same one as earlier) if she was saying the BA have zero responsibility in respect of the late flight and the issues that followed, and she said, that's right, BA have no responsibilty...it was a BMI flight and nothing to do with us.

That is when I posted the question on the thread about the BA8049 and whether it was or was not a BA flight, as I was now getting more and more confused as the afternoon went on.

Anyway, the point to this post really is just to point out that what is required to release Data Protected information to a 3rd party appears to be at the sole discretion of whoever you happen to speak to at the time, and they even seem to change their requirements mid conversation. It's almost like they try to make it as difficult as possible so that they don't have to "bother" with the request.

Sorry for the long, detailed post

Cheers,
Kevin