Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
We flew into LHR T-4 on a UA flt from IAH which was scheduled to land at 9:30 am but was a little late. We had to collect one bag from baggage claim and then made our way over to Terminal 5. We arrived at Terminal 5 at 10:30 am 40 minutes prior to our LHR-MAD flt scheduled to leave at 11:10 am.
You gambled and lost. 1:40 is too short a time to connect between terminals and non-aligned airlines at one of the world's busiest international airports on separate bookings! As pointed out minimum connection time (MCT) for this type of booking is 1:45, had you used a real travel agency they wouldn't have sold you these tickets.
Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
- Yes, we were on separate tickets.
- We bought the LHR-MAD ticket on Travelocity and were told that we could not get boarding passes until we arrived in LHR. (I called BA several weeks before the flt to check this point.)
You could probably have checked in online, but you still had to drop your bag at least 45 minutes before the flight so you would have been late, regardless.
Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
- We flew in from the US and landed in T-4 and had a tight connection to get to T-5. It is not as if we just turned up to LHR late.
In fact, yes... you did
just turn up to LHR T5 late. When you booked your tickets on BA; you entered into an agreement with them to check in at Heathrow before the stated time limits. BA has nothing to do with your UA booking. It would seem your issue is with UA considering they delayed you first.
Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
- Even if checking in 40 mins prior to take-off is late (not sure where this is written), it seems that as a common courtesy BA could have let us go standby on the next flt to MAD without charge. The flight was half-full and there was no way they were going to be able to sell all the seats at that point.
It's written in a few places. You turned up late. It was your and UA's fault. I agree that it would have been a good gesture on BA's part (nothing to do with common courtesy/ common courtesy, in fact, would be you turning up well before check-in cut-off time) but after you failed to meet your end of the contractual requirements BA are not under any further obligation to get you to MAD.
As a side issue, had you flown AA to LHR, even on separate bookings, your onward journey would have been protected (and your bags interlined saving you baggage reclaim time).
Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
- It feels like BA basically extorted $600 from us.
- And now BA Customer Service is uncontactable. No one answers the phone no. listed on their website and when I call BA's reservations no. to ask for help, I am told to send a message via BA.com (which I have done twice and no one writes back)
- And yes, I have disputed this charge with my credit card company.
Casting yourself in a victim role is not going to help. Instead of blaming others please take some responsibility for making the mistake of booking too tight a connection.
Originally Posted by
Jemimagold
Any thoughts on how to reach the elusive BA Customer Service people?
Drop your complaint. I know that's not what you want to hear but BA have not done anything wrong. Yes, BA could have offered you a free flight change but as with any story there are always two sides. What was your attitude at the check-in desk? Did you make demands or did you appeal to the agent's good nature? We here on FlyerTalk are not ever going to know the full story of what happened and you're probably not going to like the 'advice' some if not many are going to give.
A well worded letter explaining the situation and appealing to BA's good nature is all I would have sent, if anything at all. Try claiming on your travel insurance (if you have that), but in the end you booked too tight a connection and suffered the consequences.
If (part of) your return journey is on BA and hasn't already taken place I would check to see whether that part of the journey hasn't been cancelled considering you no-showed on the outbound.