Originally Posted by
Magic01273
I do get what you are saying here - and whilst "technically" correct - I disagree strongly with any suggestion that, due to the fact these are separate bookings, BA do not maintain any responsibility for your entire journey in a case like this.
Don't get me wrong, I completely accept that in situations where the positioning flight is not with BA, BA would not have any responsibility (beyond goodwill) to sort this out. ... However if both positioning and subsequent flights are with BA, their case for leaving a passenger high-and-dry in these circumstances is, in my view, extremely weak.
It's either technically correct or it isn't. The policy to which
angatol refers to isn't one which has had much airing here, so it would be interesting to know whether that has been accurately reported because it could change our common understanding.
If it is technically correct, then there are good reasons that BA could rely on to try to defend to the hilt any legal challenge to its approach. Flights are not guaranteed to operate and schedules are not guaranteed to be met, and that's all that's happened in the OP's friend's case. He didn't buy a LHR-AMS-LHR-HKG ticket, but chose instead a LHR-AMS ticket and a separate AMS-LHR-HKG ticket. What obliges BA to treat the latter in the same way as the former?
As it happens, I believe that BA has policies to deal with failed BA-BA "connections" on separate tickets (and I have had to make use of these myself), but I would personally put these into the "goodwill" category.