Had a stressful start to an ex-Dub trip to Dubai that taught me a couple of lessons.

Sorry it’s a bit long, but I found it interesting. Might serve as a good warning to others.

TLDR: use the right boarding pass at security!

What Happened

- We were booked Dublin to Dubai, starting the trip with a LHR-DUB back to back

- Accidentally used the LHR-Dubai boarding passes to go through T5 security

- Immediately realised the mistake, and went to the First lounge to make sure we wouldn’t miss conformance for Dublin flight; the agent at the desk said he’d sort it

- Turned up at the gate; airside indicator had been fixed, but no biometrics

- Gate agents decided it was too late to fix and offloaded us; priority then became to protect the long haul

- Once boarding closed, gate agent spoke to back office, then sent us to South Customer Services, who sent us to the First Lounge Duty Manager

- Spent an hour and a half trying to sort it out - duty manager said revenue management were insisting on a reprice, nothing she could do, and took us up to ticketing in Galleries Club

- On the way into Club lounge, we spotted the original lounge receptionist (who had rotated from First to Club lounge)

- Duty manager went over to confirm our story (“I’ll kill him!” were her words)

- Once confirmed, she told us to go back to FLounge and she’d sort it out - it became clear at this point she hadn’t believed our story until her colleague verified it

- She came to find us 20 mins later and told us she’d fixed it

Random observations

- I was an idiot to use the wrong BP; 100% my mistake

- Original lounge agent was put in a difficult position - can’t blame him for forgetting the biometrics requirement

- Priority boarding (A4 bus gate) was a total shambles; perhaps if it had been maintained, we’d have got the the gate check early enough to get photos taken; HAL agent was summoned but it was too late

- After boarding was complete, we overhead the gate agents decide on what seemed to be a bogus reason for the delay (late arrival of an incoming long haul); in reality I think they were waiting for a passenger who it transpired had already got on the plane; generally lots of confusion

- a couple of BA employees suggesting disapproval of ex-EU; loudly referring to “one of those cheap tickets”, telling us we’d done “cross border ticketing” - maybe, but irrelevant IMO

- we were lucky we spotted the original lounge agent to confirm our story; while I believe we had the moral high ground, I don’t think we were getting on that flight without a reprice. His face when his boss said "you forgot biometrics" made me feel really sorry for him!

- Can’t be sure but I think being Gold helped with the general level of service

- The most knowledgeable agent who grasped the situation the quickest was the senior gate agent, but she also seemed the least empowered

- I didn’t call the Gold line at any point, but assume airport staff are always the best bet at this point? (I know the real answer is post on here for the best advice!)

- Good job I knew what conformance was - thanks Flyertalk! Otherwise I might not have tried to fix it, and therefore absolutely no leg to stand on

- Ultimately I’m happy with the outcome and wouldn't make a claim for IDB. Believe security issues are an exception anyway? However, it only presented itself because the BA employee told us we were good to go, when we weren’t. Had he told us he couldn't fix it, we could have gone back landside and sorted it ourselves.