I'm typing this from the CCR, where I'm spending a nice interlude in a trip to GVA which has otherwise "had its issues." For anyone interested, I just had a macchiato made at the bar by none other than Lucilla. I took the opportunity to tell Lucilla that she is famous on this forum, in a very positive way, and she blushed.
First, let me apologize for the length and wordiness of this post, but I wanted to give enough detail so that those who have experienced similar issues might give me some sage advice.
My travails with this trip began with a much delayed Alaska Airlines flight yesterday from Boise to Seattle. Owing to a slightly sub-2 hour connection to my onward BA flight, I tracked the AS airplane down to the tail number, which was on time on its routing, until it wasn't
. I arrived at the Boise airport 3 hours prior to my scheduled flight to have some flexibility if things went badly. As soon as I had checked my bag, with Alaska, headed as BOI-SEA-LHR-GVA, then passed through security, I found that my BOI-SEA flight with AS was to be delayed 2 hours. The flight showed as "on time" at the time of check-in, minutes before. This obviously meant I would not make my connection. I immediately called Alaska, and asked to be put on a competitor's flight (Delta) which was leaving shortly, which would get me to Seattle in time. AS did this, although they neglected to give me a ticket number for the flight they were putting me on, which caused me to almost miss the Delta flight, were it not for a very helpful person from Delta at the gate. I was told by AS that there were no First Class seats on the DL flight, so that they were putting me in economy. I was just happy to get on the airplane, which turned out to be a 1/3 full regional jet which seemed to have multiple first class seats available, but I didn't care at this point.
An hour later, I arrived in Seattle,, where ensued even more hassle with the lounge receptionist/BA employee telling me that my LHR-GVA flight had been canceled (due to the ongoing weather events in London). She counseled me to fly back to Boise, cancel my trip, and get a voucher, which I was unwilling to do. So I called the gold line and they found me an ET seat on another GVA flight for today; apparently I was very lucky to get that. I then called Alaska's baggage dept. to try to get them to expedite getting my bag over to BA in time to accompany me on the SEA-LHR flight. There was an hour for this transfer to occur, since the original AS flight on which I was booked wasn't quite as delayed as originally stated. AS said they would try, but no guarantees.
I did put an Airtag in this bag,, and was able to watch it get to SEA, however also saw that it was hundreds of feet away from my BA jet when we departed. According to Airtag tracking, the bag is still in Seattle. I am flying onward to GVA this afternoon, and then renting a car and driving into rural France tomorrow morning. I could delay my drive to France by a few hours, however realistically it looks like there is a near zero chance that the bag would get to GVA before I definitely would need to get on the road as I have prepaid reservations in France starting tomorrow. I will then return to GVA on the 19th, then fly on to LIS for 5 days, passing through LHR with an overnight there then on to LIS.
So here are my questions, for anyone who has read this far:
(1) Unless BA does something heroic with my bag such as putting it on another carrier and routing it to GVA, it appears that I will be without my bag for 5 days and I have not packed nearly enough stuff in my carry on to make it for 5 days, hence I'll need to buy some clothing, toiletries, athletic shoes, etc. Am I entitled to any compensation from anyone for these expenses, if so how much, and from whom? AS, BA, or none of the above? I do have a cheap travel policy that I bought strictly for it's travel health insurance benefit which might pay out a few hundred dollars if I have patience enough to jump through a whole lot of hoops.
(2) I was advised by the nice agent in the CCR that it would be stupid to try to get my bag held at LHR as it would be very hard to locate when I came for it and probably entail a huge amount of wasted time. She advised filing a claim at the GVA airport and having them contact me when it comes in and probably just hold it there for 5 days until I pass through again, since I'm headed to rural France 3 hours drive away, in a rental car tomorrow morning. This sounds like good advice. I can't seem to file an online claim for the bag yet, since I haven't arrived at my destination (GVA) yet. Should I file this claim with a human in the GVA airport, or should I do it online?
(3) I will now have been downgraded on 2 of 3 flights on a paid long haul First Class itinerary on a ticket written by BA. AS arranged the flight on DL from BOI to SEA. BA involuntarily downgraded me on the LHR-GVA flight due to cancelation of my original flight. Obviously, I'd like to get the TPs and possibly monetary compensation for these downgrades, presumably from BA being as they wrote the ticket in the first place. How would you go about getting the TPs and any monetary compensation owed in this situation? I probably don't need the TPs, I should make renewal of Gold status anyway by the end of the month at the reduced levels (1125) anyway, but just barely assuming that there are no other flight disruptions on this itinerary.
Anyway, that's my tale of woe and any suggestions on how I should proceed would be much appreciated. The "original sin" in this whole thing was that when I booked the ticket 6 or 8 months ago, which was on the phone with a BAEC agent, I said that I was unhappy with the (now failed) (BOI-SEA) connection as being too tight and requested to be put on an earlier flight, which was refused by the agent for unknown reasons (he said the system would not let him book it). I then called back 2 months later with the same request and was given the same answer, that they couldn't do it and it would work out, which it obviously did not. I even called Alaska twice and asked for the same thing, and they said they could not do that on a ticket written by BA.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions on how to proceed with these various issues.