Originally Posted by JessicaB

As someone lurking on the sidelines, without detailed knowledge of the other experts on here, I'm not going to say whether I think BA is right or wrong. However, I just want to make the point that you are quite clearly partly to blame. You came up with this idea to bring your family over for a holiday, even though the visa was complicated for your wife and, in the end, it wasn't possible to obtain in the timescale. Most people in that position would have said "oh OK, no problem, I'll go back to London and have a holiday with the family somewhere closer to home. The kids clearly wanted to see their dad, they'd probably have been equally happy wherever you were as long as you were with them. Most kids I know would take Alton Towers over Mauritius any day of the week.

But you don't give up. You then you add another layer of complication by saying that even though she hasn't got a visa, she will travel HBO to this country she is not allowed to enter, and then meet you airside to go to a third country. And you advised her to rock up at the BA check in just over an hour before departure. Without discussing this with BA or with the experts on here first. In hindsight, hopefully you can see that this was fraught with risk and you shouldn't have been surprised when it didn't work out.

In my humble opinion, I think BA have been more than generous allowing your wife and kids to change flights. They had the £11K for the original seats, that flight is gone, so giving away these new seats on the LGW service is a 100% loss to the airline. If you had the same problem with Easyjet (or even Iberia), I'd say good luck to you to see a penny out of them. As it was, BA has saved the holiday and if your mistake does cost you a little extra, then I would suggest you pay it graciously.