pooh99

Hello,

Despite any advice I book an award round trip on LH with DC miles+cash. I note down the ticket number and booking reverence, but unfortunately the first leg was not issued by bmi. I tried to check in 5am in HAM this morning and LH wouldn't let me, I had to purchase a one way ticket to get to my destination. What is the best way to approach bmi now? Can I claim the money for this one way ticket back?

Thanks for your input

G-BOAC

Sorry to hear of the problem - one thing I don't understand: if you had had ticket number, what was the problem? Surely if there was a ticket number, the ticket had been issued?

Or was there a change made to the ticket and it wasn't re-issued?

pooh99

Yes exactly my point this morning with LH! As far as they told me, bmi changed the flight time from around 8pm to 6:30am, but I never told them to do that. I wanted to fly at 6:30 am, nothing else


LH was so nice and printed me the etix account for reference, and there is (with the ticket number) only the return flight. But all taxes and even the cash amount (for m+c) is included.

Guy Betsy

Sorry, it doesn't make sense...

If you originally had booked HAM-FRA-xxx , and the ticket was issued as such, and a change was made to the first sector, in theory a reissue is not necessary for an award ticket. LH just needs to append the current e-ticket to reflect the new flights.

You'd have to take this up with Customer Service and see what they will do for you.

BD issued a wrong date ticket for me in Oct for FRA-HAM and I had to buy a new ticket at over 300 euros one way in coach! They called me to say that they erred after listening to the tapes... but to this day, nothing else. Not even an apology!

pooh99

u

Well, I too think it doesn't make sense, but LH showed me that only the return flight was issued. It was HAM-MUC and the price is almost the same I paid this morning . Next time I'll just book two one ways and make sure both have a ticket number.

stargold

For future reference, it's just generally a good idea to book 2x oneways because 1. it gives you flexibility to change the return segment after you depart (whereas if booked as return, you cannot change the return after you start using the ticket), and 2. you can take two stopovers instead of just one.

Sorry to hear about the problems - I would tell you "hope they give you a suitable compensation" but it would appear that is very unlikely...

BHDBOY

If this happened to me, and there was no sign of a refund from bmi (after reasonable attempts at resolution with customer relations), I would almost certainly take it up with the Small Claims Court in either Northern Ireland or England, depending on which jusrisdiction I happened to be in at the time or seemed most appropriate. Is there a similar process available through the German court system?

Boddingtons

Incorrect. A new ticket number needs to be issued.

BHDBOY

Is this for 1st sectors only? I have a LAS-LAX-FRA-LHR-BHD booked and due to a time change on LAX-LHR, I've rebooked FRA-LHR-BHD with the ICC. Do I need a reissue? Cos there sure hasn't been one.

stargold

I'm pretty sure that BD would have specified English Law, so one would probably have to use the English Small Claims procedure.

I would have thought there is a good case for negligence/breach of contract, if one has the energy to pursue it...

BHDBOY

Yep, I have both English and Northern Ireland addresses, so I'm sure I could try either. Although AFAIK there is some European legislation which allows recourse to be taken in any EU court? Perhaps some UK lawyer could could confirm this. Certainly the Northern Ireland court service information for the small claims procedure (up to Ł2000) states clearly that it is possible to file complaints "where the respondant resides outside Northern Ireland."

Boddingtons

You can check whether your ticket has been reissued on check my trip by looking for the following information.

Example Itinerary: London - Frankfurt - Hong Kong

Ok, you've booked your trip and your tickets have been recently issued. Look on check my trip and your ticket numbers will appear as below.

E-ticket Numbers
Document 236-2181234567:..London - Hong Kong.....Henry Boddingtons

Assume you make a change to the itinerary by changing to an earlier London - Frankfurt connecting flight. As soon as you have made the change, check my trip will show as follows:

E-ticket Numbers
Document 236-2181234567:..Frankfurt - Hong Kong.....Henry Boddingtons

In other words, the London - Frankfurt sector isn't included on the current e-ticket number. The routing that is shown next to the ticket number is all that the ticket is valid for. Until you get a new ticket number that reflects London - Hong Kong then you will not be able to check in for the first sector.

If you change the dates on your itinerary, the ticket number and routing will still show the same. You will need a completely new ticket number and a properly re-issued one will show as follows:

E-ticket Numbers
Document 236-2187654321:..London - Hong Kong.....Henry Boddingtons
Document 236-2181234567:..London - Hong Kong.....Henry Boddingtons

Sometimes check my trip will not show both ticket number entries, but any change must have a new ticket number, so do compare them on a print out of the original issue and that which is showing on check my trip.

For piece of mind, ring the airline, don't take the ICCs word for it.

pooh99

Stupid me, I just wrote down the ticket number from checkmytrip but didn't pay attention. You are totaly right, its looks like this:

Only e-ticket numbers are displayed when they are issued. Paper ticket numbers are not included in the display.

Document 236-2184892830: Munich - Hamburg pooh99

Should have made me suspicious. Anyway it’s too late now

But I've to say that LH was extremely friendly, the agent even got me the supervisor and she promised me to forward the new booking with explanation to bmi, so I can tell them to look it up. I'll keep you up with the development.

flying_pig

I recently had a LAX-JFK-ZRH-MXP award ticket and asked to change just the time of the last flight (ZRH-MXP leg). A new ticket was issued (checkmytrip was showing a new ticket number about 3 hours after my call).

alexwuk

The same thing thatBoddingtons described (i.e. multi segment itinerary losing the first segment of the eTicket) happened to me.

I noticed that my checkmytrip.com eTicket changed from London-XXX to Zurich-XXX. At this point I actually called the ICC to ask them, specifically, if the first segment had been ticketed as I didn't think it had. They assured me the first segment's eTicket was in the booking.

Sure enough, when I turned up at LCY: "I'm sorry sir, I can't see a ticket for this segment in your booking"....

Alex