porsche911

Hi guys - this is the story - I booked several months ago our vacation to Barbados coming from Dublin which we headnoff Monday - just realised on Sunday that the automatic ba booking slotted us into heathrow and the flight goes from gatwick - here is the problem -

Remember all booked through ba sitenfor 4 people (cw)

Are lingus to heathrow - lands at 805
Ba to Barbados. - takes off 1120am

Monday morning -

It's simply too tight but when I called ba to try explain they said I cannot change - if I wanted to change it would cost in excess of 2000 euros per passanger ( at this stage I nearly cried). I offered to pay for another flight to heathrow the day before or to gatwick but they said if we are not on the a heathrow flight at 8am our complete trip will be cancelled -

The whole family is now very upset in the fact the is a very strong possibility we will now miss our connection - remember we have to get off the aircraft in heathrow / collect our bags / get a taxi to gatwick / any delays and we are shagged.

I know they have rules but if we miss ba have to pay another airline to get us to our destination or put us up and get us out the following day-

There are flights available on the 12th -

I am asking does anybody have a contact that can help as then number I call just seems to be a call centre and they seemnto have their hands tied - I need somebody in authority to make the sensible decision and bend the rules a little -

Any help would be amazing or contacts directly in ba

Thanks

Keith in Dublin

Oh there is no ba office anymore in Dublin or at

C-130

From my experience I wouldn't recommend a taxi. I would most certainly take a train with roughly a thirty minute connection time by train. In terms of terminals etc and the station I don;t have a clue as I never travel to book with connections at separate airports (unless 24 hours between flights).

Is the aer lingus flight being done as a codeshare I assume? If so BA should be responsible for getting you onto a flight if for circumstances such as a flight delay or cancellation prevents you from getting to Gatwick. I may need to be corrected here.

On BA site it informs you during booking on a separate window your arrival airport is different to your departing airport. Are you happy to proceed. No alterations can be made past this point (unless fully flexible ticket). So I believe BA will stand by this.

porsche911

I made a mistake but common sense come into this - I really now wonder why I stick with ba as the flexibility seems to be gone - it's no real skin ff their nose if I went the day before - it's a real case of " the computer says no "

cornishsimon

Off the top of my head i think that BA will only be able to change your flight from Dublin to arrive into LGW if award space is still available on the sector into LGW.

If no reward space then i dont think there is much the BA telephone rep can do.

how far out did you book this ?

cs

Internaut

If the entire trip is on one PNR then your only responsibility is to get from LHR to LGW in a manner that BA approve of. If not then consider revising your travel arrangements.

C-130

I don't work from BA but have had a similar issue (basically I wanted to go to London the day before instead of same day). BA couldn't do it. They explained it for me though.

From my understanding if they alter a booking with airports it creates a new booking which basically deletes the entire one instead of elements. So you can add to a booking however only the ticketing team can take out or alter dates without causing issues. And ticketing only get involved if its a major issues.

meester69

?????? Which train would that be. You need to take a taxi, a black cab will cost something ludicrous, best book a minicab.

The connection is doable, but obviously it has the potential to go wrong.

porsche911

So basically I'm screwed - surly if they left the existing booking and I make another with them to fly out the day before they can put a note on the system to say I am in london already and will be checking in the morning at gatwick -

I have a friend who drives a London cab who will wait for us and we will gun it to gatwick ( think London cabs can also use the bus lanes if any on the m25)

Am I wasting my time or can we make it

porsche911

Would ba approve a black cab ?

raph

What train would do that????

I've been connecting between LHR and LGW quite regularly recently and I always use the National Express Coaches which take approximately 50 Minutes Airport to Airport... They also seem to understand traffic quite well as they would of course normally take the motorway, but on one trip, the driver virtually didn't use the Motorway at all.

A taxi may shave off a few minutes... or not (depending on traffic and knowledge about congestion), so I don't think there's any quicker way, is there?

I'd suggest to use NX - that way your ticket will state your (scheduled) departure and arrival time. If you miss your connection due to your flight coming in late (assuming it's on one PNR), BA should accomodate you... Confirm with their hotline what their suggested way of connecting is.

Update:
In Detail

Book the NX Coach departing at 9:05 - arriving at 9:55. That gives you 1 hour for arrival and baggage reclaim and a further 40 minutes for delays and checking in at LGW - perfectly doable IMHO, have a little faith.

Note that they'll let you use earlier coaches if you are outside prior to the 9:05 departure.

helahela

How about (and I have done it when I learnt that M25 is stuck
Heathrow Express (15 minutes) + Taxi Paddington - Victoria about 20minutes. You can tube it, but with luggage a pain and then Gatwick Express 30 minutes. Even with bad connections you still be able to do it comfortably in 90 minutes. The cheapest minicab I have found was Purple Airport Cars (£60).

LeisureFirst

It's not as bad as you seem to think. The flight is all on the same PNR (otherwise there would not be an issue with your taking a different way of getting to London and just using the second flight). So if you miss your connection through no fault of yours, it is BA's responsibility to get you to your destination. Unfortunately Monday seems to be one of only two days of the week with just one flight to Barbados (most days have two) so this would mean flying you out a day late. But you wouldn't lose your vacation completely.

This is annoying, but this could go wrong even if you were flying LHR-BGI with, say, a two-hour connection time. Flights can be late. I always avoid same-day short-haul to long-haul connections unless absolutely unavoidable and then try to leave a huge gap because of exactly this issue.

So, given you've got this tight connection, the only thing you can do is figure out the best way to get from LHR to LGW and try to make it. You should also make sure that the crew on the DUB-LHR flight know of a tight connection and let you off ahead of other passengers (try to get seats as far forward as possible anyway). This becomes a very reasonable request indeed if the plane is a bit delayed. And make sure you tell them when you check your bags in to try to get them priority handling (which they should get anyway if it's a CW ticket). And if you don't make it, then BA should put you on the Tuesday flight.

Your other proposed solutions, such as getting to London by another means and trying to get BA to put a note in your booking, simply will not work.

LeisureFirst

With a 14 minute wait for the next Heathrow Express, a 20 minute wait for a taxi at Paddington at that time of the morning, and a 14-minute wait for a Gatwick Express, that is virtually two hours. Not good. I think a taxi all the way is a better option.

usud

LGW-LHR is about 45miles on the M25 which would be the fastest route and its doable. It all depence on the traffic on the M25 and if your plane lands on time!

There are no bus lanes on the M25 from LGW to LHR, I have not seen any. It should take you about 1hr or even less.

raph

By the way: 180 Minutes is BA's valid connection time. Since you're over that, nobody is going to rebook you - and - as above, I doubt that it's necessary.

Relax, enjoy your holiday, and start worrying if things go wrong - not before. ^