Avios booking. ETicket not issued
 

On july 2nd at 6 45 am, i showed up at LGA to catch my american Eagle to DTW. Weeks before, i had booked the flight with British airways avios thru BA webpage as many instances before.

To my surprise the AA representative told me that the ticket had not been issued and that i should buy a new ticket.

After wasteless checking and argumentations, and since i had an important private business meeting in Ohio that i cold not postpone or delay, i was forced to buy a new AA one way LGA - DTW ticket at a cost of USD 704.

Once in detroit, i called BA USA helpdesk to complain and make sure that the american eagle flight MSP-LGA that i had booked for july 7 with avios thru the same BA webpage was right. She confirmed that the MSP-LGA booking was issued and she comment that my problem with the LGA- DTW flight was kind of common due to problems with the BA webpage and that i should complain when i came back to Europe.

I did make a written complain on july 10 thru BA webpage and today i got an answer stating that since the LGA-DTW ticket was not issued, they BA is not accountable and will not reimburse the USD 704 that i demanded.

Would appreciate any advice reagrding how to escalate this complain and, if is there any official admin office within the European Union that would defend my rights vs BA in this case.

Thank
Jccuadrado

My first step would be to call BA (and escalate to a supervisor if necessary). Personal experience seems to suggest that they are 'more reasonable' than the email people in customer relations. Mention that the agent you spoke to from the US admitted it was BA's fault (these calls are recorded), but try to ask rather than demand the first time you call.

Thanks much, Travellingsalesman,
Followed your recommendation. Phoned customer serice in the UK and asked them for reviewing the case. They sai they would and committed to call me back asap.

Just wonder if anyone had a similar problem: booking an American Eagle ticket with avios in the BA web that was not eventually issued.

They definitely have a system problem with AA reward bookings at the moment. I booked several flights on AA with Avios recently and noticed that I had not received the e-tickets. When I called in the phone rep said they were aware of the problem and the issue was that BA's systems weren't providing AA with the date of birth(s) of the traveller(s), even if you already have that info in your profile. Once she entered that information manually the tickets were issued. Of the 6 flights I booked, 4 had not been ticketed. The annoying thing is they seem to have no process in place to deal with this. I imagine quite a number of people could be turning up at the airport to find they have the same problem as the OP.

Sounds like this is a somewhat common problem (I'll be extra-alert in case I book a redemption on AA using Avios), but I am curious of a few things that the OP might clarify:

1 - Did you receive any kind of email confirmation to your booking? Typically I receive an e-ticket receipt by email shortly after making my booking, but I am guessing you would not have received that if the ticket was never issued. Did you receive any form of confirmation after your booking?

2 - I'm thinking you should have been able see your reservation in your Executive Club account after making it - is that right? Did you look at that at all after making the initial booking? With BA flights that are held but not issued (which usually only happens offline as opposed to online) I have normally noticed a message box alerting that the booking is held but not ticketed. But naturally if you had seen something like that, you'd have known something was up.

3 - I'm guessing that the Avios and taxes were not yet charged from your BAEC account and credit card respectively... if they were then I'd say you'd have an iron clad case that BA had taken payment for the ticket but not issued it. But if this never happened, then it's murkier, and I'd think BA might assert (unfortunately) that the transaction was never completed, and lacking definitive confirmation on your side that it had been, you should not have assumed it had.

Whichever way it was, I do hope BA can see enough in your case to do something to take into account that it seems to have been a glitch on their end, and that it really doesn't seem right that you have had to be out-of-pocket so much because of that. If not, though, it sounds like an expensive lesson in always checking every step along the way that the reservation was made, that a ticket number was assigned, that online check-in with the operating carrier works (which it wouldn't have when the ticket has not been issued)... situations like this are exactly why probably tend to go overboard the other way in double-checking.

Good luck, and thanks for the heads-up!

Oh, and since no one has said it, a warm welcome to FlyerTalk, and the BA Executive Club section in particular.

I hope that your next post (or if not, the one after that :) ) has happier circumstances than this one.

Warms thanks for your welcome, Schultzois.

Good points you bring, i answer each of them below in red.

QUOTE=Schultzois;21162881]Sounds like this is a somewhat common problem (I'll be extra-alert in case I book a redemption on AA using Avios), but I am curious of a few things that the OP might clarify:

1 - Did you receive any kind of email confirmation to your booking? Typically I receive an e-ticket receipt by email shortly after making my booking, but I am guessing you would not have received that if the ticket was never issued. Did you receive any form of confirmation after your booking?

Jccuadrado answer: Yes. I did receive the usual email confirmation of my booking stating that it was a confirmed ticked so on and so forth. I keep it to substantiate my claim. I have been a exec club member since 1994, so i have used miles tickets extensively. Always flawlessly, i must say, until this time.

2 - I'm thinking you should have been able see your reservation in your Executive Club account after making it - is that right? Did you look at that at all after making the initial booking? With BA flights that are held but not issued (which usually only happens offline as opposed to online) I have normally noticed a message box alerting that the booking is held but not ticketed. But naturally if you had seen something like that, you'd have known something was up.

Jccuadrado answer: absolutely. It showed up in my exec clib account and i did print my itinerary from the manage-your-booking utility. No alert was flagged up at all.

3 - I'm guessing that the Avios and taxes were not yet charged from your BAEC account and credit card respectively... if they were then I'd say you'd have an iron clad case that BA had taken payment for the ticket but not issued it. But if this never happened, then it's murkier, and I'd think BA might assert (unfortunately) that the transaction was never completed, and lacking definitive confirmation on your side that it had been, you should not have assumed it had.

Jccuadrado answer: Avios were charged and so far were not reimborsed. However taxes were not charged to my amex, though in the booking email said taxes were paid. So my case is, at least, half iron clad...

Whichever way it was, I do hope BA can see enough in your case to do something to take into account that it seems to have been a glitch on their end, and that it really doesn't seem right that you have had to be out-of-pocket so much because of that. If not, though, it sounds like an expensive lesson in always checking every step along the way that the reservation was made, that a ticket number was assigned, that online check-in with the operating carrier works (which it wouldn't have when the ticket has not been issued)... situations like this are exactly why probably tend to go overboard the other way in double-checking.

Good luck, and thanks for the heads-up![/QUOTE]

That's right. The lady in BA Usa help desk did mention about a problem with date of birth data. So, i see that my case is common grounds. Thanks for providing this ammunition to my claim rationale.

As you say, this seems to be a random problem, as i said in my opening post, the same day i did book another american eagle ticket MSP-LGA and the ticket was issued and i did use it.

Is there anybody out there that did actually present a claim on same problem so i could use their case?

Thanks all.

Ha! This is exactly what happened to me in May... I booked a ticket YUL-LHR via JFK, with the YUL-JFK sector on AA. I, too, am a long-standing BA Exec Club member, and have made countless Avios redemptions online, never with a problem before. And that has included some redemptions on AA, not just BA.

But this time I got to the AA check in counter at YUL (having not been able to check in online), and was told that the reservation had not been ticketed. Luckily, in my case, a really lovely and gutsy AA ground staff member spent 40 mins on the phone with BA, and in the nick of time, BA processed the reservation and put in a ticket number, at which point I was almost frog-marched through YUL by this wonderful AA staffer, and made the flight. (It helped I was only on hand luggage!)

But as much as the AA ground staff were great at YUL, BA were terrible on the phone. She first called the main BA number in YUL, and they were not open (this was 5pm, before BA check-in for the non-stop YUL/LHR). So she phoned the main North America BA number. They wouldn't deal with it, as it was Avios not cash, and gave her another number. That number was a number in Europe (at the time, my BAEC account was in Spain) - where they would not be coming into the office for another ten hours, given the time difference.

It was only really persistent and good quality customer service that finally found someone half competent in BA to get on the case - and even then it took 25 minutes of holding before they ticketed the reservation.

And let me just say once again - I had gone through the same Avios booking process on ba.com that I have done, probably at least fifty times in the last ten years. It was confirmed in just the same manner. Nothing in terms of what I saw on the website and was emailed gave me any reason at all to think that this booking was somehow messed up.

So, in the light of the original posting, there is clearly a major glitch somewhere....

To alleviate all concerns regarding any AA segments booked with Avios you should validate the AA PNR that you find via "Check My Trip" with the provided BA PNR.

Then search for your flight here:

https://www.aa.com/reservation/findReservationAccess.do

If you status is not "Ticketed" call Exec Club ASAP.

Oh dear, jccuadrado, this sounds like a right old shitstorm (that's a German phrase, so it's not swearing).

I encourage you to chase BA with all the evidence you have. And I also encourage you to ask for compensation as well. This really is not good enough.

If they still refuse then I would further encourage you to go down the route of the small claims court (if you're in the UK).

And welcome aboard!

Avios booking. ETicket not issued
 

It is the DOB problem discussed on recent threads. The DOB shows up online when booking but for whatever reason doesn't get saved to PNR. You have to call executive club to complete ticketing. They are waiving phone fees for PNRs affected by this.

Sounds like this has affected a lot of people. I had stumbled on this post about the same issue:
http://thepointsguy.com/2013/07/read...merican-award/

I had the same issue on an upcoming flight and didn't know it until I read this. When I called BAEC, the agent told me that this was very common and that they were getting a ton of calls about this. I was able to get resolved in a few minutes over the phone. If you have to call on this issue, you might want to mention that you think it could be a DOB problem. As soon as I said that they knew exactly what it was and how to fix it.

That sort of thing drives my heart rate up. If you know about a problem that will distress many of your clients badly, why on Earth don't you fix it? It is easy to do, pull a list every morning of previous days AA bookings, check if all of them have a ticket number, manually enter DOB for those that don't. Failing that, fixing a crap system might help as well.

It is the sort of thing where I'd wish for more of an American suing culture. If BA had to pay out a few million quid for emotional distress every time they make a stupid mess, it might eventually drive them towards quality.

Rant over. And I'm not even the OP. ;)

Yes, posted here. Oddly is does not happen all the time for me, it is dependent on something, not sure what.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21138821-post22.html