Advice/Help Needed: Misconnect LHR
 

A relative of mine just misconnected in LHR (due to closure of air space) and obviously at the transfer desk there is a huge queue resulting in probably no other options to fly today (LHR-BOS).
I tried calling the gold line however they insist they cannot rebook over the phone and she has to wait.

As she is a European citizen, might it be more beneficial to go landside and arrange it at a customer service desk at check ins? Currently there are roughly 50 people in front of her and 1.5h queueing so far. Or would it be a similar queue at the check ins?

Thank you all for your expert advice!

Probably I would take the risk and go landside, since the agents needed to do this are likely to have shorter queues, particularly if she has status with BA, but it does come with some risks, notably that unless she gets over the position that she is "on carriage" - that is to say midway through a booking - she may be encouraged to rebook via BA.com / the contact centre. That should only apply to those starting their journeys, not to those connecting, so it's important that she makes that aspect clear. Zone E or the flight management areas in Zone A would be best placed for this, there may well be a bit of a queue there too, but it's not likely to be as lengthy. If she has Silver status I would probably go to the business class check area (zone H is it? somewhere near there) and if Gold obviously the First Wing would be definitely better.

[I shouldn't say this, but the other option is to try to use the Self Service machines in departures, she will obviously get stuck on that, and if she is lucky an agent will swoop round and sort something out, particularly if it is just a case of moving from one flight to the next]/

Thanks C-W-S as always for your expert advice. BA at it's finest again: she was told to queue at the transfer desk but she was rebooked to the later departure however no one told her so she missed that one due to the fact that she was waiting for an agent to become available. Now that she is finally at the desk no room anymore for today's late flight. She has no status and is an inexperienced flyer, horrible situation to be in.

Yeah it must create a lot of anxiety when this happens. There will always be another bus to Boston is what I will say, though I'm not always believed! One thing people in irrops should always check is the BA App to see if they have been rebooked automatically, refreshing / going via Manage My Booking if necessary, to see if the computer has already rebooked them. If so then the Boarding Pass probably won't come through - I think I have only managed that twice ever and that's knowing what to look for - but crucially at this point you can go to the Flight Connections scan point, they will simply reprint the boarding pass at that stage rather then send her to Customer Services.

How frustrating!! Sort of thing they should have someone combing the queue for - you'd literally just need an iPad and the BA website- no complex training or IT required!

That tends to happen if there are just a few irrops, and even on slightly bad days they often have someone prowling the Flight Connection queue with their tablet to check passengers to see if autoload has kicked them onto the next flight. But today was a bad day, there was the RAF fly past, capacity problems at LGW, and delays over French ATC, hence there were a lot of misconnects today. It would probably help if crew members on aircraft arriving into LHR which are late enough to cause irrops (effectively more than 20 minutes late or more) could invite people to refresh the App to see if the computer has already sorted out their misconnect. Or you can just digest Flyertalk in advance I guess......

In addition to the app, it would be helpful, presuming that the passenger has provided BA with the information for the booking, if rebookings were also sent by email, text and an automated voicemail.

Even B6 has this capacity for domestic flights in the US and that takes a lot of pressure off the staff as well. The system is entirely automated and the same feature which updates the app, transmits the other three notices as well.

Thank you all for your responses, she just arrived in Boston and made it on the last flight of today because of a very friendly agent at the customer service desk in flight connections. Happy to have it resolved but you are definitely right if she was made aware of refreshing the app she would have had the second flight and a lot less stress but I am happy that she made it here!

Of course if she had booked a 3 Hour connection, then maybe she would have had no problems.

Most authorized Airlines connections are just far too tight. Certainly not worth all the stress and then mishandled baggage when thing to fail to connect.

Let me see if I understand. If I anticipate a misconnect, I should assume that I have been rebooked onto the next flight, and as a calculated risk - if I can't find wifi to check status on my ipod - I should go directly to the gate area for that flight and inquire if I am on same. If I am not, I have lost time, true, but I have at least done what I can not to miss any rebooked flight.

What about the luggage? :D

Rubbish.

If you enjoy spending more time at airports than necessary, keep up your strategy ;)

There is a MCT for a reason - I will always book MCT to reduce overall travel time where possible - there is always another flight. And yes, it is a risk I am willing to take.

Further to this, DOM-INT at LHR T5 should be reduced to 45 minutes from the current rather ludicrous 60 minutes.

I'm not so sure that MCT from DOM-INT at LHR T5 is ludicrous and should be reduced to 45 minutes. I've missed several longer DOM - INT connections causing overnights at LHR due to late inbound aircraft. When things work, the connection is very doable in 45 minutes, but when there is just the slightest hint of weather problems can occur. Turnarounds at most stations are rarely long enough to make up for any delays on the previous sector.