Passport/Visa not valid message for tomorrow’s flight - help
Dec 31, 2018, 11:43 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 98
Passport/Visa not valid message for tomorrow’s flight - help
We are flying to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow (hopefully) from Edinburgh, I’ve just checked in online but there is a message saying that our passport/visa details are invalid for travel but not to call them as they can’t help. We renewed our passports in October as we knew that we needed 6 months and the old passports were due to expire in May. I’ve updated both of our BAEC accounts with the new passport details and I’ve confirmed we don’t need visas for KL, any suggestions? It did allow me to check in so I’ve done that but we are now panicking about our trip. Not a good day so far having spent the afternoon in A&E with our granddaughter!!
Dec 31, 2018, 11:58 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: United 1K, Frontier 100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond/ Ambassador/ Milestoner
Posts: 568
They probably have to see the passports in person as they are new. The passports being 'invalid' is probably their attempt to say that they need to be verified.
Dec 31, 2018, 12:14 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 98
Thanks - that sounds reassuring but I’m looking forward to collecting our boarding passes and collapsing in the lounge tomorrow. This trip is a long awaited trip to the Mandarin Oriental KL after a stressful year, we’ll be devastated if there are any problems tomorrow.
Dec 31, 2018, 12:23 pm
#5
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,722
The message you are seeing is largely triggered by those with passports with than 6 months on them, and I'm guessing it picked it up from your previous BAEC profile and/or previous API information. Assuming you are UK citizens with new-ish passports then you're fine, and you don't need to arrive particularly early at EDI tomorrow.
Jan 1, 2019, 6:01 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 98
Well we are now sat in the lounge at EDI. When we went to the desk the check in agent asked for our visas for KL - I explained that as UK passport holders we don’t need them. She then said our passports weren’t valid so I pointed out they were newly issued in October she said the computer said they were due to expire in May. She then said we should have updated the details which I had done on our BA profiles but apparently these hadn’t transferred across to their system so I asked her to enter the passport details she had in her hand and that seemed to work. Surely BA have a system that can deal with people renewing their passports?
Jan 1, 2019, 6:17 am
#7
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Bronze
Posts: 1,089
Well we are now sat in the lounge at EDI. When we went to the desk the check in agent asked for our visas for KL - I explained that as UK passport holders we don’t need them. She then said our passports weren’t valid so I pointed out they were newly issued in October she said the computer said they were due to expire in May. She then said we should have updated the details which I had done on our BA profiles but apparently these hadn’t transferred across to their system so I asked her to enter the passport details she had in her hand and that seemed to work. Surely BA have a system that can deal with people renewing their passports?
Jan 1, 2019, 6:21 am
#8
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,680
The system does deal with passport changes. If your passport changes after it was first entered into the booking, then you need to change the booking itself and not just your profile. If you had amended the passport details when you did online check-in, then this would have been sorted. The details in your profile will reflect in any new bookings you create but won't update existing bookings. Reason being is that you dealing with 2 different systems, the initial entry of the frequent flyer details tells the booking system to pull any relevant information for that booking.
Jan 1, 2019, 6:21 am
#9
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,456
Well we are now sat in the lounge at EDI. When we went to the desk the check in agent asked for our visas for KL - I explained that as UK passport holders we don’t need them. She then said our passports weren’t valid so I pointed out they were newly issued in October she said the computer said they were due to expire in May. She then said we should have updated the details which I had done on our BA profiles but apparently these hadn’t transferred across to their system so I asked her to enter the passport details she had in her hand and that seemed to work. Surely BA have a system that can deal with people renewing their passports?
Check in agent was correct, though perhaps could have been more understanding in informing you...? No lasting harm done though.
Jan 1, 2019, 8:51 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: London Stratford, E7
Programs: BAEC Gold! Thanks to FT
Posts: 3,368
Updating the profile won't have automatically overwritten the details attached to the booking when it was made - so the booking still saw that you didn't have enough validity left when you went to check in. AIUI you would have to manually change all existing bookings separately.
Check in agent was correct, though perhaps could have been more understanding in informing you...? No lasting harm done though.
Check in agent was correct, though perhaps could have been more understanding in informing you...? No lasting harm done though.
In my opinion an an example of BA IT at its finest. If I store my DOB, passport number, seating and meal preferences in my profile and change one of the latter ones, I’d be expecting this to filter through to my forward bookings or there to be at least a refresh button in MMB to filter this information through otherwise what is the point of storing this API if it doesn’t feed through to bookings you might as well enter it every time which might be cumbersome for people who fly a lot.
Last edited by KeaneJohn; Jan 1, 2019 at 9:41 am
Jan 1, 2019, 12:07 pm
#13
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: LHR
Programs: BA Silver/ows, CX AsiaMiles (not even GR anymore!) missing my GO days
Posts: 1,581
It might not be appropriate for the site to auto-update details for each booking after a profile change. But the website also needs to be a lot better about explaining to pax what's amiss with API and how to fix it. I ran into an API hiccup a few weeks ago (and posted here about it) because the website generated a threatening message for what turned out to be a routine situation. Might this have been avoided if the error message OP was shown had suggested changing passport details in the booking itself?
Jan 1, 2019, 12:37 pm
#14
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: London
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Posts: 865
There will be innumerable systems that will behave in the same way. New 'orders' pull through the current contact details to populate some fields, but if the contact details are subsequently updated, the changes aren't automatically pushed down into 'open' orders.
It makes things a lot simpler when the contact details are held in a different database to the order system - I don't know how the BAEC (where the API is held?) system links to, or interacts with, the BA ticketing system.
It makes things a lot simpler when the contact details are held in a different database to the order system - I don't know how the BAEC (where the API is held?) system links to, or interacts with, the BA ticketing system.
Jan 2, 2019, 4:14 am
#15
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,456
Why was the check in agent correct as they asked for a visa that wasn’t required.
In my opinion an an example of BA IT at its finest. If I store my DOB, passport number, seating and meal preferences in my profile and change one of the latter ones, I’d be expecting this to filter through to my forward bookings or there to be at least a refresh button in MMB to filter this information through otherwise what is the point of storing this API if it doesn’t feed through to bookings you might as well enter it every time which might be cumbersome for people who fly a lot.
