MAD Runway regeneration work for March 2019
 

Hi,
From the Iberia forum
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iber...elays-mad.html

Looks Like MAD is down 1 runway for March.

Not sure if it caused the OP's delays but it seems to be causing delays at MAD.

Regards

TBS

That's correct. We bought a new ticket with TAP.

Why does it matter that it is a business meeting - Why would a customer service agent do anything other than rebook onto another flight to London if it became necessary

You statte that you were well aware of the risk - the "but still" implies that you expected to be able to buy separate tickets but not take the drawbacks that go with it. If you had a through ticket and would misconnect, it may have rebooked on another flight to Helsinki

I really don't understand the "but still". You chose to gamble with the separate tickets (presumably lower cost) knowing the risks, and lost. Why is it somehow IB/OW's responsibility to get you out of that pickle? And what sort of advice could the agent possibly give, other than to book a protected through ticket next time?

If anything, in these situations I have more sympathy for inexperienced leisure travelers genuinely unaware of the rules, than businesspeople who knew the potential pitfalls and then are annoyed others didn't bend the rules to accommodate them.

By not taking the flight to HEL, the return ticket is now cancelled I assume. If there was one.

The fact that you are OWE and OWS is irrelevant. You knew the risks, as you say, so this sounds more like DYKWIA thread stuff.

As anticipated what you were told by BA CS was actually BA BS.

If you have commitments it's best just to book a single ticket. Or better still a non stop flight.

I feel really sorry for the OP. Even when one knows the risks, it is never pleasant to be in that situation. That said, unfortunately, the outcome was the one that most of us would have predicted. It seems that the OP thought that the fact that the two separate bookings were on OW airlines would give him/her a greater chance of "informal protection". It doesn't. Whether you do IB and AY (or as mentioned BA and BA) or IB and AF, LH, or U2 is just the exact same. It seems that the OP thought that the passengers' OW status would give him/her a greater chance of informal protection, again, it doesn't, no frequent flyer card or Gold Guest List gives the same rights in this situation, ie none, and any help should be taken as sheer luck as the entitlement is exactly nil.

Incidentally, the OP refers to customer service but it is actually certain that no help would come from that corner. If any 'sheer luck' is ever going to come, that will be only from the airport staff which are the only ones who might be entitled to go beyond the rules.

Anyway, a very unhappy experience for the OP, and that is sad, but also unfortunately a largely predictable one.

PS: Am I the only one puzzled about what the relevance is of any of this to the BA forum?

No relevance whatsover. It´s a DYKWIA.... clearly. What are customer service goign to tell you, when you tell them you have two separate tickets? Go away... find new tickets...

There is no such thing as "OW customer service." Period.

CS is provided by the carrier which caused the delay and that carrier's obligation was to get you to LHR, not to HEL. Period.

I have no idea whether the staff you dealt with were polite or rude and, if the latter, that is never acceptable. But, beyond tone of voice, it would have been extraordinary for BA to reroute a person traveling to LHR, to HEL instead.

Traveling on separate tickets is a matter of risk tolerance. You were willing to bear that risk and that is absolutely fine. Many people do. But, what is not fair is to then turn around and, having chosen to take on a risk, suggest that "OW" did not do its job here. It did.

So you not only gambled, you gambled big (ie only planning a 3:05 "connection" at LHR on separate tickets), you lost that gamble, you expected IB to pick up the pieces for you on the basis of some supposed personal importance (OWE + OWS doesn't qualify for that), and you now want to whinge because reality struck?

Anyway, if you were booked on that 1925 AY flight LHR-HEL, that's the last flight of the day from LHR to HEL. If you really do have to be in HEL in time for an early morning business meeting tomorrow, that wasn't a safe plan - even if you had a through ticket. What if that aircraft had gone tech at LHR? Just one thing going wrong would mean you'd miss that meeting.

OP, the last Finnair flight to HEL actually left Heathrow 55 minutes late at 20:20. The IB A340 flight arrived at 18:38 instead of 16:20. So you probably would have made it. However, I totally understand if you needed to be in HEL tomorrow the need to take control and make alternative plans.

Best of luck for a successful trip to HEL, and chalk this one up to ‘shit happens’!

BA ticket, operated by IB.

So the operating carrier is IB and your complaint is with them. Maybe the folks on the IB board may have some ideas.

A case of DYKWIA I think