I understand the OP’s frustration - and I actually share it. What the OP experienced is symptomatic of the dumbing down of the industry. When one makes a booking with a LCC, then to my mind you kind of know you’re on your own when things go wrong.

Here, the OP is a top tier oneworld frequent flier, booking on two legacy carriers, both members of OW. One OW carrier was delayed, causing the OP to miss their other OW flight. In those circumstances, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think booking OW would help. OP may have read, or have been thinking of, the beginning of the below thread for the position a few years ago

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...e-tickets.html
[edited to add: having skimmed through the thread, it isn’t clear to me that this is no longer OW policy]

Unfortunately, these days, legacy carriers have adapted their business practices to streamline processes, remove complexity, all to cut costs and make them more competitive with LCCs. In simple terms, this has meant a dumbing down of customer service. Same as densification, redundancies, no more complimentary food / drink, and so on.

We’ve all played our part in it by booking flights based primarily on price. It has become self-fulfilling, since in economy now there isn’t a huge amount to distinguish a legacy carrier from a LCC.

So, I think the OP is entitled to feel let down by the process. Yes, they got what they were ‘entitled’ to, and to some, it seems that as long as one gets their legal rights then they are perfectly happy. However, there are also warm & fuzzy concepts of ‘loyalty’ and the belief that by booking a legacy carrier this is going to provide more backup / support / service / care when things go wrong. The OP had that dashed last night and I can see where they are coming from. My instinctive emotional response is ‘what is the point of an airline alliance if they don’t provide a seamless service’? The rational answer is there were two contracts, OP booked to London & then missed their separate ticket to Helsinki, tough luck. But when one OW member causes that to happen, it would be lovely if the OP could have been looked after better, especially as a OW FF. Sadly, it’s 2019 and the answer is tough luck, we need to show Willie the money and Ryanair / easyjet wouldn’t do it so with prices as they are today if this were policy we’d be seeing OW airlines going bust.

Originally Posted by simons1 (Post 30845770)

Some vary fair points and indeed I understand the frustration. However when you talk about OW helping - who exactly do you mean?

The Finnair flight left less than an hour late. So the cost isn't for their pocket. The Iberia flight was 2 hours late, annoying but inside what EC261 allows. So the cost isn't for them either. And whilst it appears BA sold the tickets but have nothing to deal with the operational aspects. So where is this OW team and pot of money that comes to the rescue?

The link you highlight is from 5 years ago, a lot has changed since then. Agreed, not always for the better, however that is the price we pay for the low fares and the need for the legacy carriers to compete with the locos. Some call it dumbing down, others market forces at work.

Completely agree.

As a matter of fact, I don’t think we’ve established the OP would in fact have misconnected as things played out (they boarded the IB flight and found out about a further delay so offloaded themselves) or that, had they thrown themselves at the mercy of FCC agents at Heathrow they wouldn’t have at least been rebooked. They were told by BA CR that they would be - it’s FT who advised that they wouldn’t. Plus the OP knew the risk both by own admission & because they started a new thread to ask.

I am not 100% sure (doubting myself) that OW’s policy has changed - would be interested to see a definitive answer on this.

What I’m trying to say, rather inelegantly, is from a customer’s point of view it doesn’t really matter if IB / AY / BA or A N Other pick up the bill. They could say, look, I’m a OW FF, flying on two back to back OW flights, I’m within the MCT, I have a choice, OW should offer seamless service so somebody somewhere could have helped me out. I’m not talking about legal entitlement, purely from a customer service point of view. Or what is the point of the OW alliance...I sympathise with that view - OW has lots of other benefits which I won’t list. As I say, though, it’s not been established that re booking wouldn’t have happened in Heathrow had the OP travelled, especially given what BA told them.

As for market forces / dumbing down, whether you see this as a good thing will probably ultimately come down to whether you subscribe to capitalist / free market principles or not!

It’s a very interesting debate in terms of where the industry is now, what customers do / don’t expect and the practical realities.

I have yet to read on FT a satisfactory outcome to one of these self-connection insurance policies....

I have yet to read on FT a satisfactory outcome to one of these self-connection insurance policies. Remember that you’d also have to have any return flights covered as well. Do you believe that the insurer will pay for a new long haul business class ticket from LHR to SIN at walk-up (ie full fare) prices because your inbound self-connected EasyJet flight was delayed by two hours?

So did you get back to HEL in time for your Monday morning meeting or not? And did you fly MAD-LIS/LIS-HEL on TAP in the end?

Originally Posted by Agneisse (Post 30843323)

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.

Originally Posted by lostfly (Post 30845973)

Most, probably all, policies cover a limited amount only, typically in the U$500-U$1,000 range. I assume they do will pay in the case you mention, but only up to the covered amount.

Originally Posted by SKRan (Post 30850623)