Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

That’s an unfortunate mistake to make and I’m sure you’re pretty cross with yourself, although we all have complete brain loss periodically in the first year of a child’s life. Sometimes they just don’t allow you a minute to think.
Don’t let that anger spill over when you are at last able to speak to someone who can help. Throw yourself on their mercy and ask for what they can do. The presence of a fractious, but not screaming, child may help your case but that very much depends on the agent you get!

I’m sure you’ll never make the mistake again, but a phone or other electronic calendar set to your flight time the minute you have made your booking with 24 & 48 hour reminders will keep you alert. There may be another Miss or Master Random who comes along to distract or other life events that mean the best organised of us lose track. I’m sure that in normal times I always get a “online check in is now open” email at T-24 but these are not normal times so maybe that didn’t happen.

I hope you get sorted and please report back.

corporate-wage-slave

I can't offer anything more than the comments above - this is going to be a customer relations gesture so contrition is your best stance. However I can welcome Random50 to Flyertalk and welcome you to the BA forum. You will have hit the 5 post limit that applies on your first day of contributing, that will be lifted automatically after 24 hours.

orbitmic

I totally agree with this. One of the most crucial elements in trying to get any sort of resolution is to know how you stand.

If an airline does something wrong to you, then yes, of course, you can decide (or not) to emphasise your disappointment if you think this will incite them to improve the resolution, but in this case, the bottom line is that you simply do not have a leg to stand on. It means that as CIHY suggests, your best bet is to try and go there to speak to people in person, admit that it was entirely your fault, and hope to elicit sympathy and that the agents you speak to will be able to find some creative way to improve things.

You say you have no time to spare to go to the airport to do that, and if what you are asking is some sort of guarantee (or even probability) that if you go to the airport, you won't just waste a couple of hours for nothing, then I'm afraid nobody can legitimately give you such reassurance. It is perfectly possible that you go there and leave without having regained anything and having spent some time in the process. However, in my view, it is worth a try - airport agents can do things that nobody in offices can do, they have supervisors at hand who can authorise a number of things, and ultimately, in a world where dealing with people face to face has become an exception, I still think that it is worth a shot, albeit with no guarantee. If it fails, then indeed, the customer relations route is the other avenue left, but in my view, is likely to elicit very limited outcomes.

manord

With enough flights, such mishaps do happen. I recall turning up at the airport, in the days before online check was normal, only to be told "Sorry sir, your flight was yesterday". I recall many phone calls by the check-in desk, and much waiting about from me, but eventually I was put onto the flight for the day I actually turned up, with no extra charges etc.

Although in this case I genuinely had no idea until I tuned up at the airport, the key to a happy resolution, as stated upthread many times, is humbleness, politeness, gratitude, luck, etc. and don't ever even hint at entitlement, importance, promises/threats about future business, etc.

I've also done the opposite, and been told "Sorry sir, your flight is tomorrow" where I was sent away with much mocking, gracefully accepted, to come back the next day.

13901

I think it very much depends on your fare too. I remember, back in the day when there were LHR-BKK-SYD (I think) a group of young Pacific Islanders arrived to check in. Out of the five of them, four were OK but one I couldn't find. Turns out he'd booked the flight for the month prior to when he wanted to fly. As it was the bog cheapest possible fare we couldn't find anything on that day and I don't honestly know how it ended up.

alexwuk

Would you want to fly today if that's possible? If so, I'd turn up at the airport ready to fly - explain that you missed your flight yesterday and ask nicely if there's any chance of being put on today's service. It's a subjective question, but personally I would think it's the most likely way of getting to actually use your ticket.

beancounter

agree with eating humble pie, and too bad you can't bring the baby to the airport (covid worries) because showing up with a crying baby and (I'm sure) your own sleep deprived self might get you some sympathy votes.

SpeedbirdLHR

Word of caution. While the suggestion is to go to the airport, there are no ticket desks and agents can only handle basic on the day changes. Had this been noted before flight departure agents could generally add a code to booking to keep it live. Once a booking is cancelled it’s more difficult to reinstate.

For changes that don’t involve on the day bookings, agents will generally refer customers to the call centre, which is current process. If you do opt to go to LHR, I’d suggest after 16:00 when it starts to get quieter and you may have a better chance of getting someone who may be able to call ticketing to look into possible solutions.

scottishpoet

perhaps a call to your insurer if you are covered for a missed flight?

One idea, and I have no idea if it would work, a trip to the ticket desk at the airport rather than check in and see if there is any way they can use any value from your cancelled ticket to help subsidise a new ticket? Shows you have accepted its your fault and are willing to pay something ...

noFODplease

Ouch that stings.. my sympathies. Let us know how you get on. I too would be turning up at airport to try fix this.

[rushes to double and triple check all first legs of ex-EU bookings just in case]

Scots_Al

I can’t imagine any insurance policy paying out for forgetting a flight…

Pilou

Really hope you can manage to find a useful solution here, such a heart-sinking and unfortunate thing to happen! Worth thinking about how little BA actually have to gain from cancelling your inbound when, as you mentioned, it is likely that they will have empty seats in place there instead. It's times like these I suppose when there exists an opportunity for the 'common sense' and compassionate element of corporate entities to shine through.

Random50

This is unfortunately exactly right. So it was indeed a total waste of time and we ended up with an overtired baby and even worse sleep than usual as a consequence.

The main guy I spoke to used to have the role I would have needed but they shut the ticket desks down, so now there’s literally nobody there at the airport that can do anything..

He did try and call in a pnr for an evoucher, but no success. I had already tried this in a panic anyway shortly after I realised my error. I admit I got pretty (non combatively) distraught, courtesy of seeing the total cost of the flights on his screen

Customer relations is now my only recourse.

I’m not sure if it will help or not to understand, but what exactly is the point of this policy? Maybe I can make a request that clearly avoids whatever issue they think no shows are creating that they believe warrants such an extreme penalty.

I’m not going to respond to the many comments absolving ba because of t+c which we have no hand in creating and no realistic option but to accept, beyond saying that it’s our collective British habit of accepting sh*t sandwiches that emboldens companies to keep serving them to us, and getting away with it. I guess I’m going to keep that tradition alive since I don’t have the energy and time to be the one taking a stand right now

GumshoeW12

I’m sure there are many reasons but one may be to stop people booking, say, an ex-EU trip and skipping the first leg to take advantage of much cheaper fares.

Sorry it hasn’t worked out thus far.

JessicaB

I was going to say that. I don't think an hour-long journey to the airport is a big ask and it's almost impossible for a baby to get Covid anyway.

Another option is your travel insurance, they will cover the cost of missed departure under a lot of policies.