lorelai

Hello,
I am a touch nervous to post this question as people can be quite... cutting on this forum (obviously not everyone), but I wonder if anyone can help me understand a situation I had.
I was due to fly out from Bergamo to Manchester with Ryanair on Sunday 5th and the flight diverted to Bologna and our flight was cancelled. As I'm sure you'll be SHOCKED to hear, we were basically left to our own devices by Ryanair (and I fully intend to get back as much money from them as I can for our £2200 expenses flowing this cancellation).
We ended up booking a flight with BA from Linate to Heathrow (all entirely the wrong airports but there were no other direct options the following day). BA took my money, and I added our passport details to the booking, received confirmation of that. When we turned up to the airport on Monday morning, we tried to check in and the check in person told me that the booking "had no ticket inside it" and I needed to call BA. After a long time on hold, and after the Italian call centre opened at 9 (an hour after we got to the airport, so serious squeaky bum time for a while) he kept saying "what's happened here, what's happened here" put me on hold for what I assume was an actual eternity, then said "check your email I've sent you a confirmation" which he had, and all was ok (well, other than only having 40 minutes to drink fizz-not the plan after the day before's cancellation).
My question is, what DID happen there? Why was there no ticket in the booking? Does anyone know? Appreciate the help just to get an understanding. I may have done something wrong!
Also, I know not strictly BA (in any manner), but is there a way to find out why a flight was cancelled/diverted? I'm assuming they are going to say weather but other flights were departing/arriving at the exact same time so I'm confused.
Thanks so much in advance
Lorelei

mikeyfly

Was it a straightforward flight only booking made directly on BA.com?

I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t ticket if this was the case? Did the charge on your card clear / authorise?

KARFA

Can I ask was there any complications when you made the BA booking? Did you call or did you do it online? Also any changes done to the booking once made?

Usually for any bookings made online you will get an e-ticket pretty much straight away. You should receive an e-ticket email within a few minutes. There are really very few situations where that doesn't happen. If you had to call or perhaps use a FTV then it can get sent off for ticketing which normally happens within a few days, but sometimes doesn't. Also if it takes more than a few days before they attempt to ticket, the CVV from your credit card can fall out so they can no longer take payment.

In terms of checking you have a ticket, usually as I say you should get the e-ticket email. Also on the BA app it does show a ticket number under the flight details - if it is blank that is usually a warning sign there isn't a ticket.

lorelai

Yes flight only booking made at about 8pm Sunday, flying 11am Monday. I've just checked and it's still in my pending on my bank account, but it seems to be going out fine as all other transactions do. The man I spoke to seemed genuinely mystified.

mikeyfly

Hmmmm did the email issued upon completion have the e-ticket numbers if you scroll down?

lorelai

Thank you for your reply. No complications that I know of, I just made the booking online, added who was flying, it took me to the payment page and then gave me a booking reference. Then I went into 'manage my booking' and added in the passport information, but it said I couldn't check in online as that could only be done 24 hours before the flight. I got an email saying youve added the passport details but you are right, I didn't get a confirmation email. I suppose that should have given me a red flag but because I could log into manage my booking, and had the email confirming passport details had been added, I didn't think too much of it. My mind was pretty fried by that time!

SK AAR

Sometimes ticket is not issued concurrently/immidiately after you complete the reservation of the flights. This occurs often if you call to reserve; hardly never if you make booking online.

In order for you travel there needs to be a ticket associated with the reservation and if you make a last minute reservation like you apparently did, you can end up in situation where no ticket has been issued yet when you try to check-in; either online or at the counters.

It appears that the CS representative that you talked to, forced the ticket to be issued.

There were severe weather distruptions across parts of Europe in the past weekend, it sounds if the FR flights was affected by that. In the afirmative, there is no obligation on the part of FR to pay compensation, whereas any disbursement should reimbursed. However, I'm not sure if FR is going to refund super expensive last minute BA tickets to the UK. You may have much better and quickler luck with your travel insurance. Good luck!

lorelai

Thank you for this. I know it's a long shot for the reimbursement, we just didn't have an option. The only thing Ryanair offered us was a flight on Thursday, which for all intents and purposes filled quickly, then it was Friday, and we have jobs! There was noone to talk to, it was a shambles. I suppose you pays cheap, you reaps the consequences. I'll give it a good go anyway. Thank you for wishing us luck!

DYKWIA

You should be able to get your money back, assuming Ryanair wouldn't book on an alternative carrier. You may need a lot of patience and MCOL though

lorelai

Haha thank you, for this amount of money I have all the patience in the world. It's the time we won't get back! Hotel in Bergamo, taxi to linate, flight to Heathrow, taxi to manchester airport to pick up the car, drive back to Sheffield. I think I'm still a bit shell shocked 😊

plunet

Also remember that airlines are liable for direct expenses relating from their failure to provide the contract (eg. replacement flight where the airline is unable to assist, replacement clothes where baggage is lost) but not indirect expenses unless mandated by other rules such as EU261, which includes duty of care (accommodation, food and drink but not alcohol, phone calls). Your travel insurance may pick up other indirect expenses but your insurer will usually expect you to go after their airline for their liabilities.

lorelai

Thank you so much for this. Although I disagree with them, alcohol is definitely a direct expense 😊

SK AAR

Wow, I think you will face issues getting reimbursed a cab from LHR to MAN; just my gut feelings...

lorelai

Yeah agreed but the train was almost as much, and there were tube strikes. But I agree.

JAXBA

Doesn't seem like you did anything wrong on BA.com, usually tkts are issued instantly. I wonder if going in immediately to add passport details (instead of adding while in the booking/payment flow) caused the ticketing process to get a 'simultaneous change' and not be able to complete? Shouldn't have, but might explain it. Whatever it was that failed, it just wasn't fixed by the time you got to the airport due to the lateness of the booking (still not your fault).

Would have been nice if the LIN staff had been more helpful, calling the Bremen call centre internally themselves and getting through, and things resolved, much faster. With no ticket counter (and quite possibly no actual BA employee on site) they told you to call instead. Sadly, that's a failing of the LIN contract staff and/or BA for not giving airports sufficient resources for when things do go wrong.