Ghoulish

You make an excellent point, though I'll bet the amount of effort the OP puts into reporting this will be far greater than the effort the industry puts into investigating itself as a result.

Ldnn1

And at that mechanical barrier would be a guy whose authority and responsibility is to solve the issue by either (a) doing checks correctly or (b) not. Much like at... a boarding gate. Or a Tube ticket gate. Or the infuriating exit gates that supermarkets have started to install. Etc.

vennichael

This is such a bizarre situation.
Reminds me what happened long time ago, it was a shared gate for two planes departing almost the same time. Passing the boarding gate, it was two bridges (Y shape) seperating to two planes. Someone sit on my seat was mistakenly took the wrong direction on the Y direction...but of course the person has different name...

orbitmic

I think that's exactly the point. Again, the events that unfolded could be explained by a innocent coincidences, could be explained by something dodgier but I just don't see the point of speculating on which it is based on the little we know whilst some other people would have a granular access to information (it is incredibly simple for BA to know when and where exactly BPs were issued and go from there).

The one thing I would say is that I have absolutely no confidence in whoever has heard about the issue at BA spontaneously prompting a satisfactory investigation unless a complaint is made by the OP or authorities external to BA weigh in, hence the importance of the OP complaining formally in a way that BA cannot ignore with one of their cut and paste CR responses (or would expose themselves to significant issues if they did and the answer in question proved inaccurate).

Separately, as I mentioned before, if I were him/her, I would also want BA to clarify what's the level of private data exposure that occurred. Ideally, if it proves that a BP was simply printed at the gate for the wrong person, I'd see that as a minor risk for the OP but it is important that BA confirm the extent of their screw up because if, as I hope won't happen, something happens later that involves misuse of the OP's personal data, that particular papertrail could prove invaluable when the OP come to want some resolution.

mikeyfly

Perhaps there was a Kevin McCallister incident at the gate

AN*G-BNE

I, of course, have no idea what really happened. However, being professionally familiar with airport security and check-in processes (consultancy stint), here's a plausible cause, in my mind.

• OP, as we know, is correctly booked on BA429, and has a boarding pass issued for 4A.
• Interloper, was booked on an earlier KLM flight, also to LHR, and was assigned 4A on that flight.
• Interloper misses that KLM flight to LHR, possibly not realising that he missed it.
• Interloper sees, a destination screen showing LHR, and thinks that's his flight.
• Upon boarding, interloper presents the KLM boarding pass and interloper's passport to the gate agent.
• Gate agent validates KLM boarding pass and passport (matches name but fails to notice the incorrect flight number, or assumes a code-share flight number is printed), scans the KLM boarding pass, which correctly fails to scan
• Gate agent is familiar with interline boarding passes having problems, and does a BP REPRINT for 4A.
• Machine spits out OP's 4A boarding pass, which now scans correctly, and Interloper boards
• OP comes along, and ... the rest of the story is above.

c1223

For what's it worth, basic password security should be having a different password for any account you login to. There have been leaks of both plain text passwords and passwords which have been brute force decrypted.

Anyone can enter their email into the website here and see what data leaks they may have been a victim of: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

cjb666

​​​​​​
That might have been me. Once got on a flight to Brussels instead of Antwerp many years ago at LHR. Very embarrassing.

sigma421

Seen similar chaos at CDG with easyJet flights to Glasgow and Edinburgh boarding out of a similar setup.

SteveF

A nailed-on Oscar winner then.

vennichael

they should have a better signage in this type of setup, lol
But thinking in another perspective, luckily all of us had chose a seat that been chose on both planes.
Otherwise, you guys may end up in a wrong destination; or even worse you realized the situation when the plane was taxing but cannot get off then...

Flyertalker001342

I believe that the FAs on SouthWest Airlines in the USA, routinely say something in their initial PA announcements indicating the destination for the flight, and that if you are intending to go somewhere else, this would be your best opportunity to deplane.

LondonAussie

​​​​​​​In Australia the cabin crew will inspect the boarding pass of every passenger upon entry to the aircraft, to check they are on the correct flight.

alex67500

But in this case the passenger had a boarding pass for that flight. Do they also check passports to ensure the passenger's name matches?

nk15

Maybe that was the plan all along. He somehow obtains OP's BP, boards the aircraft, goes to the lav, and implants harmful device (or around OP's seat). Then the OP shows up, they figure out the mix up, impostor leaves the plane safely. Airport security underreacts and does not search the plane, plane takes off and the rest will be in the news.

If this was a dummy run, it shows this will work.