cgtechuk

I was booked from Glasgow to London and London to Italy on separate tickets today as I need both to have SDC

Hadn't bothered checking in to the Italy flight till I landed at LHR. I had an exit row booked 12F days in advance and when I checked in it said I was in 16F even though the app showed 12F. I printed the BP and it gave me 17F which was neither of the two previous options

Tried to go through flight connections DOM - INT and got a message saying that I had to go to BA customer service. I did and stood there for over 40 minutes before giving up and going landside and visiting what's left of the first wing.

At the first wing they say all seats are full and I'm in 17F I argue the case and when they call ops they tell me I changed seat twice . Once yesterday at 820am and again today at 1030am when I told them I was asleep the first time and I was midair to London the second I explained it was impossible. So they kicked 12f out their seat and gave it back to me and issued BP

Went to try get airside and still couldn't so someone just waved me through and off I went to the CCR

Fast forward to boarding and I was showing already boarded at the gate. Showed my ID and agent override it.

On the plane there is someone in my seat who when questioned shows me my BP and my details Inc exec number on it.

TRM called and apparently this guy has exactly the same name as me and when check-in swiped his passport they picked me on the booking not him and he went airside as me and boarded as me

In the end I had to show the receipt for my booking as well as the credit card I booked it and the other guy was offloaded. Unfortunately for him due to conformance he had been offloaded as a no show for not checking in.

What an absolute shambles. Surely it can't be that easy to be someone else. I'm more suspicious that the seat changed showed as yesterday surely that means they had my PNR somehow ?
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Sealink

That is insane. And we wonder how that guy managed to get on a flight to New York with no passport etc.

oceanscape

Sounds dodgy - how would he have changed your seat without your PNR? Sorry to hear you went through such an experience; I'd have been pretty annoyed (to put it lightly). Unbelievable this can happen in 2024.

awoxp

Sounds like FLY needs a big red CHECK DOB message whenever there are 2 PAX with the same name on a flight. Data protection red flags everywhere.

crazy8534

That story is absolutely bananas!
Bad enough for you but think of the poor other guy....
Was the other chap surprised that he was offered access to the CCR?

DYKWIA

Hopefully he'll get a bit of UK261 compo for being offloaded!

rockflyertalk

Did the other person sat in your seat not check in?

If so why on earth would you not check in to a flight? It’s a well established and embedded part of flying! I know people who panic if they can’t check in before leaving home.

layz

Change your name to something rare like John Smith or something.

Or perhaps pick an interesting title from the dropdown, then if the other person sees Lord Cgtechuk on their boarding pass instead of Mr/Ms Cgtechuk then they might sense something isn't right and question it at the desk.

oceanscape

??? It might surprise you how many people don't do OLCI and just go to the airport. It's very common!

cgtechuk

He checked in at the airport with his passport and when the agent swiped his passport they selected me. They were status less so I feel more bad that they could have had CCR access than offloaded .

cgtechuk

You joke but half of that name is correct haha

corporate-wage-slave

This would have been avoided if at the temporary First Wing someone had checked the biometrics of the person on your boarding pass as presented, which may have shown someone looking somewhat different from the OP. I know the OP's name and it's not that common, indeed there's nothing common about the OP I should rush to point out. Perhaps a bit more renown in Glasgow. But still there was an obvious check, but presumably everyone was thinking "oh BA's IT again....." when it was actually human failure. Still one feels for the main casualty here since he would not only ended up delayed on to another flight, but there's a fair risk to his checked baggage (and that's the main reason some people don't do OLCI) and there's not an easy way to capture his biometrics once airside.

cgtechuk

To add to the chaos. I've just checked my PNR and my return is cancelled and my BP says I have a checked bag when I don't. This is a bit of s cluster.

I'm not worried about the return. It's an easy fix but sounds like the chaos continues

rockflyertalk

Yes you’re right plenty check in at the airport, I didn’t express myself well enough here, I was assuming he hadn’t checked in at all and made it onboard. But we know he had. All very concerning if it’s human error. Perhaps staff are too reliant on IT to ensure checks are properly handled!

crazy8534

You know, this is still a worrying part of the story- do we have an explanation yet?

Out of an abundance of caution I think I would be tempted to change my email and BAEC passwords.
Maybe that's an overreaction though.