DFB_london

Yes - this is for real. BA 'lost' my partner's e-ticket record and refused travel. They claim it was used last year (!) on another booking and hence he not could travel until he could prove another ticket was used for that flight
JFK special services were anything but helpful (to a concorde room card holder - god help any lesser mortal), and only through good luck of keeping the email (from 2003!) with the actual ticket number for the november booking BA claimed it was used on can he now travel. Notice throughout this the burden of proof was on the pax, not the airline.

BA claim that if you have too many bookings its just too complicated for them to work out what's going on. Can this be for real? Can anyone with any CRS knowledge she dlight on how this can happen, and how to avoid it in future (other than flying an IT-literate airline)?

The moral here seems to be keep every eticket receipt you have ever had - the BA booking system cant cope with more than one booking. ..or fly a more competent carrier. We'll be doing both in future,

G-BOAC

How strange, I've never heard of anything like this before (irretrievable/strangely cancelled e-tix, yes...that spurious reason, no). And the fact that even SS were so unhelpful is pretty atrocious Do they want people to fly with them or not!?!

I suggest a (registered) letter to someone at Waterside is in order...not quite sure who though? Head of CS?

Phil

The Saint

In fact it is a fairly regular occurrence for those taking advantage of ex-EU or ex-CAI trips.

If you go on, for example, LIS-LHR-JFK-LHR-LIS route and separate the last LHR-LIS sector, you want to make damn sure you have the ticket number. There is a real problem with this sort of orphaned sector simply disappearing on the BA system. I much prefer paper tickets just for this reason.

Boo Boo

Am I unusual in that I always print out email confirmation of the e-ticket and take it with me to the airport?

Or am I just COMPLETELY paranoid...

Boo

G-BOAC

Boo - no Although not once have I had to use it, thankfully.

Phil

StevieJ

not at all! Most of my 200+flights a yr are on e tix so i always take the printed proof with me. Had a slight prob at LHR only last week when I got back from AMS and as I arrived early changed booking at tick desk when I got to gate BP didn't show I had an ETIX so was asked for ticket, luckily had itinerary with me.

LHR Tim

Granted not BA, but had a similar problem with LH. Made a change to a booking over the phone direct with LH. When we got to the airport, they asked us where our paper tickets were! Fortunately an LH supervisor was there (actual LH person not SVO contract). She sorted it out, but it took her some time. However, this was the one time I thought: "Oh, I don't need this bit of paper, it's in the system." Ha!

On a subusequent trip, I made a change and asked the agent to confirm the tickteting. Seems that LH the system is too stupid to figure out that your booking is an e-ticket.

The Saint

Generally speaking the first indication that you will get that there is trouble ahead is when OLCI spits you out. If the e-ticket has got disconnected from the booking (because some change has been made, even a timetable change), then OLCI will refuse to check you in (volunteering any number of sometimes wholly bogus messages). If you can see the ticket number in checkmytrip.com, you are usually OK. The reverse is not necessarily so.

Shuttle-Bored

Yikes - doesn't sound particularly good at all.

I have to admit I never carry travel ticket docs with me. Usually just the credit card for verification, and my BAEC card. Normally I do have a copy of of the flight details on my blackberry (downloaded from www.checkmytrip.com or www.virtuallythere.com), but that doesn't contain details of the ticket number....

flyclub

I do the same, however, add the actual ticket number onto the top of the print-out - obtained from checkmytrip. Not had to actually use it in over 100 flights with BA, however, I know the day I don't bother I will need it.

However at check-in I only present my EC card which is always fine.

P.S: Shuttle-Bored - It does show the ticket number at the bottom of the page in the issued by whoever box.

BahrainLad

Interesting things, these e-tickets.

Queuing up to check-in for GLA-EWR after the infamous Barra trip. I'm on a paper ticket, EWR-GLA-EWR. The lady combing the queue comes over and asks a few questions. "Is this your bag etc." Then on to some questions I've never had before going to the US...."Which Visa will you be using? (90-day on arrival)." "Do you have a return ticket?"

"A what?"
"A return ticket. US Immigration won't issue you with a 90-day visa unless you have a return ticket."

Now, it's 7am and I'm not at my sharpest, so a cold feeling of dread comes over me - I don't have a return ticket. Ah, yes, I do! But it's an e-ticket on BA. So I try to convince the lady that my Blue BAEC card is in fact a ticket . No joy....so I end up having to go over to BA res and get them to print out a receipt before CO will let me checkin.

I suppose it wasn't a great problem - but it had me flummoxed, as I've never come across this before.

Shuttle-Bored

It does. But when you download to Outlook using Infotriever (which both of the above websites use for diary integration), it doesn't grab the ticket number - only the PNR.....

PUCCI GALORE

No - you and I both. I trust black and white far more than something that may or may not be on someone else's screen.

What I love is that it may be a paperless airline because we are the ones humping the paper around to prove what we have booked!

phillipas

Quite.

I have somewhat painful memories of a MAN-DUS-MAN trip (no miles to be accrued seeing it was way before my FT days) where my new fangled e-ticket thingy was 'lost. It took the best part of an hour for it to be found.

The problems stem from the fact that ticketing and reservations are two totally seperate things - and BA finding e-tickets in the asbence of the ticket number isn't always that easy. It's not entirely unknown for the things to disappear into the ether.

Frequentflyer99

Well I find that this is rarely possible. Any online change made to a booking will disable the system's ability to print, email or even generate an eticket receipt showing the revised booking (as it does to the ability to makes further changes or cancel a booking online).

Often it seems impossible even for BA CS to generate a current e-ticket receipt. I have flown recently having pleaded with various departments to issue an amended eticket receipt (to prove my flights back out of where I was flying to), but no could - or would -do.

Have others encountered this ?

Also on one return trip from HKG on an ex LIS eticket, the check-in agent was convinced that I should have had a paper ticket. Never suggested on the LIS-LHR-HKG sectors. He took some convincing that I was on an eticket. Luckily I had a print out of an otdated itinerary which had the eticket no.

I have an upcoming ex LIS to HKG which has my ticket no. listed 6 times in checkmytrip.com reflecting the number of times the booking has been changed. No doubt someone will yet again suggest that this is not an eticket !!