BA/Iberia codeshare flight denied boarding
 

Does anyone know the answer to the following denied boarding question?

Our original booking was with AirEuropa from EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina) to LGW (London Gatwick, UK) via MAD (Madrid, Spain).
The first leg UX42 (EZE to MAD) was delayed by 5 hrs and therefore AirEuropa rebooked our ticket as we were travelling with 2 small kids.
The following flights were booked by AirEuropa and a FIM (flight interruption manifest) issued:

Leg 1 IB6842 EZE to MAD
Leg 2 IB7440 MAD to LHR Operated by BA BA0455

The boarding passes for both flights were printed and issued by Iberia in EZE airport.
We boarded our first flight in EZE and arrived 5:30am in MAD and made our way to the gate for our second leg.
5 minutes before boarding we were told (in a fairly aggressive tone) by Iberia ground staff that BA didn’t allow us to board, because our booking/reservation was invalid as no agreement exists between AirEuropa and BA.
Obviously we were stunned and confused, which only got worse by the ground staff not being able to answer some basic questions.

Q: We have boarding passes printed by Iberia in Argentina
A: The boarding passes have been issued by mistake as the booking by AirEuropa is invalid. (the reservation shows the IB7440 flight number instead of the BA455 number)

Q: it’s a codeshare flight between Iberia and BA, and our reservation is with Iberia and not BA according to the reservation document (FIM).
A: Iberia and BA only work together at a marketing level, the actual flights are operated by different airlines and reservations are made with the individual airlines
The boarding passes have both flight numbers (BA0455 and IB7440) printed and the ground staff was wearing Iberia uniform.

She walked away after 2 minutes and we had no other option than to continue our conversation at the Iberia customer service desk.
We were told to go to the AirEuropa customer service to request a new booking on another Iberia flight and collect our luggage as we had to recheck our luggage on the next flight.
It was a logistical nightmare having to collect the luggage in T4 and having to travel to T2 (a bus ride away) to visit the AirEuropa customer service desk to request a new reservation. All of this with a baby and toddler in tow.
The AirEuropa customer service desk was very confused with the whole situation and wondered why on earth neither BA or Iberia contacted AirEuropa to sort out any problems ahead of our departure from Madrid, however they immediately made a new reservation with Iberia for the first available flight to avoid further delays which unfortunately was not until 13:15 (a delay of nearly 6 hours).

Our attempt to check in with our new reservation (MAD-LHR) failed miserably due to our ‘live’ reservation on the ‘code-shared’ BA455/IB7440 flight.
In the end, it took Iberia 30-45 minutes to cancel the original reservation for flight BA455/IB7440 and a new reservation was made.

Apologies for the long essay, however I wanted to provide as much detail as possible.
The burning question is, which airline is responsible for the denied boarding without the passengers being at fault and liable for the compensation to be paid according to European Regulations.

I would say the best place to start is Air Europa. You say your initial flight EZE-MAD was delayed by at least 5 hours. What was the reason? Read a recent decision by the European Court of Justice that says 5-hour-plus delays are just like cancellations, and that mechanical problems don't constitute "extraordinary circumstances": http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/legal_servic.../07c402_en.pdf. It might be easiest to leave out the BA/IB confusion and just get the money from Air Europa. If that doesn't work I would go to BA for Denied Boarding compensation since it was BA that wouldn't let you on their plane, even if ground staff was IB.

Oh and don't forget to report back here when you resolve this.

Peace.

Imagineertobe,

Many thanks for your reply and advice, much appreciated.
We have also been recommended to claim compensation with Iberia for the following reasons.
AirEurope did provide alternative travel arrangements to ensure ontime departure/arrival.
Iberia is the marketing carrier for the codeshare flight (as printed on the boarding passes and written on the FIM) and therefore the selling party.
I'm going to double check with BA on denied boarding reason

I will provide updates on the progress

Oh, okay. So if you had flown the IB routing that UX had put you on, that would have gotten you to LON without a major delay? The timing of delays, as you are probably well aware, has a lot to do with the EU compensation rules. See the aforementioned PDF and the link below for clarification:

Frequently Asked Questions about Air Passengers' Rights in the European Union

I'm going through a similar process right now, so I've had to do my homework on this. :rolleyes:

Oh, and welcome to FlyerTalk!

Thank you!
I have been a frequent (weekly) flyer for many years, but never spotted this great forum.

Yes, we would have arrived on time in London with the IB routing
BA/IB claim that AirEuropa should have known that the second leg was operated by BA and not Iberia.
The FIM reservation was invalid according to BA/IB as no (Interline?) agreement exists between AirEuropa and BA to guarantee payment for the flight and therefore AirEuropa is responsible for the mistake.
However, our counterargument is that Iberia is the marketing (selling) party and accepted the FIM booking by AirEuropa and issued the boarding passes. Therefore they are as much at fault for their reason given as IB staff didn't spot the error either.

I've always thought that code-sharing means, in principium, ...sharing. Sharing capacity, revenue and costs in proportions set.
Now it seems all IB can do with code-shared flights is just selling tickets and BA retains the right to accept them or not, on the grounds that the particular flight is their metal. Ridiculous.
Whether UX has or don't have a standing agreement with BA is irrelevant as it was IB's ticket (as they accepted UX's FIM). And IB has all sorts of guaranteed payment agreements with BA, don't they?
I don't understand why IB didn't stand firm with BA.
Iberia's staff sending people with small children to another terminal to sort out problem created basically by Iberia (they issued a BP which wasn't honoured) is a shame, to say the least.

We hope it will come in handy for you, and that you'll in turn share with FlyerTalk some of the experiential knowledge you no doubt have.

So delay compensation from UX is out.

I agree with this analysis. IB was the marketing, selling, ticketing company and issued you boarding passes for the entire journey (I hope you have some sort of copy of such BPs). Clearly IB and BA have a payment arrangement in place since they codeshare, not to mention they are now owned by the same parent company!

I would get as much information from IB as possible - ticket numbers, copies of itineraries, copies of BPs, etc. for BOTH the original IB/BA itin and the final IB-only itin. This will help you with the authorities.

From what I understand, you'll need to contact the Spanish regulatory body for such infractions. The list of such bodies can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passen...ent_bodies.pdf.

comment by Abeyro
Iberia's staff sending people with small children to another terminal to sort out problem created basically by Iberia (they issued a BP which wasn't honoured) is a shame, to say the least.

Seriously not impressed, but what kind of 'saved' the day was the fact my wife is a mother tongue Spanish speaker. I can't even start to imagine the hassle without being to communicate properly with the staff in an airport like Madrid.

As far as the documentation, we have the key documents like the FIM, second IB reservation and complete BP for the BA operated flight, etc.

OT, wrong forum but...
 

I just read this thread and it got me thinking.

In December 2008 my family and I were to fly LH from SIN-FRA when our flight was cancelled due to a technical issue which meant the aircraft never even arrived. LH (eventually) accommodated us overnight and arranged for us to fly the next day on SQ, and arranged new connecting flights from FRA to our final destination. Which was all just fine. Even so we were delayed 14 hours in Singapore, with small children, not accommodated for over 4 hours, etc etc.

When I returned home I contacted my TA and asked her to enquire about compensation. In the end LH said that the technical problem was an exceptional circumstance and so no compensation was due.

Now, given the ruling referred to here, have things changed? Can I restate my claim?

I would say I already know the answer (ie re-contact my TA), but I do have some questions:

First, has anyone been able to retrospectively claim compensation in such a case? (of note, we were 8 pax)

Second, given this is almost certainly not the right place to ask this question, can someone point me to a better
forum?

Thanks!

I would say that there needs to be a Europe-centric thread on such types of compensation. In fact, I'm going to see if the mods don't want to move this over to the Europe forum and make it so.

I don't know what the statute of limitations is for such matters, so I can't really comment, but I don't think it would hurt to contact your TA to see.

There's one touching on the problem. Now we'll see what the mods will do...

Below is the thread I mentioned:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...ainst-law.html

The European Courts have ruled that Technical problems such as those that are inherent of the running of an airline are not "Extraordinary Circumstances":