French connection
Published: 30/11/2010 - Filed under: Ask Alex » 2010 » Ask Alex »
Dear Alex,
A colleague and I were delayed for seven hours at London Heathrow T5 because of a missed connection when travelling between Chicago and Lyon with British Airways. There was an hour to change planes. We started this portion of our itinerary using an American Airlines and BA codeshared flight out of Cleveland. We took this service to Chicago to connect with BA294 for Heathrow.
This flight reached T5 only one minute late (the scheduled arrival was 0645) yet we were told at the transfer counter that the onward service to Lyon (BA360 at 0745) had closed 45 minutes before departure. As we were flying business class and are both Oneworld Emerald cardholders [Oneworld’s highest loyalty tier], I was appalled that BA had closed the Lyon flight early, especially as the passenger log would have shown we were making a connection.
BA staff at T5 did not apologise, instead deferring responsibility to our travel agent for booking the tight connection. They also blamed their colleagues in Chicago for not issuing us with boarding passes for the Heathrow-Lyon sector.
We were rebooked on to BA362 at 1455 and provided with a meal voucher. It meant we had to cancel all business meetings planned for that afternoon. After I returned home I submitted a complaint via the BA website but the reply from customer services blamed American Airlines for not checking us right through to Lyon (even though it did). Whatever happened to British Airways’ customer service responsibility?
Clive Milham, Melbourne
Alex replies:
Oneworld rules specify seamless transfers between members. That certainly should have been the case here since BA and American are the alliance’s strongest partners. Both executives were using Oneworld RTW (round-the-world) business class tickets starting and finishing in Melbourne.
BA confirmed to me that the 60-minute transfer within T5 is allowable provided passengers are transferring airside. In any case, if it were not feasible, the booking could not have been made. The first inkling of the problem occurred in Cleveland, where, although American Airlines staff checked the bags through to Lyon, they were unable to issue boarding passes for the final leg of the trip (London Heathrow-Lyon).
Clive Milham and his colleague were instructed to collect the passes from the BA First lounge at Chicago but staff there were also unable to issue them. BA tells me that in such cases it will inform its “support team” at T5 to issue the passes and hand them over to passengers as they step off the plane. This would allow ample time for the connection. But on this occasion the procedures were not put in place.
After I took up the complaint I found it disappointing that BA continued to insist that AA, rather than itself, was at fault because the bags were checked to Heathrow rather than Lyon. Only when I suggested Clive Milham produce his baggage sticker showing LYS – the International Air Transport Association (IATA) code for Lyon – did BA change its tune.
In a statement, BA said: “Our staff are contacting Clive Milham to understand how he can be recompensed. Taking into account the distress caused, the airline will also be making a goodwill offer. British Airways strives to offer all our passengers the highest possible level of customer care. However, on this occasion, it is evident that Mr Milham feels that his customer service experience with the airline has fallen far short of what he is entitled to expect. We take complaints very seriously and have launched a thorough investigation into our internal processes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
The moral here is to retain paperwork, boarding passes and baggage stickers until after your trip in case you need to follow up with the airline for whatever reason.
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