[Cedric_Statherby]

What is the most frustrating or petty rule you have encountered in your air travel?

I will start the discussion with BA’s rules on use of lounges on a codeshare flight. I have a gold BA Exec Club card and
> If I fly on a BA-operated flight, I can take a guest into the BA lounge with me
> If I fly on another one-world airline’s flight but with a BA flight number and ticket, I can take a guest into the BA lounge with me
> If I fly on another one-world airline’s flight with the other airline’s flight number and ticket, I can take a guest into the BA lounge with me

But

> If I fly on a BA codeshare flight run by another (non one-world) airline, I cannot take a guest into the lounge with me. EVEN IF we both have BA tickets bought on BA.com, and BA flight numbers.

This is the very definition of petty and pointless. BA possibly saved the cost of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, but in the process both baffled and infuriated me. If BA sell me the ticket they should honour the standard terms of their FF programme, which is that gold card members can use their lounges and invite a guest to join them.

One does wonder who dreamed this restriction up!

[macman147]

Thai Airways st allow a wheelchair to be stored onboard not even a foldable one that fits in cupboard.

[frustratedflyer]

In the US if you turn up at the airport early for a domestic flight an American airline will be happy to try and get you on an earlier flight at no cost. In Europe/UK if you are on a British/European Airline they will charge you a fortune even if the earlier flight is empty (unless on a flexible ticket)!!

[Cedric_Statherby]

@frustratedflyer – I do so agree! It is not only petty, it is also pointless. There is absolutely no gain for either side in denying someone boarding on an earlier flight, and massive loss of goodwill.

I usually reply “In that case I shall go to the lounge and drink as much of your expensive wine as I can”. But it has no effect; the poor check-in person one is speaking to has no authority to employ common sense, and probably very little interest in saving the airline either the few pounds I might consume in the lounge or the few ounces of goodwill their rules so casually squander.

[LuganoPirate]

This happened to one of my boy’s Cedric. He wanted to travel back a day later to South Africa, but as his ticket was non changeable/non refundable, he couldn’t, even though the following days flight had plenty of availability. No flexibility at all, which I suppose was fair enough as he had a very cheap ticket and knew the conditions. So he turned up to be told his flight was fully booked, and if he would volunteer to go the next day he could get EUR 700 on a Visa paid card, meals and a hotel night. He couldn’t accept fast enough and the compensation virtually paid the full cost of his ticket! And the flight he took was almost empty in economy, so he had his window seat then moved to a row of four seats for a good nights sleep!!

[K1ngston]

That’s madness LP but he certainly benefited good for him! I had an issue recently when I needed to change a flight and called SQ to be told it was impossible. With a fair amount of pushing I was able to get them to change for $100 SGD cost.

Once changed the circumstances changed again as they tend to do sometimes and I called them to be flatly denied any changes which was fair enough I guess, my colleague who is a Solitaire PPS member then went to do the same thing and was done with no fuss no costs and changed back FOC!

We were flying together sitting next to each other but due to the fact he has a higher status he could make all the changes he wanted for free… I am a Gold Card Holder with SQ and I realised how junior my status is with the airline……That frustrated me

[LuganoPirate]

I can understand the frustration in that K!ngston. And in my sons case, guess who bought the ticket and who got and spent the compensation? 😉

[canucklad]

Great topic Cedric……..

My most frustrating airline rule…… simply put…. all of them !!

As LP & frustratedflyer have intimated…..Pointless, petty and as Kingston said…”madness” behaviour driven my human automaton’s who have had all common sense decision making taken away from them, by suspicious micromanagement bosses.
To be fair , they are probably frustrated working within targets dropped on them from high, more than likely at the behest of their finance directorate .

Rant over !!

[capetonianm]

In Europe/UK if you are on a British/European Airline they will charge you a fortune even if the earlier flight is empty (unless on a flexible ticket)

From a passenger perspective there is the argument that if the seat is going empty anyway, it may as well be filled with a fare paying passenger, and the seat on a subsequent flight may then be sold to walk-up passenger at a higher fare. That was the attitude I usually took when I ran airline ticket desks, particularly if the passenger seemed genuine and was pleasant. Arrogant obnoxious business people got no sympathy.

From an airline perspective, if you offer flexibility on non-flexible tickets, nobody will buy the full fare ones. This leads to reduced yields and makes traffic forecasting more difficult.

[K1ngston]

I can hazard a good guess LP …. Let me think 🙂

[TiredOldHack2]

Having to take out the contents of the amenity kits, when you’re in transit, and then having to put them in those transparent plastic bags. Even if the amenity kiy bag is still sealed. For God’s sake.

[Chris in Makati]

I checked in at Hong Kong for a CX flight to London. I asked whether there was any possibility of paying for an upgrade to a higher cabin class. The agent checked my reservation and said my fare class wasn’t valid for any kind of paid upgrade. After boarding, it turned out the flight was very lightly loaded and I got an entire row of four seats to stretch out on all to myself. With hindsight, I was very happy I didn’t pay for an upgrade but the silly bu***rs could easily have taken a few hundred Pounds off me, but turned it down because of their self-imposed rules.

[Sanran]

The worst rule I came across with airlines was with Swiss/Lufthansa: I needed to cancel the final leg of a 4-leg-trip and asked my travel agent to cancel it with the airline (I just thought the airline would like this, as they could sell it to someone else). Well, they asked me 200chf for that: obviously I kept it and didn’t pay anything and the airline kept the seat empty.
I still cannot figure out the logic behind this.

Worst rule in airport: bought a liquid product (2x50ml) in an SQ aircraft to ZRH, had to pass through security again and the security agent told me it was not fitting into the transparent 1-litre bag and thus I couldn’t pass with it. I argued it was still sealed and showed the invoice printed in the aircraft. As flexibility is not really common in security agents in Zurich, I came out of the airport and took a train.

[Flightlevel]

LHR security are getting very precise with liquids too.
If you have 100ml container leave the label on to prove it is that capacity,if not it may be confiscated.
In addition if a prescription (like an inhaler) keep the prescription with you and any prescription label on the container.
Seems silly since a terrorist can label anything, however that’s their rules.

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=853170]Having to take out the contents of the amenity kits, when you’re in transit, and then having to put them in those transparent plastic bags. Even if the amenity kiy bag is still sealed. For God’s sake.[/quote]

I’m touching wood as I write this, but on transiting through Zurich and Frankfurt and going through security with the amenity bag in my carry-on, I have never been asked to take anything out. Mind you, I never thought about it till now!

[Author]

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