[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=935336]Which airline? And what exactly would you be suing for?[/quote]

I would set out the facts of the case on the CCJ form. Explain what your financial loss is and who you are claiming it from & why you feel you are entitled to make a claim – if you think your claim is strong enough.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=935361]Just to point out, you don’t need a passport to fly SNN-LHR, just a government-issued ID. I would be willing that is exactly what was done and the computer spit out the boarding pass.[/quote]

Exactly. This is why it is far from easy. Particularly as it involves a code share and three airlines in total.

Aer Lingus will argue it was not their issue to deny client boarding, as they were the operating carrier of a flight from Shannon to London and they could not refuse carriage for that.

Qatar then denied boarding (correctly).

The boarding passes are irrelevant, I can print BPs at home, they don’t give me permission to travel.

So the question is, at that point, what was the right think to do. It wasn’t EI issue, as they had done nothing wrong. It wasn’t QR issue, as they had done nothing wrong. So why was the client returned to Shannon and what was the alternative?

If it was a semi flexible ticket then there is more of a case I agree, but probably not helped by EI trying to play around with the booking.

Maybe some independent advice would help. A no success/no fee lawyer like Bott & Co perhaps.

[KE LONDON]

passport was checked as the boarding pass was also given for Doha.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=935373]passport was checked as the boarding pass was also given for Doha.[/quote]

They checked your passport for the flight you were boarding ie to London.

Doha is a different location served by a different airline in a different terminal. That is Qatar’s job.

[KE LONDON]

If they check in a person at the airport, check in the bag to final destination and then void the ticket once the error is found by reissuing out of sequence then the onus is on that carrier.
That is the point I am trying to make and BA just leave it, EI have already accepted they are the cause of the cancelled ticket … this is not the issue, the issue is that BA just need to reach out to EI and they aren’t for whatever reason!

[capetonianm]

reach out

Do you mean ‘contact’?

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travelworld2, esselle, BackOfThePlane

[rferguson]

[quote quote=935333]

KE LONDON wrote:

meaning the ticket was used out of sequence which, we now know voids the entire ticket.

This is not entirely true. I have used tickets used out of sequence and the airlines have made the necessary adjustments, in one case after the all subsequent flights had been cancelled. Tickets only reinstated after airline agreed exceptional circumstances or I offered to pay an increased fare.

My suggestion of the UK CCJ system – the problems occurred in London. It takes very little time to complete the forms online, perhaps send a copy to the airline before submission and see what happens.

I think the airline is taking the easy option…[/quote]

Actually in 2017 the Italian courts ruled that if you ‘no show’ for the first sector of a journey, providing you contact the airline within 24hrs of this they cannot void the remainder of your ticket – invalidating the ‘sequence’ rule.

http://www.euroconsumatori.org/wdb.php?lang=en&modul=new&action=v&b=0&folder_id=0&oid=310

AFAIK everywhere else the sequence rule remains. I guess airlines can alter it if it suits them but otherwise you don’t really have much redress to force the issue.

Throw into the mix that this particular issue has four parties involved. BA that sold the ticket. Aer Lingus that made the mess ups. Qatar who denied boarding. And the consumer.

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KE LONDON

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=935399]I guess airlines can alter it if it suits them but otherwise you don’t really have much redress to force the issue.[/quote]

A couple of times BA allowed me to start an ex-Europe ticket in London because the positioning flight out and the ex-Europe return into London were both cancelled due to weather. I was allowed to use the unused portions at a later date.

Last year when I missed my positioning flight due to meeting someone in the lounge in London & I had to pay to get my ticket reissued from London, all flights on 2 airlines were still showing cancelled when I got the gate at Heathrow to board (a quick phone call from the gate staff to ticketing, turned the red X into a green tick). At my transit point using another airline I was sent back to the ticket desk as my onward boarding pass had been cancelled.

Yes the airlines can do what they want but only if they want…

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KE LONDON

[KE LONDON]

I know and all BA need to do is contact EI to sort this out as EI have said it was an error on their part too… and BA will not! Arent they three airlines EI,QR,BA all part of IAG?
horrible

[TominScotland]

KE London – no way is QR part of IAG. They are shareholders, yes…

[rferguson]

I really wish it was that easy KE. The problem is that money has changed hands. Not only between yourself and the airline but between the airlines. BA doesn’t operate any part of the journey. They would have given the bulk of the ticket revenue to QR who will not give it back to BA. As far as they will see it they flew the seat paid for even though no one was sat in it (and unfortunately it was too late to re-sell). In order for BA to sort it out it would mean them again giving Qatar a chunk of money to secure another seat.

BA and Aer Lingus are both part of IAG. All three airlines are in OneWorld. And Qatar has a significant financial holding in BA.
Each CEO has their own financial targets.

I really do understand your frustration. You prepare for your holiday, make a list of all the things you need to take, and checking six months validity on your passport isn’t always one of the things. Even as crew we have the same restriction and it’s not like I have my passport expiry date memorised…sometimes I have a brief panic before checking all is in order. A lot of people get stung in this way. I remember when South Africa introduced rules regarding parents travelling with children. If one parent was travelling with a child they had to provide documentation at check in before the flight from the other parent OK’ing it. A LOT of people weren’t aware of this policy and a good few no-shows were on the South Africa flights daily.

My advice if you want to pursue this is to continue contacting the airlines. Both EI and BA (forget QR – you will get nowhere with them). See if you can get the email address of an actual person at EI to contact and explain what happened. If you can’t do that and don’t live too far from SNN you could always even go to the airport and ask to speak to a Duty Manager. I would say EI are limited in what they can do though without themselves buying a seat from BA or Qatar probably something they do not want to do.

Do the same with BA. There’s little point in emailing CEO level but it’s quite easy to google say ‘BA head/manager/director or Customer experience’ and nearly all email addresses at BA are first name.last name @ba.com. If it was me I would state in bullet points what happened that day – you checked in, EI overlooked the passport validity issue. Then in London you had the ticket sequence issue.

Accept your part of responsibility in the letter – remember you are appealing to ‘a gesture of goodwill’ here as in black and white BA are in the right and EI took care of the messing up. Your main points should be that EI offered you a period of time to sort it out. And be reasonable in your expectations of a resolution – you may not get the Business Class seat to Doha. You may have to settle on some kind of compromise.

Good luck with it!

**Personal opinions only**

[garrison76]

Agree that the thread title is misleading – this is not a simple case of a lack of care by BA, there are many more factors at play (including the OP’s and the OP’s mother’s failure to check the expiry date of her passport, which is the root cause I would say).

Also, why the “yet again”? The OP has never posted anything else on this forum, let alone anything about BA showing a lack of care, and hasn’t given any more examples of this. So it doesn’t seem warranted at all and only goes to make this seem even more like a potentially ill-directed rant…

As rferguson explains, it’s not as simple as BA just contacting EI to sort this out, money has changed hands and the ship has sailed (or the QR flight has flown, without the OP’s mother in the seat that was paid for). Why should BA/EI pay QR for another flight to Doha? They were not responsible for ensuring that the OP’s mother had valid travel documents for this flight, as many have already explained.

I really don’t think this would stand up in court – it might be easy to submit a claim but it still takes time and effort to see this through and I don’t think the OP has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a judgment in their favour.

1 user thanked author for this post.

FaroFlyer

[SwissExPat]

I have often checked in at ZRH for a flight to JFK via LHR (incl baggage) with BA.

At check in, the agent always checks that I have a visa/esta for USA.

My expectation is that if this is not in order, then I won’t be allowed to take the ZRH – LHR flight (and check in my Bag).

I expect the same should be the case in SNN at the start of this PAX’s journey.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=935537]I have often checked in at ZRH for a flight to JFK via LHR (incl baggage) with BA.

At check in, the agent always checks that I have a visa/esta for USA.

My expectation is that if this is not in order, then I won’t be allowed to take the ZRH – LHR flight (and check in my Bag).

I expect the same should be the case in SNN at the start of this PAX’s journey.[/quote]

If you have the correct documentation to enter the UK I don’t see how they could stop you. If you are in transit that is a different thing. Baggage is irrelevant, easily offloaded if you are no show on a subsequent flight.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=935497]I know and all BA need to do is contact EI to sort this out as EI have said it was an error on their part too… and BA will not! Arent they three airlines EI,QR,BA all part of IAG?[/quote]

No.

[Author]

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