BA & Iberia

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    HBHLondon
    Participant

    I am flying BA to Madrid and then IB to Bogota (one booking made on IB site). Tried to check in on IB site as original booking was made with them, but was redirected to BA, where I could not check in for my IB flight to BOG and could not pay for the extra bag I am taking. I can finalise check in at LHR tomorrow morning.

    The problem is that I will not be entitled to the slighly cheaper rate for the extra bag if I pay online. Also, I am not sure I can take this extra bag for free (which I am entitled to as a Gold BA EC card holder) as I am flying with Iberia as well. I called BA Gold line. They were very apologetic but said there is nothing they can do as the system is not set up for this type of situations.

    Sounds a bit odd since the two companies are merged and also, I assume, there a mechanisms in place under Oneworld to allow these things. Is it the case that for those of us flying to South America on Iberia via Madrid, the best option is not to use BA to get to Madrid?

    Sad this, as flying BA to Madrid for connection to Latin America tends to be more convenient because there is no need to change terminal.


    RichHI1
    Participant

    When I fly IB to Lat Am i take all IB flights and life is much easier, on line and in MAD. Also IB business service to MAD is better than BA. Pero necesitas hablar un poquito de Español.


    HBHLondon
    Participant

    Thanks Rich. Will certainly use IB all the way next. Had problems before when Iberia refused to issue me with boarding pass for BA connecting flight from Madrid to LHR. I speak good Spanish so will use it next time. Perhaps that way I’ll get a smile from an Iberia fligh attendant.


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    Iberia use their A340 on one of the daily MAD runs; particularly nice if you’re in Business Class.


    FormerlyDoS
    Participant

    “Iberia use their A340 on one of the daily MAD runs; particularly nice if you’re in Business Class.”

    I think Iberia have more than one A340 😉


    flier74
    Participant

    Yes FormerlyDoS they have more than one 340 but they only operate one daily rotation on the A340, all the other services are on their A320s or A321s


    Drumochter
    Participant

    I’m not sure that opting for an Iberia operated flight LHR-MAD will resolve your check-in issues because since Iberia moved their flights from T3 to T5 at the end of March their flights are now allocated a BA flight number in the first instance and are considered with regard to ground handling at T5 as BA flights. (Perhaps someone can explain why this is necessary.) Consequently even if you bought the ticket from Iberia when attepmting to check-in you will still be re-directed to the BA website. Since the Terminal change I have never succeeded in successfully completing an on-line check-in at ba.com nor have I ever received the Avios for the LHR-MAD sector without registering a separate request again at Iberia.com. The inbound Iberia flights MAD-LHR are unaffected with the IBE flight numbers being used for the boarding cards and baggage tags.


    Tim2soza
    Participant

    Same issue if you book a AA operated flight on the BA site. Your booking reference seems not to exist on either site for seat changes, bags and all that good stuff. Utterly disconnected. You have to call direct.

    Another example of the Oneworld bliss… you cannot book a domestic AA flight on the BA site, even on BA code shares.

    Customer service lines are also separated; book a BA coded flight on AA metal and you have to deal with AA customer service if you need help. My complaints to AA have gone unanswered (beyond the auto answer) for six weeks. My complaints about my complaints are also ignored.

    The alliance and code shares exist only in marketing utopia, and in reality are operational nonsense from the customer perspective.

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