[Graham]

UK based, and planning a trip to LA next year, and looking at booking business class Dublin – LA return. BA route via Heathrow – so the return means me arriving there, then getting a flight to Dublin, only to return back later

Whats the worse that could happen if i “miss my LHR – DUB leg”?

[FDOS_UK]

1 – BA may not short check your bag to London, so you would have to inform the staff and wait at Heathrow, to retrieve it – this could take an hour or two
2 – BA may do nothing for a ‘one off’, they could suspend/cancel your BAEC membership or they may seek to recover the increased fare mandated by the amended itinerary, though I believe the latter is highly unlikely

If you are going to do this, seek a return trip via LGW or LCY, so they will have to check your bag to LHR and then claim ‘stuck in traffic’ if you need to – you could even call in and ‘alert them’ – if they offer to change the booking, you’d need to have a good reason why you didn’t need this

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Book direct with BA. Do not book via an agency – they will get billed the fare difference which they most likely pass to you.

[Olneyflyer]

I have from time to time not used the last leg of a return that originates from outside of Heathrow. This is because I sometimes need to reschedule my weekend that necessitates me being in London. I have used Dublin and Paris CDG outbound and as the designated end stop without incurring any issues when not using the last leg. I only travel on business with a small case so luggage has never been an issue either. I agree that eventually you take the risk of BA taking action. However I only avoid the last leg in one of every twenty or so bookings that I make direct with BA. Therefore I suspect that they simply overlook the odd ‘no show’. Also agree that you should not use an agent if you want to use this strategy.

[FDOS_UK]

I’d love to see an airline try to claim the extra fare from a pax.

Airline – “the pax breached our contract and we wish to recover damages from them”

Judge to pax – “what have you got to say about that?”

Pax – “I did breach the contract and am prepared to pay for the losses arising from this, if the airline can specify them”.

Judge to airline – “What losses are you claiming?”

Airline “We could have sold the itinerary flown at a higher price”

Judge to airline – “maybe you could, but that isn’t a loss, it’s a hypothesis – so tell me what actual losses are you claiming – did you have to carry the passenger further, carry his baggage further, give him more meals – please do tell”

Airline “erm………”

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

FDOS – I’d love to see an agency stand up on this and take BA (or the other airlines who do the same thing) to court over it. But no one seemingly will.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=824762]FDOS – I’d love to see an agency stand up on this and take BA (or the other airlines who do the same thing) to court over it. But no one seemingly will.

[/quote]

Tim, I think it is a different situation for the agency and very difficult, due to the nature of the agreements/contracts in place, as well as it being a B2B, rather than B2C relationship. The former has swathes of consumer protection.

[PeterCoultas]

FDOS has it right about transfer to an LCY-DUB flight (is there one?) as a recent drive dropping off the other half at heathrow and then driving to LCY for my (luckily much later flight) took me over 5 hours due to horrendous traffic…by tube much quicker but no fun with suitcases…

[AMcWhirter]

Peter – Plenty of LCY-DUB flights with BA and others.

Driving from LHR to LCY must be horrendous (unless in the wee hours). But things will look up when Elizabeth Line opens. I believe LHR-Canary Wharf will take 40 mins.

[Mikeact]

This old chestnut has been around for 50 years. I’ve yet to hear of somebody who ‘got caught’. Just be aware of your luggage being tagged to the final destination. This is always a popular ‘option’ when traveling ex EU connecting through the UK.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=824907]This old chestnut has been around for 50 years. I’ve yet to hear of somebody who ‘got caught’. Just be aware of your luggage being tagged to the final destination. This is always a popular ‘option’ when traveling ex EU connecting through the UK.

[/quote]

A niche travel agent was sanctioned by BA in the recent past.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1731641-our-ex-eu-horror-story.html

[FRANCESCABARNES]

I frequently fly to the States and because of the fare difference I take a cheapie across to Dublin having booked a Dublin originating return. On my return from the States at check-in I mention that I have last minute Business in London and need my bags checked only through to LHR where I’ll be changing my last leg back to DUB……I have never had any problem or had the request queried.

[capetonianm]

This old chestnut has indeed been around for many years, but it has become easier for airlines for airlines to track and prevent revenue leakage through means that they would regard as ‘devious’.

Many fares rules have a paragraph such as ‘full and consecutive use must be made of all flight coupons’. This is a bilateral contract and gives them the theoretical right to recover, as illogical and unfair as it might seem, the fare difference when someone fails to fly the last segment since as we know this can produce a higher fare.

Whether they would do so or not depends on a number of factors already mentioned, and I think they would be reluctant to take a passenger to court on this one for some of the reasons cited above.

If the booking is made through an agent, it is easy for them to bill the agency by ADM (Agency Debit Memo) which would probably be non-disputable, meaning that the onus is placed on the agent to recover from the passenger, which would be difficult or impossible unless the they could prove ongoing attempts to avoid payment of the correct fare.

It is certainly not a ‘myth’ that the airlines can, and will, take action to avoid revenue losses.

A couple of years ago I was called in to a well known agency to help them to get a number of ADMs withdrawn. Many of the ADMs were valid as they were due to incorrect or fraudulent manipulation of IT or other negotiated fare types, so they ended up paying those.

Some of the others were as per the topic of this thread, but the airline concerned had billed them only after issuing warnings. I was able to get some of them reversed, in cases where it was a ‘one-off’ but where the same passenger had made the same journey repeatedly over a period of time, they were upheld and had to be paid.

[MartynSinclair]

Can an agent not protect themselves with a terms of agreement with their clients that the agency have the right to recover the cost of any flight amends billed directly to the from the airline(s) relevant to the tickets purchased & this amount can be billed directly to the clients charge/credit card?

I read the link on f/t from FDoS. Whilst I feel sorry for the agent concerned, he must surely have known about the risks involved yet didn’t implement any risk strategy to protect himself.

[FDOS_UK]

But what can they recover, Martyn? The English legal system is based on damages to restore the claimant to the position s/he would have been in had the breach not occured.

The fact is that the airline chose to sell that seat to the passenger for a price – they could have refused and sold it for a higher price to someone else, but they did not.

Did they incur any losses from the passenger ‘no showing’ for the final leg.

Say you go to a restaurant with a special offer for a 3 course meal, a ‘formule’ as our French friends say. If you ordered the starter and main from the a la carte menu, they would be more expensive than the all in price.

Now, you feel full after the first two courses and decide to skip the dessert – have you ever known a Maitre d’ comes across and demand you pay the a la carte price?

Considering the raft of consumer protection laws in place, it would be a brave airline lawyer who took on an individual in a senior Court and created a precedent – agents are a softer target for various reasons.

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