British Airways issues - help

[zico]

BA are refusing to acknowledge I have a valid complaint with them, so I'd appreciate advice on how to proceed. As I understand it, I should first raise a complaint with the airline, wait for a 'final answer' letter from them, and I can then apply for independent arbitration.

The background.

I bought a round-the-world ticket from British Airways under the One world alliance, which includes BA and other carriers.
They mistakenly sent me a ticket which included a Dallas-San Jose del Cabo in Mexico when I wanted to go to San Jose, Costa Rica.
I informed them of their mistake in early February and they charged me an admin fee to make the 'change I requested '.
I complained and pointed out it was their mistake so they refunded the admin charge.Sent
I checked BA has changed my itinerary, and they also sent me the revised itinerary.

Last week I turned up at Dallas airport only to find BA had not made the change, insofar as they had (crucially) not passed on the details to American Airlines, so I had no seat on their flight.
I contacted BA, who charged me another 'change' admin fee (this time it was £278) and passed on the change to American Airlines, but too late for me to catch my intended flight.
I used BA's form to complain,and received the message 'your problem was with American Airlines, so nothing to do with us, guv'.
I replied disputing this (obviously) but have since heard nothing from them.

Any suggestions welcome.

[seagles]

flyertalk might be a good start. The thread on uk261 may be able to help. Although this may not fit that path they have a great deal of experience dealing with BA.

[bluedonkey]

Perhaps try complaining via your credit card company if you paid that way.

[Dicky99]

Is it possible that BA did notify the change to AA and it was the latters error? Even if that were the case as a BA customer I'd have hoped they would resolve the matter on your behalf with AA.

[Lootman]

I bought a round-the-world ticket from British Airways under the One world alliance, which includes BA and other carriers. They mistakenly sent me a ticket which included a Dallas-San Jose del Cabo in Mexico when I wanted to go to San Jose, Costa Rica.

I have never bought a round-the-world ticket but I would have thought that each arrival airport is also the departure airport for the next leg of your trip. So did they book you as departing from San Jose del Cabo in Mexico or from San Jose, Costa Rica?

I have heard of other passengers having problems like this because San Jose is a common name. There is also San Jose, California of course. I generally book using airport codes rather than airport names, although in this case they are all similar as well:

San Jose del Cabo, Mexico: SJD
San Jose, Costa Rica: SJO
San Jose, California: SJC

Not sure if you are still in Dallas but you could always try the BA desk at the airport, open at the time of the daily flight from/to London, evening I think.

[masped]

Agree that posting on flyertalk is going to be the best way to proceed, both in terms of understanding what went wrong and how to go about getting redress. You will be limited to five posts on your first day, so bear that in mind.

If you haven't received a final response from BA you can still go to independent arbitration if eight weeks have passed since making your initial complaint. The company is called CEDR: https://www.cedr.com/consumer/aviation/overview/

[zico]

Thanks to American Airlines we managed to get a flight to Costa Rica later the same day, but we had to book an extra night at a San Jose hotel as it was much too late to get to our hotel on the coast.

It's definitely BAs fault, after I phoned them from Dallas, it took an hour on the phone from me, and another 30 minutes to notify, AA but just 2 minutes too late for us to get on the original flight.

My problem is that it seems I can't go to arbitration without a 'final response' from BA on my complaint, but they are refusing to acknowledge i I have a complaint with them.

I'm planning to send an email to them saying my complaint date starts from when I notified them, and I'll go to arbitration in 8 weeks time, unless anyone has any better ideas.

[servodude]

Thanks to American Airlines we managed to get a flight to Costa Rica later the same day, but we had to book an extra night at a San Jose hotel as it was much too late to get to our hotel on the coast.

It's definitely BAs fault, after I phoned them from Dallas, it took an hour on the phone from me, and another 30 minutes to notify, AA but just 2 minutes too late for us to get on the original flight.

My problem is that it seems I can't go to arbitration without a 'final response' from BA on my complaint, but they are refusing to acknowledge i I have a complaint with them.

I'm planning to send an email to them saying my complaint date starts from when I notified them, and I'll go to arbitration in 8 weeks time, unless anyone has any better ideas.

Start by making sure everything is logged - dates, times, durations, what was conveyed; as it could take some time
Airlines are pretty well versed in dragging stuff out until you just wither and die. So start being a squeaky wheel

Looks like BA are registered with https://www.cedr.com/ so you could look there

The other obvious option would be travel insurance; whether bought independently for the trip, annual, or through a credit card scheme?

[seagles]

Reading flyertalk it seems BA have changed their process/system on complaints and email acknowledge is a thing of the past (may change with the feedback), recommendation is to take screen shot of the complaint when it returns the reference number. If you get nowhere then after 8 weeks you can go to arbitration. Keep complaint short, one sentence. As I said flyertalk Is always worth a visit especially for delayed, cancelled and "denied boarding" with BA. Have used it myself in the past and their knowledge and advice was spot on.