Britsh Airways Check In - WARNING

A snowHead

I booked my BA half term flights to Zurich last March. Last Friday I had shedloads of work to finish, personal things to sort out and then with driving down to Gatwick straight from school on Friday afternoon I didn't get a chance to check in online (this is I believe open 24 hours before the flight).

I turned up at Gatwick just before 6.00am for the 7.45 flight and the check in machine would not issue a boarding pass directing me to customer service who then directed me to a "special check in" who advised me that the flight was full and that I was on stand by. After many arguments along the line of "I booked 11 months ago", "frequent flyer member", etc, etc I was politely advised (also agreeing with me that they had a crap system) that I would not know until after check in had closed if I would have the seat that I had paid BA for 11 months previously. This was being replicated with many other parties on many different flights and it being half term week mostly with young children. Anyway 40 minutes before flight time BA graciously advised me that I could have the seats that I had paid for. I then had 40 minutes to check in cases, deposit skis with outsize luggage, clear security and sprint to the gate. All plans for a leisurely check in and breakfast were replaced by a stressful experience.

Once bitten twice shy we managed to check in via my daughter's ipod touch on Friday evening for our Saturday flight from Zurich. On arrival at the Airport I was approached as to whether I would like to fly with Lufthansa to London as an alternative (this was being offered to many other customers too). On finding out it was to Heathrow it was not an alternative for me. But after talking to other BA customers who had been given boarding passes but no seat allocation it was clear that BA had severely overbooked this flight too.

I realise that airlines overbook but to me this smacks of poo-poo service (should they just prioritise on online check-ins, or could other facors ie price paid, date booked, etc be taken into account). I will be complaining to BA about this but want to share with other snowHead

s that online check in during busy periods could be the difference between getting on their flight or not. I think also they are some snowHead

's with senior BA experience who could comment.

My main advice for BA (and other airline) customers is, sod work, etc, book in online so you are not disappointed!

Edited to correct the effects of one glass of wine too many last night Embarassed

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Colin B, thanks for posting this, what a s****y start to hols. I am flying with them next week on flights we booked & paid for last March so will make sure we check-in online. Sounds more like Ryanair to me.

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On that issue, do Ryanair ever overbook flights? Because (all their?) tickets are non-refundable, with a charge for changes of name/flight, I think their business model is based on guaranteeing the revenue for each flight, whereas BA sells plenty of refundable tickets per flight.

I can't recall hearing of an overbooked Ryanair flight.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Horrendous, and inexcusable. There was some rationale for overbooking in the days when your ticket was as good as cash and you could just turn up another day. But now, especially with BA's particularly inflexible system, there seems no justification for this at all. If they sell all the seats to people who won't get a refund if they don't turn up, how can they possibly justify bumping people off?

Hope you had a good holiday, though.

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Colin B, Firstly being 'bumped' is a horrendous experience for anyone and I dont believe that the recently introduced compensation levels for denied boarding in any way reflect the actual 'pain' of such actions.

My views on 'overbooking' have changed considerably over the years, not surprisingly I have a lot more sympathy with the customer than in the past ( what a whore! ) but there are good reasons for this. I spent 10 years worrying about overbooking flight profiles for Friday evening personal flights to France ... but only once failed to travel.

The history behind the management of 'overbooking profiles' was primarily down to these things :-
- Flexible tickets (pam w, there are still a large number of flexible tickets sold and there always have been restrictions, difference being that now more restricted tickets are sold via different channels ( eg online) and there is greater transparency of what those restrictions are as you see them at the time of booking) and
- 'False' ticketing --- many agents 'constructed' fares and itineraries to reduce the cost which included 'not flown' coupons ie sectors that were not used by the customer. The customer did not necessarily see those coupons and you had to understand 'airline speak' to see it on your paper ticket. We could argue about the whys and wherefores of that for years but it is less prevalent now with online booking systems.
- Consol ticketing / 'Blocks' -- where the agent/TO knows the customer/no of tix sold but the airline doesnt, nor necessarily the precise number of tix sold ( I've significantly oversimplified that process ) . Less prevalent than days of yore as more of us travel independently and consol is less prevalent in most countries.
- Reservations made, but not on the system due to lack of computer access --- now I'm showing my age, but it can still happen!

The airline Revenue Management people, processes and systems were designed to optimise the net revenue from each flight by 'managing' those events. They dont always get it right although until denied boarding costs are significantly larger they will always take greater risks. In defense of BA they have a history of 'offering' higher levels of compensation than required by law and rarely are people 'denied boarding' although many go through ColinB's experience of a wait whilst it is sorted.. I have no idea of current numbers.

The biggest 'background' issue to this imo is many airlines approach on short-haul flights with 'flexible' business class seating arrangements. ie where airlines can increase Club class seating whilst removing a greater number of economy class seats . The airline earns significantly more money from Business Class seats than from those of us who sit down the back .. and if those tickets are sold 'last minute' then they are sold at full business class rate. Very tempting monies with just the need to potentially bump some poor oik who just happens to be going skiing. I see ColinB was flying to Zurich on a Friday evening .. perhaps the gnomes can still afford to fly up front and book late
rolling eyes

Suffice to say that I believe airlines should be made to 'fix' their cabin sizes as soon as they have chosen to sell (regardless of class) all the seats in any cabin on an aircraft. If they choose to 'bump' within cabin class is, for me, a slightly different challenge.

BA's denied boarding practices and processes seem to me to be better than others BUT folks will always argue over priorities. Online check-in does not make that any easier as the OP identifies ... and airlines do stop online check-in on some occasions ( others may have experienced this) when they realise they have an overbooking issue -- it isnt just first come, first served.

David Goldsmith, They all do it ( or rather did ) , but you are right there is less reason to even consider it if you have one booking channel ( online via your own res system) and non-refundable/changeable tickets. I admire O'Leary for that ( and many other process simpifications), he has set out to to take cost and complexity out and achieved it. His model require the BA/AF/LH to exist but good for him for not only reducing cost but, imo, improving the product at the same time.

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After all it is free

I have never been on an overbooked low-cost airline flight (Ryanair, easyjet, German Wings).

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Agenterre, fair comment - but although I have been on really full flights, I have never been aware of anybody being bumped. Mind you, I do try to check in reasonably early.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I like the idea that if I have paid for a flight 10 months ago, then the airline should honour that booking. The budget airlines have their own ways of canceling flights in comparison to the 'over booking' system by the nationals

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If this happens then it is a dodgy tactic to happen too much and too often.... it strikes me as too much hassle to deal with p**ed off customers to be worth doing...

I don't know what the nuimber of no-shows are...but that would be the typical number of over-books, to my thinking..

Anything else is bad PR and looking for trouble... Afte rall, they have your money...why should they care too much about chasing extras..it isn't as if airlines have to rely on spend-on-board..??? as that would doom any airline, I'd have thought. Sure, they don't turn it down but ....

I used to commute every other week between LHR and Rome or Zurich with BA. Of all the airlines I've used BA were by far the worst for overbooking. Although I always got my intended flight, I would say that easily 80%+ of the time there were announcements at the gate asking for people to volunteer going on a later flight for a small compensation, and often the Friday evening flight back they would even give compensation and pay a hotel for N people to take the Saturday morning flight. Now that must one very crazy and risky business model.

On Lufthansa, I've only come across 1 overbooked flight, where I took probably the last business class seat, and my boss who used the machine after me got bumped to cattle class. OK he got to fly on the same plane, but the compensation is dire... a 1700 euro business ticket gets something like 2 free cattle class vouchers valid for a year.

I doubt there's as much of an issue on the no-frills airlines (wish people would stop calling them cheap or low-cost), since most tickets will be for a specific flight, unlike scheduled, where there are missed connections and us business travellers that like to change flights 2 hours before departure.

You know it makes sense.

achilles, I never have on any one of them either ... although I was strangely moved to a later flight when I once checked checked in 'just-in-time' at Luton once. I never did find out the real reason why though to be fair. They may genuinely have closed the flight early... and I didnt bother finding out why afterwards as there were major ATC problems that day and both flights arrived one after the other. BTW --pm me your email address I have a Ppoint presentation you will love.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Agenterre, done.

A snowHead

andy, BA's practice was ( and seems as if it still is ) to call and pay for voluntary offloads earlier for CS reasons, others wing it a lot later. If you have ever volunteered you will know that much of the time you actually get on anyway. This, of course, must then be another disappointment by that time.

I agree with others and much prefer the US practice of selling 'subject to load' tickets if things look busy.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

achilles, I was taking an Easyjet flight from Bristol to Geneva last season which had a delayed departure because Bristol airport were struggling to get passengers on to the plane because they lacked transport buses, and the pilot apologised to those of us already on the plane and hoped we would understand and then said 'lucky that the passengers struggling to get to the plane were on Easyjet rather than Ryanair because Ryanair would have left their passengers behind in such circumstances'.

All airlines cancel from time to time, but I feel the nationals tend to have more flexibility to sort it out.

I do really rate Easyjet and the service they provide, likewise BA

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rayscoops, interesting. My preference generally is easyJet - but German Wings has also been a good experience. Long time since I have flown BA, come to think of it - mainly because of trying to avoid Gatwick and Heathrow rather than the airline as such.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

achilles, same here, but if BA were out still out of Bristol I would fly with them.

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[quote="achilles"]

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Agenterre, Thanks for the industry insiders view. Just a couple of things. I actually flew out last Saturday morning, not Friday evening, after staying over near Gatwick. The flight was full of familes heading to Switzerland for half term not business travellers. This is something BA should have been blindingly aware of and I would expect would change the dynamics of "no shows" etc.

After all it is free

Colin B, Yes, you're right it should have changed the profiles for that flight .. totally.

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rob@rar, I haven't complained yet, that's a job for this evening. Both my daughter and I are members of their Executive Club so I expect that could be a possibility.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

For those noting no bumping from budget-air - easyjet bumped people on our flight back from geneva a couple of weeks ago - BUT we had every sympathy - it was during the uk snow and they couldn't get anything down in bristol or luton as far as I could see - not so much overbooked as b*****d by the weather. They were offering £100 iirc and seemed to be managing the process as well as could be expected. aj xx

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Agenterre,

saikee,

You know it makes sense.

saikee, Everyone with a 'flexible' Business Class cabin can do this ( where they can move the cabin dividers/ curtains), that is every airline, that I can think of, in Europe.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Agenterre,

I did not interpret your write-up. It is my own experience as I do travel regularly overseas in connection with my work. I have been messed around by all the big players. I somehow think it is the money in the long haul flights that drive BA to this behaviour. Without a full connection the customer can take their business elsewhere.

A snowHead

saikee, aarrgggh .. my misinterpretation then ! I'm not getting into the 'Freedoms' and how that effects Revenue Mgt .. wink

A snowHead

That is pant's by BA. Why don't they publish a fact saying those that check-in on-line first will get a seat.. I don't think the budget airlines overbook as I flew Easyjet Stansted to Geneva on 13.02.2009 at 17:40 and arrived at there at 16:50 without checking in on-line with skis and in a BIG PANIC about getting thru security. Checked in and skis checked thru oversize baggage in 10 minutes... 25 minutes to get thru security and ran straight to the gate!!! Never crossed my ind about them been overbooked. Little Angel

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Coming back from Kirkwood in 2006 I was one of the first in the queue for the Virgin flight from SFO to Heathrow. Staff came up to us and said the flight was "hideously overbooked". What Virgin offered would have been amazing for those who could have taken advantage of it, 3 nights free accommodation and board in SF, and a free return flight to SFO for use anytime in the next 12months.

I would have bitten off her hand to accept it normally, alas my visa was up the next day and it would have left me flying into London with way to much luggage for a domestic flight, was booked on the ScotRail Sleeper and it didn't run on Sat and I had to be back in Inverness for that weekend anyway. Was kinda gutted ! Was kicking myself the whole way back, damn sod it, I should have said yes!

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Winterhighland, that's right. If you have the flexibility an over-booked flight can provide opportunities for some nice freebies. I did once (also on the San Francisco - London route) and they gave me enough Flying Club miles for a couple of economy returns to the USA. Must use them one of these days...

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

overbooking is one of the times when you want to be a gold card holder..... with virgin you are guaranteed a seat on the flight...some other poor sod gets bumped so you can travel Little Angel

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Trumpton, no I don't think the budget airlines over-book, as was said above their business model is different as they do not sell any fully flexible tickets.

Unfortunately it's not possible to check in online with easyjet if you have luggage! I find that very annoying.

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After all it is free

Michelle, the only reason i can think of is is it gets you an earlier boarding group? Seems a bit of a waste of time, though I guess if you're a family or in a group who are all desperate to to sit together it might be worth it.

Michelle, to go straight to the dedicated bag drop and avoid the check-in queues maybe Puzzled

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beanie1, good thinking Batman Very Happy

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