Qantas denied boarding, BA rebooked on another carrier -> no points

[Oboler]

I'm a Qantas Gold member and recently flew around the world on a ticket booked with Qantas via their website. My return leg was Glasgow to London with BA, London to Singapore with Qantas, and Singapore to Melbourne with Qantas. The BA flight was due to arrive into Heathrow 2 hours before the Qantas flight would depart. It ran 40 minutes late, but myself and a few other passengers also transferring to the QF flight to Singapore managed to change terminals and make it to the gate just as boarding was starting. We queued with the other passengers, but when our boarding passes were scanned they flashed red. Qantas told us BA has cancelled our boarding passes and we need to go see the BA service desk in another part of the terminal.

I asked the Qantas staff if they could reissue the boarding pass, the denied it was anything to do with them, or that they could do anything to help, and fobbed it off to BA. Going to see the BA service desk meant missing the flight. On speaking to the BA service desk I was issued a boarding pass for a Singapore Airlines flight London to Singapore, and another Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Melbourne, I asked if I could get the next Qantas flight (which would not be until the next morning). I was told no, this was the flight I have to take. Another person in the same circumstances WAS (effectively randomly) put on the next Qantas flight.

The result of this was being shifted to a middle seat on both Singapore flights, not the seat I had booked months in advance. Baggage did not make the same flight, so it took days to be reunited with it. As I did not fly Qantas or even One World, no status points and no FF points. All this despite the fact I was at the gate, with my boarding pass on time and as a recently as few minutes before getting to the gate my boarding pass had been scanned while changing terminals and was coming up as valid.

Qantas are denying it is anything to do with them saying it is a BA matter. I have asked for the denied boarding compensation policy (which their terms say is "available on request") and they have been unable or unwilling to provide it. The policy I had found makes no mention of being denied board at the random whim of another airline. If you are denied boarding e.g. due to over booking, they are required to asked for volunteers first, and if you are shifted to another flight it is supposed to be the next Qantas flight. I have written to BA, but I'm not expecting much luck with that.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any tips on resolving this?

 

[Oboler]

A quick update, I have written to ask for an Original Routing Credit to see if that will at least recover the lost points. Thanks to this article for that idea: Qantas Flight Disruptions: How to Claim an Original Routing Credit

 

[antycbr]

Do you have a VA or SQ account? (Or another star alliance program?) If you were rebooked on SQ then it might well be a fully flexible fare and will earn quite a lot of points.

Combined with Original Routing Credit on QF you could do quite well.

 

[Princess Fiona]

You aren’t going to get anything from QF for denied boarding if BA you offloaded you due to the predicted late arrival of your inbound from GLA.

As you have noted above, ask QF for Original Routing Credit for the missed QF legs and then retro claim the SQ flights to VA if you can.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Oboler Welcome to AFF
When were the flights?
Flights close well before boarding.
Depending on the reason for the BA GLA delay and the time of arrival in MEL, you may be eligible for UK261 compensation. But will be hard to get.

BA LHR T5 is very strict on times (conformance). Your "scanned while changing terminals and was coming up as valid." So then denied boarding unusual.

London Heathrow Terminal 5 | Airport information | British Airways

British Airways fly to many of destinations around the world from Terminals 1, 3 and 5 at London Heathrow airport. Find out more about Heathrow.

www.britishairways.com

And welcome home.

 

[TheInsider]

Qantas are denying it is anything to do with them saying it is a BA matter. I have asked for the denied boarding compensation policy (which their terms say is "available on request") and they have been unable or unwilling to provide it.

Not a Qantas error or issue whatsoever.
If you are claiming something, it would have to be with BA. QF have no part of this discussion at all, besides the ORC.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not a Qantas error or issue whatsoever.
If you are claiming something, it would have to be with BA. QF have no part of this discussion at all, besides the ORC.

Technically they were denied boarding, by Qantas, albeit because they didn’t have valid boarding passes… or indeed even have a ticket on qantas at that point.

I agree Qantas’ actions were fair and reasonable in this case. They can’t carry someone without a ticket.

However, any airline should still be able to provide denied boarding policies and UK261 policy when requested.

 

[drron]

Yes it is like when I had our RTW J awards cancelled by QF when at CDG because we missed a flight that had been cancelled due to the French having one of their general strikes.
Thankfully AA reissued the tickets even though it was nothing to do with them.

 

[TheInsider]

Technically they were denied boarding, by Qantas, albeit because they didn’t have valid boarding passes… or indeed even have a ticket on qantas at that point.

No, it's not QF's issue.... BA delayed, BA then cancelled the onward ticket and rebooked the OP on SQ. Not a QF issue.

 

[drron]

No, it's not QF's issue.... BA delayed, BA then cancelled the onward ticket and rebooked the OP on SQ. Not a QF issue.

Just as it wasn't an AA issue in my case.

 

[RichardMEL]

Effectively BA reissued the ticket themselves - for SQ - so the comparision to the AA/Paris situation doesn't match up imo.

BA were proactive in this case - not the best outcome since pax made it to the gate in time, but imagine the other side of this coin if OP was delayed further, made it to T3 and QF door closed and they had NO protection figured out?

While middle seats on SQ suck fully and all, BA did reissue their ticket to get them to their destination which is what they should have done as the responsible carrier. Indeed rather than making them wait for the next QF or BA connections, popping on SQ could seen to be a better result in terms of getting to Oz ASAP depending on how the timings worked out.

IMO.

 

[encryptededdy]

As others have mentioned, make sure you double-dip the status credits and points. It may be a high booking class. Usually you can retroactively claim FF points with most carriers within a few months after a flight, provided the original booking had no FFP attached.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No, it's not QF's issue.... BA delayed, BA then cancelled the onward ticket and rebooked the OP on SQ. Not a QF issue.

It was a qantas issued ticket, for travel on a qantas flight. The passengers had boarding passes for the flight Qantas flight.

Any other time airlines won’t touch bookings issued by another carrier, or a travel agent, always referring you back to the issuing authority.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a passenger to appeal to the carrier who issued the ticket for assistance.

I agree with the outcome here… they were denied boarding due to no longer being in the flight. But from a passenger perspective it can be confusing and stressful.

Regardless, any airline should be able to provide polices and procedures around these matters if requested.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Qantas are denying it is anything to do with them saying it is a BA matter. I have asked for the denied boarding compensation policy (which their terms say is "available on request") and they have been unable or unwilling to provide it. The policy I had found makes no mention of being denied board at the random whim of another airline. If you are denied boarding e.g. due to over booking, they are required to asked for volunteers first, and if you are shifted to another flight it is supposed to be the next Qantas flight. I have written to BA, but I'm not expecting much luck with that.

It’s under section 10 of the conditions of carriage… refusal to carry:

• because your Ticket:
  • is not paid for
  • has been reported lost or stolen
  • has been transferred
  • has been acquired unlawfully
  • has been acquired from someone other than us or an Authorised Agent
  • contains an alteration which has not been made by us or an Authorised Agent
  • is spoiled, torn or damaged or has otherwise been tampered with, or
  • is counterfeit or otherwise invalid.

Unknown to you your ticket had already been transferred to SQ, so you no longer had a valid ticket for travel on Qantas.

 

[opusman]

I don't understand how BA can cancel boarding passes for a flight on QF booked via QF.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don't understand how BA can cancel boarding passes for a flight on QF booked via QF.

Under BA's IRROPS procedures they would have identified a potential misconnect and took steps to reroute the passenger at the earliest opportunity.

The existing ticket would have been transferred to SQ, so I'm guessing the boarding pass would have flashed a note that it was no longer supported by a ticket coupon on QF. Hence the 'you can't board'.

It's not so much cancelling the boarding pass itself, but changing the underlying ticket.

 

[TheInsider]

I don't understand how BA can cancel boarding passes for a flight on QF booked via QF.

Because they were delayed which was resulting in a misconnection on the QF flight. As being the delayed carrier, they are responsible for rebooking onward connections.

 

[serfty]

Because they were delayed which was resulting in a misconnection on the QF flight. As being the delayed carrier, they are responsible for rebooking onward connections.

Moreover, BA would be proactive on this 'cuz UK261 ...

On speaking to the BA service desk I was issued a boarding pass for a Singapore Airlines flight London to Singapore, and another Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Melbourne, I asked if I could get the next Qantas flight (which would not be until the next morning). I was told no, this was the flight I have to take. Another person in the same circumstances WAS (effectively randomly) put on the next Qantas flight.

What time did you arrive in MEL? Presumably you had been booked on QF036 to arrive ~6am?

 

[RichardMEL]

It was a qantas issued ticket, for travel on a qantas flight. The passengers had boarding passes for the flight Qantas flight.

Any other time airlines won’t touch bookings issued by another carrier, or a travel agent, always referring you back to the issuing authority.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a passenger to appeal to the carrier who issued the ticket for assistance.

I agree with the outcome here… they were denied boarding due to no longer being in the flight. But from a passenger perspective it can be confusing and stressful.

Regardless, any airline should be able to provide polices and procedures around these matters if requested.

As I see it this was a situation where the OP had checked in etc for flights ticketed BA->QF connection. At the point of checking in and under airport control, under irrops most of the usual rules about reticketing etc go out the window. Now unlike the other situation in recent through involving separate PNRs, this was easy. BA took charge and rebooked on SQ as the responsible airline to get them to the destination they were ticketed for. This basically is the way it's supposed to work.

Had this been an issue prior to check in.. say a month or so before, it would have probably been referred back to the issuing agent (in this case QF) - of course that would be a schedule change, not known irrops. Different situation.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As I see it this was a situation where the OP had checked in etc for flights ticketed BA->QF connection. At the point of checking in and under airport control, under irrops most of the usual rules about reticketing etc go out the window. Now unlike the other situation in recent through involving separate PNRs, this was easy. BA took charge and rebooked on SQ as the responsible airline to get them to the destination they were ticketed for. This basically is the way it's supposed to work.

Had this been an issue prior to check in.. say a month or so before, it would have probably been referred back to the issuing agent (in this case QF) - of course that would be a schedule change, not known irrops. Different situation.

Of course.

You know that. We know that.

But I don’t know if the average passenger knows that.

If you have a ticket booked through an airline and had boarding passes issued, I you might reasonably expect that airline to help you. And airlines don’t go out of their way to make understanding any easier. As you say… if anything happens before they day of travel they wash their hands of it.