Most travelers know that the days of rushing to the airport and getting on a plane at the last minute are over.
Passengers have been advised for a long time that they should arrive at least an hour in advance for domestic flights, and two hours for international flights. As I warn clients, between tighter security and the desire for on-time departures, increasingly the airlines mean it. One carrier that is absolutely serious about check-in times is British Airways.
In a nutshell, British Airways closes international flights one hour prior to departure. Period. For tardy travelers, that’s not the worst of it, as a client learned last week.
She had forgotten something at home, turned around and went back for it, and thus was running really late for a 9:20 p.m. San Francisco to London flight, the second of two flights operated by British Airways that night. She couldn’t check in online. So, she then called her administrative assistant from the car, asking her to help. But, as it was less than two hours prior to the flight, online check-in was closed.
Her next idea: Have someone call the airport. But, that wasn’t an option. British Airways not only closes their flights 60 minutes prior to departure, they completely close their check-in gates at San Francisco an hour prior to the last flight of the night.
So, when she arrived at San Francisco International Terminal at 8:30 p.m, there was no one there to help. While she tried very hard to get help, even from other airlines, no one could do anything. She couldn’t get through security to plead her case at the gate and she missed her flight.
At this point, her assistant and I were looking at other options with other airlines, or a flight the next day, which she finally agreed to take. But because she hadn’t arrived on time, British Airways marked the ticket as a no-show and zeroed it out, meaning she was going to forfeit the entire $9,000.
The new ticket was already going to be about $15,000 in business class with a last minute fare on a nearly full flight, so losing $9,000 on top of that seemed unnecessarily punitive. So, I contacted British Airways’ sales support for their preferred travel agents. (They are based in India, and open 24-7). Their response was, “Sorry, the ticket has no value.”
Our agency does a lot of business with British Airways. The next morning I reached out to our U.S. sales representative personally. To make a long story short, the representative was able to get the airline to agree to apply the first ticket towards the new one, so the tardiness “only” cost the client $6,000.
This story could have been much worse in a lot of ways. First, it was a business trip and the traveler had the resources to cover the difference. Next, had she booked online or with an agency without a good relationship with British Airways, she would have ended up paying about $24,000 for the trip instead of $15,000.
No doubt, most readers of this story cannot imagine spending so much on an airline ticket. However, the same late check-in principle applies to the lowest coach fares on British Airways. If a passenger misses a flight, while travel insurance might help in some cases — say, a traffic accident on the way to the airport — simply being late is generally not a covered reason.
Other airlines also say passengers lose the ticket value if they miss a flight, or show up later than their required check-in time. But some, like United, for example, give travelers until the end of the same day to show up at the airport. (United, however, doesn’t guarantee you’ll get on a later flight.)
If a passenger absolutely knows they will arrive at the airport too late to make a flight, they should call to cancel before departure or cancel online. This generally will mean travelers get at least some credit, although, again, airlines may have different cut-off times for cancellation. Note: Some of these new “economy-minus” fares are absolutely nonrefundable and unchangeable.
But with British Airways, the moral of this story is simple: Show up on time. If a traveler forgets something at home, unless it’s a passport or something critical, it will probably be cheaper to buy it at the airport.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
