British Airways Online Help!

[GregRoy]

We fly to America tomorrow for a holiday. There’s me, DP and my DS who is 10.

I have uploaded our covid documentation but DS is not vaccinated (and doesn’t need to be to enter the US) so I selected the exempt as under 17 button. Our documents have been verified but his have not (although there’s no actual documents to verify) so we are unable to check in online.

our seats are already allocated but now I’m worried that something will go wrong. Has anyone had this? I have called BA but he couldn’t really understand what I was asking him and basically just repeated the same information.

thanks!

If it won’t let you check in online then just check in at the airport. The call centre don’t have access to the check in system so that’s your only option. There’s nothing to worry about if you have the correct documentation or exemption.

As the PP said, you can check-in at the airport, or if you have booked through a travel agent, contact them and ask if they’re able to help.
We couldn’t check our DS in due to him changing from technically a child to adult after booking even though we had booked an adult ticket/seat for him. Our travel agent contacted the airline who sorted it out for us.

Was it one of the document verification apps? Just remembered we had to do that last year. I can’t remember the name of it, but DH and I were approved really quickly, but our unvaccinated DS’s approval took a few hours.

It’s not so much the checking in I’m worried about, it’s that the seats will be allocated to someone else. We haven’t paid for our seats but we’ve chosen them already and it does say confirmed on the app, but I’m worried someone else will check in and be allocated them 🙈

I did all of our covid stuff last week so there’s been plenty of time and I’m not too sure what needs verifying, his date of birth shows he’s 10 and I clicked the under 17 option.

i’m just a worrier, I’ve organised this whole holiday, we’ve saved for years and until we’re up in the air on our way I won’t be able to relax

Are you sure you haven’t renewed his passport since getting the esta? We got caught out this way and had to hastily apply for a new esta whilst at the airport the night before our flight - luckily it came through by morning.

Also - has he got six months on his passport from the date of return?

ESTA was done a few weeks ago, passport runs out next year so all good on that front!

You’ll be fine just check in at the airport.

You could try to pm them on Twitter. They’ve always responded to me quite quickly

If your seat is confirmed then there is nothing to worry about.

If I'm being honest, checking in online doesn't stop BA from moving your seats. It's happened to me between checking in online and the luggage drop. Even when they'd allocated my seats due to a medical need.

One time they decided to take our four booked and confirmed seats (in business class) and scatter us through the cabin each in the middle seat (which isn't used in short haul business class).

So I don't think not being able to check in online should put your confirmed seats at any more risk than the checked in ones. But I share your frustration.

@GregRoy is your holiday booked through BA or just your flights? If it's the holiday, email the duty office (address should be on your voucher) and they can check the status of your seats.

Same here with BA business class seat swap but between check-in and the gate. Had a visually disabled relative who had been moved and sat by themselves.

Also had a Qatar flight where 10 days before flying they cancelled our reserved seats, and left us with three random seats all over the cabin. Luckily a couple of days before flying, 3 seats together became available so we booked them.

They’re now on our “shit list” of airlines to avoid if others are available.

Fluffypuppy1 that's awful. I hope they changed the seats.

I complained (as I wanted an aisle to stretch out my leg after a hip replacement which I tried to explain). Plus you're only really paying for the unused middle seat on short-haul business class.

The staff at check in fobbed me off very rudely and said only the gate staff could change my seat. The gate staff wouldn't help and said to speak to the cabin crew. Spoke to the cabin crew and they said they weren't allowed to ask passengers to move seats and the gate staff should have helped. A typical BA circle of ineptitude.

dig135 no, sadly our experience was similar to yours. Gate staff said ask the cabin crew, but they said that they weren’t able to help. We had joined the BA loyalty club, so I did check if there was any way to add a note to future bookings to prevent that from happening again, but the only option is to ask for cabin crew assistance during the flight. So relative (DH) would need to ask for help finding his seat, going to the bathroom when needed, and locating his seat again. He obviously prefers that DS or I do that. He doesn’t need to be physically walked to the bathroom, just given specific directions as to where it is, and then is usually able to find his seat on the way back to us as he can recognise DS and I sat together. Quite how the cabin crew helping would work if we all needed to evacuate the aircraft in an emergency I have no idea 🤷‍♀️. It’s really frustrating when you book a holiday months in advance, your travel agent books your seats together as soon as the flight is released, and then your seats get messed around with days/hours before the flight. Especially when there appears to be plenty of available seats a week prior to the flight.

I hope that you at least got some kind of refund if you were all split up and sat in the usually empty middle seat?

That's very frustrating. If you can't prioritise someone genuinely needing help, it's a poor show.

I hope that you at least got some kind of refund if you were all split up and sat in the usually empty middle seat?

I did eventually although they were totally unapologetic. They were trying to squeeze on passengers from a cancelled flight (which I understand) but sat the economy passengers from the cancelled flights in our seats and scattered us around the middle seats. You'd have thought they could at least have kept three of the four seats in one row and we could have occupied the middle seat if it needed to be used.

BA also shifted my booking back three rows on my last two flights (also reserved through their medical assistance department). Not a disaster but not sure what all the emergency last minute seat moves are due to.

Could you please post how it all ended? I am flying next week with BA to the US with kids and also worrying about covid documents. I prefer not to check in at the airport if it can be avoided because it is an early morning flight .. and worried about seats as well.

Wow! That’s appalling. Especially if it was through a medical assistance department. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing. We did have the middle seat free, but the cabin crew totally disappeared after the meal was served, and we ended up with a constant stream of economy class passengers coming through the curtain and queuing in the aisle for the bathrooms at the front of the plane. By the sound of it, they thought that the bathrooms would be better. 🤦‍♀️ Definitely wouldn’t pay the extra for short haul business class BA flights again.

You don't need to for travel to the USA.

We’re at Heathrow now, we’ve checked in for the first leg (to dublin) but it wouldn’t let us check in at the machines, we’ve check in at the desk but it wouldn’t let the woman check us in all the way through and she’s not sure why so we need to recheck in when we land in Ireland and now I’m a nervous wreck rhag a) we won’t be able to check and and b) our luggage will go missing 😔

So are you actually flying with air lingus?