To Not want to spend TWELVE hours in Heathrow airport??

[BritishAirwaysBarkingMad]

There is no logic to British Airways decision here whatsoever. Well maybe there is - is it at ALL possible that AIBU here?

We booked to travel Manchester to Barbados this summer with British Airways. This involves a short Manchester / Heathrow flight

This was our itinerary:
Outward
08:50 fly Manchester to Heathrow
11:45 fly Heathrow to Barbados

Return
17:20 fly Barbados to Heathrow arriving 06:30 next day
08:55 fly Heathrow to Manchester

BA then cancelled the return final leg to Manchester and automatically rebooked us onto a flight leaving at 06:55 from a different Heathrow terminal.
Thus the saga begins...

Phone call one (April):
I call to ask BA are they sure we will make the connection they have allocated to us. They immediately say no we won't as we have to change terminal. They say that if we miss the connection it is our problem and we will have to fund new flights. The only other option is a 12 hour wait till the next fight at 6:30pm. I am told to wait as more flights will probably be offered during the day.

Phone call two (May):
I get an email from BA asking me to call them. I am still booked onto the impossible to catch 06:55 LHR flight. Long long conversation about how there are no other alternatives apart from the 6:30pm fight. I ask whether BA will put us into a lounge for the 12 hours. I am told they can't do this. I must go and research lounges separately. I tell them repeatedly that we can't spend 12 hours in Heathrow having just got off an overnight flight. They offer me an alternative flight via Aberdeen which arrives slightly later than the 6:30pm one would. Then we both agree this was not a sensible alternative. I literally have no option but to agree to the 12 hours. Even though we can't leave the airport during that time, can't check into a hotel, and have two children.

Talk to DH who is understandably horrified. We spend a coupe of weeks dithering about what to do. Finally decide to drive to Heathrow the day before the flight, book hotel and parking at Heathrow.

Phone call three (this morning)
I call to cancel the MAN/LHR legs of the flight.
This is where the saga gets ridiculous.
I am told this is not possible as I agreed to the 6:30pm flight in my last phone call. My only option now is to cancel the whole trip and get a new quote for LHR to Barbados. Which by now has gone up by about £3k. So not an option. So they are forcing the four of us to spend TWELVE HOURS in Heathrow airport!

AIBU expecting them to just cancel the MAN/LHR legs?

I was told that all three phone calls are now being sent to 'BACK OFFICE' to be listened to. I will get a phone call in three to four days to tell me my options.

God I feel a bit better for just splurging all that to you all. Although I probably lost most of you many paragraphs ago.

Tweet them. Often gets better results. Why can’t you leave the airport?

Unless they cancel the outbound MAN-LHR you will probably find that your LHR-Barbados leg gets cancelled because you didn't travel on the first leg of the journey. So don't just take a gamble on skipping that first flight in the hope of joining it at LHR. As far as BA are concerned you've booked MAN - Barbados which is why they won't cancel part of it.

Thanks everyone, so nice to feel I'm not on my own here!

I asked whether we can just forget the short leg and arrive in LHR for our flight and was told no, that if we don't do the MAN/LHR leg then our flight to Barbados will be cancelled. this is because, they said, they treat the two flights as one flight.

We are wondering whether to take the first Manchester flight and then make our own way home from Heathrow somehow. But all our luggage will be bound for Manchester Airport.

The children are 9 and 13 so not a complete disaster there. Can you imagine with toddlers/babies!!

They told me I couldn't leave the airport as our luggage would be in transit.

I did ask BA to provide a taxi instead but was told no this was not an option. Surprise!

Thanks to the person who suggested outside intervention - I might try this. It just all beggars belief. I did ask the third guy whether he thought this was a bizarre policy and he hesitated but obviously had to tow the party line.

Is there a reason you can't leave the airport? Is this a recent rule?
I realise since covid many rules have changed, but from past experience, normally for long layovers like this you can leave the airport and you should be able to ask to book your luggage through just to Heathrow - that way you could either go to a hotel and rest or simply catch a train / bus.

I work at Heathrow and you can definitely leave between the two flights. You can pass through immigration as normal, go to a hotel etc and just go back through security with your boarding passes as normal 

Why did you ever bother with the Manchester to Heathrow flight in the first place?

Realistically they should just cancel those flights. I don't understand why they won't.

What's the cost of a Barbados to Manchester flight? Is it cheaper to just rebook your flight home?

You can’t just leave the luggage on and hope it makes it to Manchester!

Well, no. I wouldn't have suggested doing nothing and hoping for the best. I was suggesting a phone call to see whether this might be possible in the circumstances, ie, would they allow the luggage to go onto the connecting flight without the passengers and it could be collected at the other end. I don't know if this is possible - hence my asking.

I did admittedly miss the part about the first connecting flight from Man to LHR. But I suppose I was wondering similarly if they could just drive to Heathrow as they wanted to and check in there for the 2nd leg / flight. Again, I wasn't sure if this was possible or not as I've never done a connecting flight.

I don't think I asked them for a hotel. They certainly didn't suggest it. Offered nothing apart form the Aberdeen flight which arrived later than the first one. Lady said: Oh there's a flight here but its via Aben.
Me: Where's Aben?
Lady: Aben.... hmmm yes where is that.... oh its ABN Aberdeen.

I asked whether we can just forget the short leg and arrive in LHR for our flight and was told no,

And there's my question answered - thanks Op. I wasn't going crazy. 🤣

They did this to us. We are flying LAX to LHR and were then booked onto the LHR to MAN flight at 14.30. When I looked at the app, they had changed that to the 18:30 flight. I phoned them and queried it and they said it had been done automatically to save THEM money. The 14:30 flight was still going. Are you sure they haven't done the same thing to you? See if you can still book the earlier flight on their website.
Needless to say, we are now back on the 14:30 flight!

Because I live in the Lake District and its a five hour drive to Heathrow.

Obviously now wishing I hadn't booked the Manchester connection at all.

BA say on their own website that you can leave the airport:-

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/airport-information/flight-connections

I've just now checked and there are only two flights listed - the 06:55 and the 6:15 (they've brought it forward 15 minutes - whoohoooo!)

Completely cancelled the 08:55 flight it seems.

And I can't find any other carriers. I was offered a flight from Gatwick but the thought of children and luggage and jet lag across London makes me feel a bit sick.

So they're saying you cannot just cancel the MAN-LHR leg and get yourself to LHR? That's bloody ridiculous! Honestly BA customer service is a total basket case right now, we had dealings them in Dec over long haul flight cancellations and it was a total nightmare. TBH the entire industry is in a mess.

OP, just don't be tempted to simply skip your MAN-LHR flight and just turn up for check-in at LHR without a formal cancellation. Your Barbados leg would have been automatically cancelled if you'd simply not turned up for the first leg. So it's worth pushing for a formal cancellation on the basis that the itinerary is not practical with children.

Because I live in the Lake District and its a five hour drive to Heathrow.

OK, so you're in the Lakes - whereabouts? How long would your drive to Manchester have been? You could consider other 'nearby' airports like Glasgow, approx 2hrs?

Its so weird they won't let us just not get on the first flight isn't it?!

To think this morning I was actually happily wondering how much of a refund I would get. Now I just want to not HAVE to get on the sodding plane!

was offered a flight from Gatwick but the thought of children and luggage and jet lag across London makes me feel a bit sick.

That might have been the answer tbh. You don't go across London and the national express bus is easy. That said if you were getting the option to get your luggage I would be heading home, not to Gatwick.

Manchester is only 1 hr 15. The thing is they are saying we HAVE to get on the Manchester flight, otherwise our onward flight to Barbados flight will be cancelled.

We have already booked a hotel and parking at Heathrow.... :(

Just didn't cross our minds that British Airways would not permit us to not get on the flight!

I'm guessing it's 2 different flight numbers and 2 actual different planes?

If that's the case I'd continue to argue that they don't need to charge you extra for the LHR to Barbados because it's an actual different flight.

They are right that by cancelling the first leg it’s effectively a new ticket and they would need to cancel the whole flight and reissue tickets, however as they are BA rather than a third party you’d expect them to be able to do that without charging you anything.

I think it was a 2:30 pm flight from Gatwick so still a hefty wait, and then having to get luggage and re check in at Gatwick, just thought sod it let's drive. We would be home by midday. I didn't think of a coach though - didn't realise that was an option. Thought we would have to tube and train!

One of you drive down without the kids on the way down and then on the way home, one fly back to Manchester without the kids and the other drive from London to Manchester with the kids but no luggage

Not ideal I get that but a practical solution

What I was trying to say but put much better

If anyone misses the first leg of the flight the whole flight would be cancelled. You can skip the last leg of a ticket but not the first. So they’d have to drive down, leave the car, then get back to Manchester by train/coach to get the flight, be a massive pita.

Was going to suggest this too.