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.

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

It won’t, if you’re checked through and your luggage arrives on the onward flight and you don’t, then they will have to remove your luggage.

The tickets will be cancelled if they do not take the first flight.

Looks like there are no longer direct flights from Manchester to Barbados.

OP - this might be a bit left-field. Could you chuck some money at the problem? Book a nearby hotel room for two nights. At least you'll have somewhere to crash/catch up on sleep before you have to return to the airport for the flight to Manchester.

You should be able to ask at Barbados for them to only check your luggage to LHR. Just explain you have a long layover so have a hotel booked to freshen up so you need your bags. Then get off at LHR, collect your bags and get the train back to Manchester skipping the last leg altogether.

I think the answer is just don't board the flight. Your luggage will be offloaded, then get yourself in a bus or whatever back home.

You have misunderstood. The car won’t be in Heathrow, they are flying from Manchester.

What they are saying about the changing the flight is right - if you cancel any part of it now, then they view it as canceling the whole thing (right as in following their rules, not right as in it makes any sense). You'd think they'd be a bit more reasonable about it though, it's an expensive flight and the flight change is their fault.
However, there's nothing to stop you asking the person at the check-in desk in Barbados if they can check your luggage just to Heathrow - you could tell them you need the contents for your 12-hour layover. And then you can collect it and do as you please for getting to Manchester. On an outward journey - missing any leg of the outward flights would cancel the rest of the ticket - but as it's the final leg of the return anyway, there's nothing left to lose on it.
However, if they check your luggage through to Manchester - it will be left in Heathrow if you are not on the Heathrow-Manchester flight. It will be loaded and then need to be removed if you are a no-show - they never fly luggage without the owners onboard, for obvious security reasons.

@Aprilx

Yes but in the OP, it is suggested that the change of plan involves a car being at Heathrow airport. Hence my confusion.

Don't go then.

Ask the question on the BA Flyertalk forum and I’m sure you’ll get some really helpful replies from the BA experts.

www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/

Of course, good point.

This is so very helpful. 🙄

I dont have a solution but I bloody hate BA and avoid them at all costs..... this was also due to a MAN-LHR-MAN disaster flight!

It's as just as helpful as many of the other suggestions.

OP, I’ve two children and have done this a couple of times with young children. Being at the airport for that long is not too bad. As pps have said, you can go out and explore the nearby areas. We’ve just stayed at the airport and it’s been fine.
it’s unfair for you to do that when you didn’t book your ticket that way though.

Are you allowed to ask for your luggage to get off at heathrow? If yes I would just get your luggage and leave. They can't make you catch the other leg of the journey. Or let your luggage go to Manchester and collect it later.

It really isn't.

We had a similar layover at Gatwick a couple of years ago (there were no other flight options). We booked a day room at a hotel at the airport. Not expensive and pure bliss to be able to collapse for a bit in comfort rather than in the terminal.

And? Are you the helpful advice thread police? Do you have a badge and a shoulder number?

Until HS2 is done it’s a ball ache as you have to get across to Euston.

alternativly just get a Coach from Heathrow to Manchester, will take less time than the layover and you don’t need to worry about messing around on the tube

You’ll survive. It’s not a disaster. Or even particularly unusual

We went on holiday recently through Heathrow. On the way both there and back we asked for our baggage to be tagged just for the first leg as we stayed at the airport going out and coming back. It was no problem at all. If we had wanted we could have left the airport and not done our second flight back to Scotland.

I think I'd ring be booking a room in an on site Heathrow hotel and spend 12 hours there having a shower, sleeping and perhaps gym or swim. Great deal cheaper than faffing with flights.

Airlines have been really strict about multi leg journeys for years now. They will not allow you to cancel one leg without it affecting the whole journey. They won’t let you (at any point including check in at Barbados) tag the bags only to LHR. Apparently it’s because of some court case years ago with Lufthansa (maybe?!) where people were booking multi legs to save money and not turning up. Someone ended up suing and that led to the tightening up. Not sure of full details but remember reading about it when I wanted to do something similar

They also will not put your bags on the plane if you are not there. That has been the case for years since Lockerbie so surprised so many posters are suggesting it. If you are not there when flight is boarded your cases are removed from the plane

Agree that length of layover is ridiculous and since it’s due to a change in flight times and not because you chose those times they should be offering you lounge access as a minimum

When an airline cancels your flight the system will automatically book you on the nearest available flight, in your case this is not suitable due to your inbound connection. They then have to move you to the next available flight, again in your case the 1830 departure.

Although this is not personally suitable for you, they are well within what used to be called EU261 (I forget what the UK calls the equivalent).

As your hold luggage will be in transit so that you don't have the faff of having to collect it and re-check in you will have separate boarding cards for the LHR-MAN flights so you can exit through arrivals and re-enter through security for the flight.

As you'll have your hand luggage with you, you could get a hotel at LHR to freshen up and have a nap. Or if you are feeling up to it, go off into London for the day.

Whilst its not ideal, and not what you originally booked, airlines are having a horrendous time pre-covid both in terms of getting staffing levels back up and also passenger numbers hence many of them are cancelling and combining flights.

Just make sure you don't dwell on it whilst away and spoil what sounds like a fabulous trip.