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.

I don't see the issue.

You can leave the airport once you've landed from Barbados - spend a few hours doing something, then come back and check-in for the Manchester flight. I've done this several times when we've had long stop-overs. It's a pain but it's not the worst thing in the world!

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

If you have less than six hours until your flight departs, we strongly recommend that you wait at the airport. If you choose to leave, you will need to pass through passport control (and Customs if applicable). Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure you have all the appropriate documents required to enter the UK.

When you return to the airport, you must check in again as normal for your connecting flight, pass through airport security and be at the boarding gate at least 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time of your flight.

What I would recommend...

Find the flights you do want.. look at all codeshares so American airlines etc and see if you can find a route with availability in the class you want.

Consider a Newcastle flight as well, you can get to the train station quite easily from the airport and a direct train to Manchester.

Then call and tell them what flights you want within the one world alliance. Escalate to a manager if you have to.

If you do accept the changes, then ask to tag the bags just to LHR only like a previous poster mentioned and just leave the airport to get the train home! You can always tell them you have booked a day hotel room.

Look up EC 261, you might be eligible for compensation as well depending on how soon your flights are.

To be honest I'd just chill out and wait it out at the airport🤷‍♀️. I know it's ridiculous and that's the annoying part, but it's relatively easy. You've got food toilets shops and presumably somewhere to relax.
As they have forced this on you maybe push for food vouchers and access to a lounge etc

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
The flight LHR to MAN? For the luggage to be offloaded, they'll need to wait until after the 6.30pm flight is boarding before they'll offload it, surely. In which case they might as well take the flight, as they'll have been hanging around all day anyway by this point. Unless I've misunderstood what you mean?

OP, the delay is a pain, but I'm fairly sure you leave the airport. It's easy enough to get the tube up to London from there, just tack a day out in London on to the end of your holiday. Not ideal, I know, when you've been travelling all day, but perhaps beats hanging around the airport all day. Or see if you can book a day rate room nearby to rest for a bit.

This is about the last leg on your return flight?

If it is, just do this.
When you reach london don't you have to collect your luggage and go through customs anyway as that is your point of entry to the country? and then re check?

Just collect your luggage go through customs and don't recheck. Go board your train or whatever. Problem solved.

Personally, I would see if BA will give you access to the arrivals lounge given they cancelled your original flight and therefore caused this problem. If you are flying business you'll have access regardless. That way you can have a shower and chill out before you move across to the other terminal. 12 hours seems like a long time but if you can eek it out by having a shower and a lazy breakfast before heading across to the other terminal it might not be that bad. If you can get lounge access on the departure side as well so much the better. Not ideal but not the end of the world in my opinion but I love airports.

Yes you are right that's a stupid solution

If it is, just do this.
When you reach london don't you have to collect your luggage and go through customs anyway as that is your point of entry to the country? and then re check

No, the luggage will be checked through direct from Barbados to Manchester, there wouldn’t be time for them to collect luggage, and then recheck it all in again if they were taking the 6.55am flight so no way would BA agree to that.

Others have said ask for it to be checked through to LHR only but, as PP said if they booked the 6.30pm flight there’s a good chance the luggage wouldn’t be released until just prior to that flight, in which case they may as the flight anyway if they’ve got to wait all day for luggage. However, I’m pretty sure that this would have to have been agreed at the time of booking the ticket - I don’t think BA are obliged to agree to it anyway.

However, given the fact that they land at 6.30am and there’s no way they can make it to another terminal for a departure at 6.55am, I would imagine that the chances of their luggage making it off the plane and through to the other terminal in time for the 6.55am flight is also zero.

Can you not ask to be rebooked on the 6.55am flight knowing there is no way you will make it, your luggage then won’t go but will be returned to you earlier and jump on a train home?

@BritishAirwaysBarkingMad OP - BA fly Leeds to Heathrow - could you do that instead of Manchester? Or Newcastle?

Is the Sofitel at T5 still open? I have booked in there for a ‘day room’ in the past, when I’ve had a long layover. There is another hotel at T3 which offered a similar service. I’ve not flown since covid so not sure if both still operating.

Could you rent a car at Heathrow and drive home and return it somewhere in your area?

No, because their luggage will be on the plane to Manchester.

I was thinking this but…..

1. Because it’s a connecting flight and OP is already checked in for it, if OP doesn’t make it but their luggage does, their luggage will have to be offloaded for security reasons. This may cause a delay to the flight, losing the slot etc. because of the very tight timings. They will be making EVERY effort to find OP and get her on the flight, offloading is the last thing they will want to do as it is so time consuming.


2. If OP doesn’t make it, and her luggage is offloaded (or her luggage doesn’t make it either) again because she is checked through on the connecting flight BA will just automatically rebook her (and her luggage) on to the next flight - the 6.30pm flight. She won’t be able to get her luggage so back to square one.

Get on the head for points forum and ask. Fantastic advise re these issues. I’m guessing that given that your new flight is a different flight number you are probably entitled to change for no charge

The luggage will be offloaded at LHR if they do not get on that flight to Manchester and they will then have to arrange how they will collect said luggage from LHR

Agreed, and yes as others have said you can leave LHR during the transit, there's not much around the airport but bus to Windsor, tube into London?

P.S. Maybe not quite getting he detail but I really don't understand the original BA replan which if I understand it correctly involved arriving LHR at 0630 local and then connecting with a 0655 LHR-MAN.

I'm not working there anymore but as I recall it for Heathrow that would be way under the Minimum Connection Time (MCT) within terminal and way way under the MCT with a terminal change ....basically I'm surprised the BA IT system even allowed that change to be actioned, let alone communicated to the OP as a plan.

Sounds a nightmare

not helpful I know

but yes book a room in their Hilton /travel lodge and chill there

and if someone doesn’t get on the flight must be a nightmare unloading all 300 + cases to find the right ones

They won’t let you (at any point including check in at Barbados) tag the bags only to LHR.

Yes they will I have done this recently with BA. And to the poster who said the luggage won’t be offloaded until 6pm, that’s rubbish, it will be offloaded with the rest of the flight luggage at Heathrow as it will be tagged to Heathrow!

Why don’t you just leave Heathrow when you land and drive home, instead of waiting 12 hours? If you don’t want to do that because of having just done a night flight, check in to a hotel.

The luggage.

It's not rubbish though because it would then be loaded on to the MAN flight...

Not weird. Airline pricing often means that a Manchester to Barbados fare is lower than a London to Barbados fare. You'd be amazed how many people would book that to save money when they really originated in London. That's why the long haul segments get cancelled if someone no shows for the domestic segment.

Others have said ask for it to be checked through to LHR only but, as PP said if they booked the 6.30pm flight there’s a good chance the luggage wouldn’t be released until just prior to that flight, in which case they may as the flight anyway if they’ve got to wait all day for luggage.

That’s complete rubbish. If the bags are tagged to LHR they will be offloaded at LHR shortly after landing along with the other non-connecting bags on that flight. The baggage tags have special barcodes which are either LHR (no onward connection) or LHR MAN (onward connection). There is literally no chance of the OPs bags being randomly withheld to the time of the Manchester flight if they are tagged to LHR 😂.

It really is rubbish if the bags are only tagged to LHR?