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.

Not necessarily. If the fare is lower to Manchester than it is to London, which is likely, BA won't short check bags.

This!

Why on earth are you flying such a short distance with all the hassle (not to mention pollution) flying brings?

Utter madness. Taxi or train.

As I’ve said a few times, I have done this recently. I was told by the person on the phone at BA to do this to avoid a long connection (we made our own way back). All you need to do is say to the check in person “please tag our bags to LHR only as we have a long connection and would like to collect our luggage”. Luggage came off at LHR with the rest of the flight luggage and off we went.

@Blondeshavemorefun

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

In theory, certainly in the case (SWIDT) of containerised loading the loading teams have a plan of where bags are situated. That should avoid absolutely everything having to be dragged off.

Can still end up being time consuming and a PITA...

It is two different planes yes, we have to switch terminal at Heathrow.

If anyone doesn't get on the Manchester fight then their Heathrow to Barbados flight will be cancelled.

We would be trying to check in at Heathrow before the flight leaves Manchester but I think they just wouldn't even check us in. That is what the guy said during phone call three.

We have kids the same age and not from mainland U.K. so always have the connection issue. Personally, I would go with the day trip to London option (how would they know about you leaving the airport?) or, if you really CBA, there are definitely lounges you could buy your way into.

I think we do need outside help here. The first poster suggested The Guardian Consumer Champions. I'm googling but struggling to find an email address or phone number for them. Anyone know how to contact them? Or any other people I can turn to for advice? (other than you lovely lot)

We are worried that if we leave the airport we won't be able to get back in through security etc.

Also will be severely jet lagged as just stepped off a night flight.

I did look into lounges but it seems there is a three hour limit in a lounge. Can anyone recommend a lounge we could book into for twelve hours?

Can you switch back to the original 6 am flight back to Manchester? Then fly down from Manchester to Heathrow, fly back, obviously missing the 6 am flight but your bags won’t be on it, or if they are you might make it as they would have to offload the bags if owners aren’t on the plane (I think this is a regulation from the Lockerbie bomb) either way you’ll have your luggage back and then Get a train/coach back to Manchester? It is ridiculous though!

If you have the kind of cash to be splurging on a large family holiday ti Barbados, surely you can pack some essentials in your hand luggage and afford one night in a hotel near Heathrow sleeping off your jet lag and/or binging on Netflix?
It's not ideal and sounds like it's been a right faff, but it's hardly spoiling your amazing holiday by getting home later than expected and having a bit of a boring stopover sleep...?

Ah just seen you're worried about getting back through security...surely you would have a boarding card for the last flight though? That's all you need to get through security....if there are no visa issues people often leave airports if they have long connections

This thread has reminded me why I hate flying, and airports.

I hate airports so much I'm not even keen on picking people up from them.

As they’re two separate separate flights you will have boarding passes for each flight though so can check in for the second flight as normal?
Also, instead of a lounge why not book something like Yotel at Terminal 4?

Doh, 🤦‍♀️. True.

Can't you use Aerotel or Yotelair depending on the terminal and book a day room?

"We are worried that if we leave the airport we won't be able to get back in through security etc.*

It's not a problem, people do it all the time. All you need are your boarding passes.

This is a good idea. Book a hotel room to spend the day in? Then you can sleep as needed etc

Drive from Manchester to Heathrow!

Or spend a few hours in London while you wait.

Sorry. Ignore me. I should have read the post properly 😊

Just get your bags checked to Manchester on the way back and get a driver to drive you all home.pay a friend from Manchester to come and get you.
ba are a nightmare for this. We have a similar trip in the summer. It are in Glasgow so can’t drive as easily otherwise I would.

How will they get the bags?

She's said they'll cancel the Heathrow flight if she doesn't check in for the Manchester one

When they don't turn up for the Manchester flight, their bags will be unloaded at Heathrow. What do they do then?

Its a while ago but someone I know was due to fly from MAN to LHR for a BA connection to fly to the US. The weather was so bad it wasn’t possible to drive to MAN but they could get to the local railway station and went to London on the train and picked up their flight to the US. On the way there maybe the compromise would be to turn up for check in LHR to Barbados prior to the MAN flight departure to state clearly there’s no need to cancel you off the Barbados flight.