Is British Airways telling me the truth about a flight for tomorrow?
They say the SFO Air****t is "holding the flight for security reasons".
What does THAT mean?
Here's the scoop ...
I've been trying to obtain seats for a flight tomorrow (less than 18 hours
away) for the past five hours, all to no avail. It seems British Airways
doesn't separate the task of obtaining a seat assignment from checking in,
contrary to what all other airlines do. So, in order to obtain a seat
assignment, one must check in online at www.ba.com (which can only be done
24 hours or less prior to the flight departure time).
However, when I check in at -24 hours, -23 hours, -22 hours, -21 hours,
etc., British Airways' web site says repeatedly (and insultingly) "Sorry,
we are unable to offer you Online Check-in for this flight. We recommend
that you review the status of your booking. Manage My BookingTo check in
and receive your boarding pass, please proceed to the air****t."
Numerous calls to British Airways at 1-800-AIR-WAYS get me a variety of
mis-information, and get me confirmation that the "status of my booking"
is
fine. After a few exasperating hours, the best I can do after speaking to
their "supervisor" is obtain the web-help hotline number 800-403-0882.
Calling that "hotline" is an exercise in near futility, as the wait is
greater than 20 or 30 minutes each time. Thank God for unlimited cellphone
minutes and earbuds. Twice I get the same guy who tells me there's nothing
wrong with my reservation but that the "air****t" is not allowing check in
for "security reasons". He says "call back later" which I do but get the
same answers. Asking for what I should do, he says "call the air****t
authority" at 650-821-8211.
I call the "air****t authority", only to get a woman and then her
supervisor
whom I have to basically teach the basics of British Airways check-in
procedures. They just can't fathom why I would want to check in 24 hours
early saying the airline isn't there - and I can't fathom why they can't
understand that British Airways is different than all the rest in that
they
don't separate seating from checkin so to get seating you have to check in
but that you check in online without actually checking in any baggage or
physically being at the air****t. The supervisor tells me I've been misled,
adding that he's there for emergencies and this isn't one so we hang up.
I go back to the British Airways web site to obtain my seat arrangements
(aka to "check in"), and still, it says I can't - even almost six hours
into my 24-hour period, even tho we're traveling with children between the
ages of 2 and 11 (BA advertises falsly that we get seat assignments 3 days
prior but obviously that is not true).
My question:
Is this BA check-in experience common and ... more im****tantly ... what
could possibly be the "security concerns" that the "air****t" could have
for
holding up the check-in process for this British Airways flight to
Heathrow?
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