So last week I was trying to buy tickets to India. It reminded me of my jinxed history with British Airways.
I did my first ever international flight on BA from Calcutta to London. It was delayed 3 hrs (because of a faulty door, if I remember correctly) and I missed my connection from London to Denver. They were nice enough to put me up at the Renaissance and provided transport vouchers for the trip there. I got on a plane the next day and got to Denver.
The second time I flew BA was in 2003. They had a strike of the ground staff in London and flights were cancelled for two days. No hotels this time. Just a voucher that I didn't get time to redeem. I stayed with a friend (Prateek, if you read this please contact me +1 970 372 6308). Their phone did not work. So I spent most of the 2 days at the airport, hoping to get on the next flight.
Then my mom came for a visit in 2007 by BA. She had to because the people she was traveling with were on BA. The plan was for both of us to back via BA. Unfortunately, I bought my tickets via the travel agent in India that she bought her tickets on. Big mistake. Not only was communicating over a 12 hr time difference incredibly difficult, I failed to realize that I needed a visa to transit in the UK. I did realize that, but 1 day too late. I sent the application in a hurry. I later found that the UK visa office will give a 1 day turn around if one uses a courier but 5 days if one sends by priority overnight. So, of course, I got my visa 1 day after I was supposed to travel. Duly stamped and everything. I had to do a fairly acrimonious negotiation with the BA CSR to postpone my ticket (a no-show non-refundable ticket is useless) to a future date. Since BA was booked for all days I wanted to travel on, I had to again postpone that ticket to 2008 and buy a separate ticket on US airways.
Fast forward to last week. I found out that tickets are ony valid for 12 months from date of first issue (Aug 2007) in my case and there is no way to get around that.
So there you go. I think BA and I have a jinxed relationship. I will not fly BA again.
I did my first ever international flight on BA from Calcutta to London. It was delayed 3 hrs (because of a faulty door, if I remember correctly) and I missed my connection from London to Denver. They were nice enough to put me up at the Renaissance and provided transport vouchers for the trip there. I got on a plane the next day and got to Denver.
The second time I flew BA was in 2003. They had a strike of the ground staff in London and flights were cancelled for two days. No hotels this time. Just a voucher that I didn't get time to redeem. I stayed with a friend (Prateek, if you read this please contact me +1 970 372 6308). Their phone did not work. So I spent most of the 2 days at the airport, hoping to get on the next flight.
Then my mom came for a visit in 2007 by BA. She had to because the people she was traveling with were on BA. The plan was for both of us to back via BA. Unfortunately, I bought my tickets via the travel agent in India that she bought her tickets on. Big mistake. Not only was communicating over a 12 hr time difference incredibly difficult, I failed to realize that I needed a visa to transit in the UK. I did realize that, but 1 day too late. I sent the application in a hurry. I later found that the UK visa office will give a 1 day turn around if one uses a courier but 5 days if one sends by priority overnight. So, of course, I got my visa 1 day after I was supposed to travel. Duly stamped and everything. I had to do a fairly acrimonious negotiation with the BA CSR to postpone my ticket (a no-show non-refundable ticket is useless) to a future date. Since BA was booked for all days I wanted to travel on, I had to again postpone that ticket to 2008 and buy a separate ticket on US airways.
Fast forward to last week. I found out that tickets are ony valid for 12 months from date of first issue (Aug 2007) in my case and there is no way to get around that.
So there you go. I think BA and I have a jinxed relationship. I will not fly BA again.
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