Real-life MMD: Boarding pass blunder - who should pay?

meher

AnneMary wrote: »

I would hope that ALL the group (of my FRIENDS) would have come up with a solution like splitting the cost

This is my pet dislike. Someone makes the mistake but expect everyone to share it. The person themselves should pay because they made a mistake of not dealing with it themselves - when you entrust something with someone else, this is a risk and that is their very own to pay.

AnneMary wrote: »

If nothing was suggested and it was all left to you - I'd find other friends.

If anyone leaves, I don't think I would miss anyone - the one who made the mistake, the one who didn't take responsibility and finally the one who decides that everyone should share, frankly. I'd rather have friends who have a bit of integrity and can afford to make mistakes and pay for it themselves. The biggest nightmare anyone can suffer is having people around in your life (and society) who want your money at the slightest pretext.

dkb

Whenever I've booked for people i've told them I wouldnt do anything until I had all their details as per their passport i.e Full name, passport number, date of birth, country of birth etc.

Once I have this info I go ahead. The person booking should have got their admin in order but its very harsh if one person suffers the cost.

happyinflorida

Why was your friend asked to do the booking on everyones behalf?

Was it because they are experienced in doing this, clever, or just they got voted in to do it by all of you?

I would get the person who made the booking to write and complain to the airline - I believe they will have to as they made the booking and asking for a full refund of the ticket that wasn't used.

If the airline totally refuses then I would suggest that all your friends contribute something as it could have happened to all of them, but this does depend on all of their financial circumstances.

At least you will all learn from this - to check things carefully in future and not leave everything to one person, check and double check as you can never be too careful.

jenniflowerr

Agreeing with everyone.

As horrible as it is you should have asked to check your boarding pass. I have on occasions been the person who has had to try and organise it, pretty stressful.

Hopefully by contacting the airline you might get something.

mr-tom_2

I don't think you can ask your friend to pay. After all, you were not paying them anything to cover the risk of a balls up (the analogy being insurance). Makes no sense for them to take all the risk and accept no reward.

That said, as others have already pointed out, I would hope that decent friends would try to make it up to you.

Next time, check it and then check it again. This is a common problem, and as you are the person who loses out, the responsibility to make sure it is right also rests with you.

andym123_2

mrsbluenose wrote: »

Surely it's impossible to make an airline booking with just an initial?

You'd have thought that, if it was important enough to refuse to allow someone to fly, the airline's website would have been programmed to refuse to accept a single letter in the name field.

purply

I've booked flights for a hol with 3 friends. Easyjet emailed me to say I needed to sort the boarding pass stuff out (passport number, DOB etc).

I asked for all the information that I needed from my 2 friends, sorted the boarding passes out and then emailed the boarding passes to the friends to double check the info.
Now I'm hoping IF there is a mistake that I can log back into Easyjet and edit the boarding pass.

Its collective responsibility. I've done my bit and yes I've took the lead on it, but others need to take responsibility too e.g check the boarding pass. It's too much to expect that one person will not make any mistakes.

If others in the group were happy to let the person lead without taking the initiative themselves to check the information, why should the lead person pay? Now, if the other friends asked to see the boarding pass before the hol, and the friend did not send this information for whatever reason, then this is a different situation.

Talent

galaxynicole wrote: »

Had a similar situation where my friend paid on her card and then the airline went bust but because she didn't pay on a credit card we only got the flights back, they could afford to get flights but I couldn't so I lost my accommodation money. Unfortunately, I took the hit but they paid more for their flights so it equalled out in the end.

I thought a refund on a credit card would only happen if it was for a family block booking, not a group of friends? So only the credit card holder would get a refund and no-one else?

joehoover

If you are close enough to go on holiday together then why are you considering charging your friends for this, it's one of those things.

Didn't you have to enter your own passport info at some stage before flying? You should have picked up on that. You relinquish all responsibility then there is a risk, the old adage goes if you want something done right do it yourself.

I book flights for work, even BA now do the economy airline trick of constantly distracting you with offers for car hire throughout the booking and hotels, it is not as simple as entering a few details, you have to be a bit sharper and triple check everything, but then it's part of my job so there is greater responsibility to get it right, but in your case if your friend is helping you then don't punish them for making an error, just do it yourself in future.

alittlemadam

I have to admit some posts i agree with and some I dont.

However, regardless of who is to blame, I personally would feel bad if when we got to the airport that there was a mistake on the boarding pass and that one of my friends had to stay behind. Even if I hadnt been the one who had made the booking.

By the time you get to the airport your in holiday mode unwinding, relaxing and looking forward to the break and most people dont even look at there tickets (probably except me who needs to check every 30 mins or so to make sure i havent lost them)

Perhaps this is a lesson for us all to learn CHECK before we ACCEPT