Missed connection D2 v BA

whiskeytoothpaste

Booked Man-LHR with 5 hr layover and onward flight LHR-StLucia

a few months after booking D2 provided new flight times.  Now we only had 1 hr to make the connection at a different terminal at LHR.

Destination 2 assured us it was enough time when we phoned.

first flight was delayed, missed our connecting flight.  BA gave us vouchers for food, bussed us to a hotel at gatwick after a 3hr wait for luggage and we had to fly on a different flight the next day and arrived 24 hrs late.

BA refused comp claim stating there was not enough time allowed by the travel agent. Destination 2 say that it's BA's fault as they source flights from a flight consolidator who uses the airline system and they say that this system automatically highlights a misconnect (MCT) and the system will not accept a flight change when this happens. They claim that the booking and delay and responsibility for compensation lies with BA.  

I'm getting nowhere but I do know that this wasn't our doing and that somebody needs to take responsibility but I have no idea where to go next. 

Any advice appreciated. 

Wonka_2

So was it a package via D2 (and if not then why buy BA flights via them ?)

You talk of MAN-LHR and terminal change yet the London-UVF flight departs from LGW - was this a change since your booking or just miscommunication at the time of booking - LHR to LGW is a fairly drastic 'terminal change'

In reality 5hrs is do-able after the 'change' (for whatever reason that occurred) I'd have been looking for an earlier departure from MAN and certainly wouldn't have believed any view that 1hr was achievable 

Not sure where you go from here - but needs to start with the answer to point 1

RogerPensionGuy

Can the opening poster confirm the following. 

1st flight sector times and airports?

2nd flight sector times and airports?

Westin

RogerPensionGuy said:

Can the opening poster confirm the following. 

1st flight sector times and airports?

2nd flight sector times and airports?

Ditto. And the airlines.  I am wondering if the LHR UVF sector was actually on Virgin Atlantic rather than BA.

Hoenir

whiskeytoothpaste said:

Booked Man-LHR with 5 hr layover and onward flight LHR-StLucia

a few months after booking D2 provided new flight times.  Now we only had 1 hr to make the connection at a different terminal at LHR.

Guidance is to allow a transfer time between terminal 3 and 5 at LHR of 90 minutes. 

mdann52

Did you check in for both flights at MAN, or did you only check in for the first leg?

Was any baggage "checked through" to the final destination?

Caz3121

since BA don't operate from Heathrow to St Lucia was this a connection to a Virgin Atlantic flight?
Did the ticket number start with 932 or 125?
Anything under 90 minutes with a change of terminals should have been flagged as a misconnect and would have required re-ticketing, I am guessing BA missed this when they rebooked you rather than referring you back to your agent

whiskeytoothpaste

The original connection was at LHR.  We flew BA from MAN-LHR.  We had to go from T3-5 (or the other way around) the ongoing flight was with Virgin.  All booked as a package.  

Given we missed the Virgin flight BA sent us to LGW to take a BA flight the next day.

Destination 2 are claiming that they use a flight consolidator and that when flights are booked their system highlights a MCT (misconnect) and will not allow the booking.  They claim to use an airline system.
BA say 90 minutes is needed but we had been booked with  70.  Had we had 90 mins we would have still missed the LHR-connection

whiskeytoothpaste

mdann52 said:

Did you check in for both flights at MAN, or did you only check in for the first leg?

Was any baggage "checked through" to the final destination

Yes we checked luggage at MAN straight through to St Lucia.  It took them nearly 4 hrs to find it at LHR before we were bussed to LGW

whiskeytoothpaste

Westin said:

RogerPensionGuy said:

Can the opening poster confirm the following. 

1st flight sector times and airports?

2nd flight sector times and airports?

Ditto. And the airlines.  I am wondering if the LHR UVF sector was actually on Virgin Atlantic rather than BA.

BA from MAN-LHR
virgin Atlantic from LHR-final destination.  

It was Virgin who brought their flight time forward I believe.  But D2 assured us there was enough time.

Caz3121

whiskeytoothpaste said:

It was Virgin who brought their flight time forward I believe.  But D2 assured us there was enough time.

Destination2 were incorrect. The minimum connection time at Heathrow when changing terminals is 90 minutes. 
It is not surprising it took some time to locate baggage as if tagged for the VS flight it would have been taken from T5 to T3 to be handed to Virgin Atlantic (not remained with BA)
Looks like your agent messed up by not rebooking the flights when the schedule change happened