Flight tickets disappearing from the system - who to chase

gmajosie

I cannot believe that I have turned to an on line forum to seek an opinion on who/how to get compensation for a total ticketing shambles, even one as reputable as MSE!

But we are at a loss as to who to pursue and what is the best way to do it.

In September 2024, we bought tickets through a travel agent to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand via China. There were three legs to each of the outbound and return journeys and the tickets were issued by British Airways on behalf of China Southern who had codeshares on the UK legs with BA. The payment (£3,755 including £200 hotel charge) was made to the travel agent. Before the date of the flight, there was a flight change from codeshare to BA's own ticket for the final leg on the return journey to avoid a 24 hour stopover in Heathrow.

To cut a very long story short, there were problems at Heathrow and at Guangzhou getting boarding passes. There was something wrong with the ticketing but we never really understood what the issue was, but we spent several hours at both Heathrow and Guangzhou standing around waiting for someone to resolve it until a senior memeber of China Southern Airlines stepped in and issued emergency boarding passes. There was never any question that we had tickets but some system issue was blocking the production of boarding passes.

On arrival in NZ and again shortly before our scheduled return we contacted the travel agent and asked them to check with BA and ensure we had no such difficulties on the return.

On arriving at Christchurch airport, we were met with a scenario in which, according to the system, one of us had a ticket to Guangzhou, but no onward ticket. The other had no tickets at all. This despite us arriving with all the email and even paper copies of the flight itinerary. We were therefore unable to fly from Christchurch and it transpires the flight we should have been on was the last China Southern flight out of Christchurch that season. All efforts to contact BA were unsuccessful, partly due to time differences and only having a NZ phone at that time.

I therefore booked us on Emirates flights the next day and contacted the travel agent on our return for some sort of recompense.

My question is who do we pursue?

 We have tried BA, the travel agent and China Southern (who have been unable to investigate because our flights have BA reference numbers and E-tickets). We have had a Chargeback claim rejected as being out of time (which was always going to be the case as the fligts were more than 120 days from the booking and payment. I wa sgoing to try a S75 but despite paying the money to the travel agaent, they apparently are untouchable as they are just the ticket issuers, nit the flight providers.

eskbanker

Chargeback may not be out of time, as the 120 days start from the date the service was due to be performed, rather than the transaction date.

S75 may also be viable if it was the agent who breached the contract.

Who is the agent?

Westin

Indeed who is the 'agent'. Hopefully not a shoddy online overseas based ticket seller.

If you look over your original paperwork can you see e-ticket numbers? Something 13-digits, perhaps starting 125 xxxxxxxxxx.

gmajosie

The travel agent is Hays Travel, a normally reputable independent travel agent. 
My bank, Natwest, have already rejected a chargeback claim as being out of time.
On various documents we have a total of 6 different BA e-ticket numbers and I suspect this has been the cause of the problems, but how and why is not clear. Ultimately, if there has been a mess with e-ticket numbers, who has caused it and how do I get recompense?

silvercar

gmajosie said:

The travel agent is Hays Travel, a normally reputable independent travel agent. 
My bank, Natwest, have already rejected a chargeback claim as being out of time.
On various documents we have a total of 6 different BA e-ticket numbers and I suspect this has been the cause of the problems, but how and why is not clear. Ultimately, if there has been a mess with e-ticket numbers, who has caused it and how do I get recompense?

Your contract was with Hays Travel. You used a travel agent to get their services, including assistance when things go wrong, otherwise you might as well have booked direct.

if you have 6 e-ticket numbers that suggests that each ticket has been booked as a separate item. BA ticket numbers usually start 125-…. Generally all connecting flights would be on one ticket number for each person. 

eskbanker

gmajosie said:

In September 2024, we bought tickets...

[...]

We have had a Chargeback claim rejected as being out of time (which was always going to be the case as the fligts were more than 120 days from the booking and payment.

eskbanker said:

Chargeback may not be out of time, as the 120 days start from the date the service was due to be performed, rather than the transaction date.

gmajosie said:

My bank, Natwest, have already rejected a chargeback claim as being out of time.

You'd already said that but my point was were they correct in doing so, as the reason you gave was irrelevant, so when were the flights?

Westin

Who was the merchant on the payment for the flight tickets. British Airways, Hays Travel or someone else?

gmajosie

Rerurn flights were mid Feb. Chargeback claim was made early July. We had been in discussion with travel agent (after raising complaint) before this. Has also lodged parallel complaint with BA which they closed, I then reopened. Travel agent picked up complaint and are still having business to business dialogue with BA on our behalf.
Payment was made to Hays Travel, not to either airline.
Citizens advice and Trading Standards advised lodging a money claim against Hays but we can't afford to have the claim chucked out because we are suing the wrong people.

Westin

I think you need to pursue Hays Travel as it seems they are investigating with the airline into what happened.  Perhaps give a final 14-30 day timeline for an offer of resolution and indicate a plan to escalate or take legal action if you don’t hear further.

If you are only dealing at the moment with branch level, call HQ.

Follow Hays Travel complaint procedures. Their website indicates “contact our customer service team at customer.service@hays.com or 020 7259 8794 who will be able to locate the relevant point of contact for you”.

As you paid Hays, this would be the route I would follow.

gmajosie

Thanks for your suggestions. We have made a formal complaint to Hays and in fact wrote to the owner, Dame Irene so have regular contact with customer services who are always kind and sympathetic but ineffectual.
My current plan is to press on with S75 with little expectation of getting anywhere, and then no option but to lodge a money claim. 

silvercar

Purely wild guesses. 

Having 6 e-ticket numbers suggests it was all booked as individual flights. That being the case it raises visa issues, as in your right to enter a country and showing proof you have an exit flight book, this can cause a problem in issuing boarding passes. Normally this problem is solved by you showing up at check in with proof of onward flight, passport and any visa requirements (often a transit visa). 

Changing your flight to avoid a long layover, can result in a pricing change, this can cause a problem when your CVV is not held on the system for long enough for the ticketing team to reprice the flight and can mean the flight doesn’t get booked because no payment has been made.

Both issues should have been for Hayes to sort out, though in the former they will probably say it’s the passenger to make sure they have correct visas etc.

for anything BA I would seek advice on the very active FlyerTalk forum https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-british-airways-club-446/