My complaint:
We booked a last minute flight with British Airways to return home from our holiday earlier than planned from Portugal due to an accident in which I sustained a broken rib and was unable to continue with the rest of our holiday due to severe pain. At check in desk we supplied the printed passenger locator forms, our covid negative tests, a fit to fly document from a doctor, our passports and our boarding passes.
The passenger locator forms were rejected by the check in desk because she said the flight number was not on the forms. The flight reference number only was on the form and the flight number was on the boarding passes. She told me to repeat the passenger locator form and to come back to the desk when that was done.
I tried to re complete this and it was rejected because it would not accept the covid test serial number as it had already been submitted. She called the supervisor and she stated that she could not let us on the flight because of this. She tried to apply it numerous times using my mobile phone which took her around 1 and12hrs to no avail. Our flight was due to take off at 15.20 and by this time it was 15.00.
She told us that we had to buy another test before we could board despite producing evidence of negative tests. It then became clear to us that she was under the impression that our covid results were the problem and not the locator forms. I was by then in tears due to frustration and immense pain. I insisted that our documents were all correct and showed her the locator forms. She then had a word with the check in lady and decided that we had all the correct documentation after all and that we could board. By this time it was 15.10 and the last call to board had been called more than once. We had to run through the airport [bearing in mind at this time I was in a lot of pain]. We just managed to reach the boarding gate with seconds to spare. We did not have time to visit duty free or get any thing to eat or drink.
I feel all this stress and upset could have been avoided if the check in lady had been adequately trained which was clearly the root of the problem. I realise that this is all new to the airline staff and flights have only just recently been re started but I would have thought that a large company like BA would be adequately prepared. Our flight details were as follows:-
2952021 – Faro to Manchester depart 15.30
Flight number BA0517
Booking number KXVWRY
Esky booking number – 5323276478
Suggested solution:
I feel that this needs to be highlighted and adequate training be cascaded down to the BA staff especially on check in. Also a lesson in customer service should be highlighted
