BA...No way.

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It wasn't Darrell's fault, he followed the procedures laid down by BA. They allow online check in, they allow electronic boarding passes, both of which worked on BA's kit. The problem is with the security scanner, which was incapable of reading an electronic boarding pass which had been successfully read earlier.

Put it down to experience. BA owe you a goodwill upgrade, and owe security a good kicking.
 
Update.

Been on the phone for the thick end of 2 hours and BA have put me on the 0645 from LHR tomorrow in business class. Not a penny more to pay. I have 7 hours to kill at ATH until my connecting flight to Skiathos but I can kill that no problem.

First class service from BA customer services.

Next hurdle is to find my luggage at Heathrow.
 
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I got to SFO very late off a delayed transfer and BA just laughed when I presented myself at the desk. Then I said my bags were through-checked and suddenly they were able to reopen the flight and get me on.

They weren't being nice to you, they were making sure the flight didn't miss its slot.

When they thought you had bags to check in that would have had to be security checked, X-rayed and so on, they feared it would have made the flight late so they said 'No'.

When they learned the bags were checked through it would have delayed the flight if your bags had to be found and removed from the hold, so they said 'Yes'.
 
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They weren't being nice to you, they were making sure the flight didn't miss its slot.

When they thought you had bags to check in that would have had to be security checked, X-rayed and so on, they feared it would have made the flight late so they said 'No'.

When they learned the bags were checked through it would have delayed the flight if your bags had to be found and removed from the hold, so they said 'Yes'.

Quite.
 
Despite all the above, it's still 1000% better than Ryanair
 
My commiserations Darrell. I spent most of my business career trying to ensure that I arrived at the airport at the last possible moment so I didn't have to spend a moment longer there than I needed to. Only missed one flight and that was because my Italian colleague had spent his career working out how to miss the last flight back from Rome so he could enjoy a good dinner etc.

I flew everywhere with BA that I could, simply because it was the firm's preferred partner and I flew so much I got such a number of BA miles (or whatever now) that I can still fly half way to the moon. Of course, I now fly so little they are likely to remain that way. I did fly back from Amsterdam with them recently and just as the flight was open for boarding three nice people ran up to the desk (you virtually walk to Heathrow the airport is so large) asking to be giving boarding tickets as BA had told them to get them at the gate - needless to say, groundstaff said no, return to the BA desk (about 10 miles away) and so they missed a flight with a lot of seats. Needless unpleasantness.
 
I use my iPhone with BA all the time and have never had a problem. Sorry to hear this happened to you. I'm there enough to be a BA gold card person and have to say I think the staff are pretty good. Hopefully you will be out there ASAP!
 
Are people really trying to say that passengers should anticipate equipment error when planning a journey?

I think people are trying to say that cutting it so fine by choice is a bad thing.

Really if you're going to turn up last minute at security it should be because you burned up your planned contingency because of other problems getting there - not because you lingered landside to have a beer.

That said the 40 minute thing at LHR T5 applies to transit passengers too and things can get pretty stressful as the delays mount up and you see a 2.5 hour connection time fizzle away to leave you rscraping through by a minute.

I avoid LHR wherever possible.

I don't have a particular beef against BA anymore - but I hardly ever use them.
 
When they learned the bags were checked through it would have delayed the flight if your bags had to be found and removed from the hold, so they said 'Yes'.

My bags didn't make it - with 20mins to go I never dreamed they would.

That's what I can't understand about the OP's situation - he'd checked his bags in, you'd have thought they'd move heaven & earth to get him on the flight.
 
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Due to my early flight tomorrow I am leaving my sisters tonight to get to LHR. I should be there at about 0100.

I have downloaded a new boarding card so lets see what happens this time. I think I will hand over my luggage and go straight through.

No way am I missing this flight.
 
I think people are trying to say that cutting it so fine by choice is a bad thing.

Really if you're going to turn up last minute at security it should be because you burned up your planned contingency because of other problems getting there - not because you lingered landside to have a beer.

That said the 40 minute thing at LHR T5 applies to transit passengers too and things can get pretty stressful as the delays mount up and you see a 2.5 hour connection time fizzle away to leave you rscraping through by a minute.

I avoid LHR wherever possible.

I don't have a particular beef against BA anymore - but I hardly ever use them.

Well, maybe, but had the machine not been faulty Darrel would now be tucked up at home.
 
Are people really trying to say that passengers should anticipate equipment error when planning a journey?

I know you can be rushed though security if time is tight but they're not always co-operative and I certainly wouldn't want to be presenting myself with 5 mins to go - the slightest snag in that area and you're stuffed.

Also, three times in recent years I've got on planes and found people in my seat, so I now like to get tot the gate and get on board ASAP. Once at MAN on a shuttle to connect at LHR to the US and we both had correct boarding passes for the same seat - that was a scary few minutes as the flight was pretty full, but thankfully not 100%.
 
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Well, maybe, but had the machine not been faulty Darrel would now be tucked up at home.

And if he'd decided to have his beer airside .....

At the end of the day if I had a family member or a member of staff missing a flight udner these circumstances then my ire would be directed at them first and the airport second - given the circumstances described by the OP.

Basically they'd get a b*ll*cking along the lines of "WTF were you doing hanging about landside when you were already at the airport" - though without the F if it was a staff member or a younger family member.

I'd also give them what for if they'd had the option of travelling with a paper boarding pass. Why? Because batteries run down and technology glitches its another point of failure.
 
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And if he'd decided to have his beer airside .....

At the end of the day if I had a family member or a member of staff missing a flight udner these circumstances then my ire would be directed at them first and the airport second - given the circumstances described by the OP.

Basically they'd get a b*ll*cking along the lines of "WTF were you doing hanging about landside when you were already at the airport" - though without the F if it was a staff member or a younger family member.

I'd also give them what for if they'd had the option of travelling with a paper boarding pass. Why? Because batteries run down and technology glitches its another point of failure.

Well, again, maybe. But he was there on time and would have boarded if the machine had worked. There is a reason for closing times, it means that as long as you get there before that time you are "on time", he was "in time" and should have been able to board. He was unable to board solely because of faulty technology.

I'm on Darren's side on this one.
 
I know you can be rushed though security if time is tight

T5 is pretty appalling in the way things are organised IMO.

Slow slow slow. And this is the most modern terminal in the UK and it feels like a shambles at times.

I've been at STN during the evening and they had shut down most of the scanners and the queue became ugly. Really ugly. Staff got self-righteous and tetchy. Those who had arrived with spare time (eg. moi) soon started to realise that with all the barrier jumping going on the queue wasn't moving properly and we were at risk of missing our flights as people from behind skipped the lines. It didn't get to fisticuffs but it was malevolent as people got stressed and it verged on breakdown of order.
 
Hopefully the next post from me on this subject will be tomorrow afternoon from Athens.

It does feel a bit strange though, I am a rather frequent flyer but I do feel very nervous about the check-in procedure.

Last night I felt as though I never wanted to fly again. All because of something that was not my doing.

It sounds a bit daft but it has really, emotionally screwed me up.
 
……...Last night I felt as though I never wanted to fly again……....

I'll be happy to fly out to Greece (at your expense, naturally) instead :D :D

Hope all ends well, anyway. Have a couple of beers (airside, after security) to relax :thumb::thumb:

Just a shame that there are no smoking facilities airside - otherwise the problem would not have arisen. Many people like a smoke to calm their nerves before flying, but the airports don't cater for them. :wallbash::wallbash:
 
And if he'd decided to have his beer airside .....

If I understand correctly, the beer was not the reason for not going airside early... it was the fag.
 

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