Problems with British Airways Part 1

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The messaure of a good company is how they deal with things when they go wrong.

We booked several internal flights in Mexico that we intended to use for two trips. One to catch the Copper Canyon train from Los Mochis. The others to visit Mayan temples to the East of Mexico from Mexico city to Villamosa, Villamosa to Merida and Merida back to Mexico city. I had left the tickets to visit the Mayan temples in London and had called BA on 31st of October who informed me that I would be able to pick up replacement tickets at any BA ticket office.

I called the BA ticket office the day before all the following took place who told me that their ticket office at Mexico City airport would be open from 4pm until 10pm the next day and reassured me that I would be able to pick up my replacement tickets from them at that time. This seemed perfect as our flight to Los Mochis left at 6pm leaving us enough time to pick up the replacement tickets before catching the flight.

We arrive at terminal 1 at 4 pm and check the departure boards. Our flight to Los Mochis was not there so we head to the BA check in area where the BA ticket office is located to pick up our other tickets. At 4.45pm there is still no one at the ticket office and no obvious place to que for it when it does open. At 4.50 the ticket office attendant saunters up and que quickly forms with people being filtered in by the que attndants. We are third in line despite being there first. At 5.05 pm Lou checks the departure boards but our flight is still not there so she double checks the tickets and realises that our flight leaves from Terminal 2. We leave the que and run around one of the worlds largest airports like headless chickens for fifteen minutes before finding the train that takes us to Terminal 2, it is not well signed. We arrive at the departure gate with e-ticket vouchers but no boarding ticket and are sent back to check in. When we arrive at the check in desk we are informed that the flight has closed. The next flight to Los Mochise is at 7pm the following morning. We need to catch the Copper Canyon train from Los Mochis at 6 pm. Our trip seems doomed.

We find that there is a flight to Chihuahua which is a three hour drive away from Los Mochis. There is a bus depot at Chihuahua from which we should be able to get a night bus to Los Mochis. AreoMexico kindly and helpfully allow us to change our missed flight tickets for the flight to Chihuahua for a small admin fee. We have two hours before the flight departs so we head back to the BA ticket office to pick up our other tickets.

The ticket sales assistant punches our flight reference number into the computer, frowns and goes off to talk to her supervisor. There is a problem. There are notes on the system that say 'tickets left at home'. It is BA policy that only tickets that have been 'lost' or stolen can be reprinted. She informs us that our only option is to buy the tickets again at cost price and request a refund for the original tickets but she states that the orginal tickets are non-refundable. I very politely inform her that this is crazy and say that we are not sure exactly where the tickets are so they could be described as 'lost' and could she pleaase print the tickets. She is unwilling to do this. It is not BA policy and she would have to write a report to London explaining what she had done. We have to go and catch our flight to Chihuahua. I thank her for her 'help' and say we will call BA to get the situation resolved.

The flight arrives at Chihuahua at 9.30 ish. We grab a cab to the bus station arriving a little after 10 pm missing a bus by a few moments. The next bus is at 11 pm. We buy two tickets and settle down to wait with some expensive, hot brown water that they are trying to pass as coffee. Our journey is cold and miserably slow. We are stopped by the 'fruit police' who confiscate 3 oranges. The bus arrives in Los Mochis around 2 am we get a cab and arrive at our hotel at 2.30 am. We have to leave the hotel at 5.15 am to catch the Copper Canyon train. My head brushes the pillow and after a couple of hours we zombie down to reception to get the transfer to the station and catch the train.

We are a little concerned about the situation with the tickets but feel reasonably confident that we will be able to sort it out with a phone call. We put it to the back of our minds and focus on enjoying the train journey.

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