British Airways... not nice

Rouxenator

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Is it just me or has BA gone a bit stupid as of late? I was under the impression they were very nice until last night.

My wife is doing a post doctoral study on oysters after completing her PhD on abalone reproduction. For the past two years she has visited various oysters farms, local and abroad. Some of the trips have been to Japan and Tasmania so she does travel a bit, yesterday she had to go to Mexico.

The Mexican consulate in Pretoria said she can simply get a US visa here in Cape Town and then she would be allowed into Mexico. This suits her perfectly because next year she needs to go to Louisiana. Unfortunately at check in last night the people at BA did not agree, they said to get to Mexico with a US visa you need to stop over somewhere in the USA. They also insisted that she needs a UK visa even though she is just stopping over at Heathrow. They were not the most pleasant of people to deal with.

An hour and some tears later the universities travel agent doing her flight bookings got her on KLM to Amsterdam and the folks at KLM said there is absolutely no problem with the paperwork or getting her to Mexico from Amsterdam and back in two weeks time. Their flights are also slightly cheaper than BA.

Anyone else recently had issues with BA?
 
Yes, you do need to stop over in the USA first. Why not get a Mexican visa here? They are not an efficient bunch and don't like it if you have a Muslim name
 
Mexican consulate is in Pretoria, we are in Cape Town. She did call them and they said its fine if you have a US visa that is valid for your entire stay. KLM confirmed this, seems its only BA that sees things otherwise.
 
Its the kind of nice and fascinating job you can do if you have a husband that provides a house and pays most of the monthly bills :cool: Research and science really does not pay well in SA, but you do get to go places. She was in Russia when Shuttleworth went into space, some of her experiments went up with him as part of a study of fertilization in zero gravity.

In February we did a local trip to an oyster farm in Kleinzee, it is deep down in the dunes where the diamond mine was once. Really enjoyed it, as well as the drive there in a Corolla with only 3000km on the clock - really gave it some stick :)
 
You do need a transit visa for the UK. Stupid, but the blame for that one falls on the muppets in government.

The only gripe I had with BA in the past was that their food was horrible, even by airline food standards.
 
BA is pretty decent at the best of times or at the very least they are consistent. However it doesn't make financial sense to fly via LHR anymore as a transit point unless you are One World and want to travel in the premium classes which is where BA excels. As pointed out its the fools in government that dictate who BA can or cannot carry. The Airline gets penalised something like $3-5000 per every single passenger denied entry into the UK (or at their final destination if carried by BA) by Border Control so BA have to be extremely careful who they accept and it's a huge problem for them in Africa. That said Ground Staff could do with a bit of Customer service skills.
 
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BA Flew a really french teen to the US to under go treatment for a thyroid condition, and then refused to fly him back to France
 
BA Flew a really french teen to the US to under go treatment for a thyroid condition, and then refused to fly him back to France

Apologies for the derail, but I have to ask: what's a "really french teen"??? :D
 
Oh yeah I read about that, he has some kind of medical condition that causes him to be very big. The family are now heading back to Europe via the QE2 if I am not mistaken. The closest I'll ever go to BA again is Kulula.

Today I'll get word on how well Aeromexico is, she is flying from Mexico City to La Paz. I doubt it will be her worst flight ever since she was once in a plane from Kazakhstan back to Russia and the cabin was not properly sealed, frost started to form on the inside shortly after taking off :cool:
 
The UK visa problem is due to the way that Heathrow is built and the UK immigration guys. The person at the check in are just following UK immigration rules.

BA flights from SA all land at Terminal 5. Terminal 5 requires you to go through passport control to get back into the international departures lounge which means that you are 'transiting' on UK soil (Even if for just a couple of minutes). UK immigration requires you to have a transit visa for this. It is a relatively new rule and not very well known.
 
I had similar issue, but with Finnish airways, they use BA as well(one world group), they gave my wife and I serious headaches. Still sorting the mess out.

She will be flying turkish next, I never had issues with them.
 
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BA was wrong about the US/Mexico visa thing. They had no issues letting her into Mexico with her US visa coming directly from Amsterdam.

Their local airline is not that bad either, although the in flight service consisted of the only air hostess on the 30 seater plan walking down the isle with a bottle of Coke asking if anyone wants some.
 
Update : She arrived back last Friday night, had no problems at all. BA was lying when they said the only way to get into Mexico with a US Visa is if you are coming from the USA.
 
The UK visa problem is due to the way that Heathrow is built and the UK immigration guys. The person at the check in are just following UK immigration rules.

BA flights from SA all land at Terminal 5. Terminal 5 requires you to go through passport control to get back into the international departures lounge which means that you are 'transiting' on UK soil (Even if for just a couple of minutes). UK immigration requires you to have a transit visa for this. It is a relatively new rule and not very well known.
Does this mean that if one wanted to sneak into the country it could be done by flying BA and just walking out of the airport?
 
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