Dear Editor,
We recently travelled to Lisbon for 3 weeks and had a wonderful time except for trying to leave the country on Monday morning.
We arrived at the airport 3 hours early and checked in as soon as the gate opened. Due to the long lines, we were unable to get to the gate in time for our flight. The flight left without us.
No one was there to help us get on another flight. By the time we reached the gate no BA employees were at that desk and a new airline was using that gate. We were told to leave to get our bags and then talk to someone at a BA desk back at the departures terminal.
By the time we picked up our bags and went back to a check-in desk, the British Airways desk said they weren’t employees of BA and couldn’t help.
After calling BA, they said the airport had reported no anomalies and we were considered a ‘no show’ for all 3 tickets. No refund was given.
We had to come up with another $4000 to get 3 tickets for flight the next day with a new airline – Lufthansa – back to Vancouver.
We lost our connecting flights in Vancouver on Monday so needed extra flights and with extra hotel costs, it was over $5000 Canadian dollars. We didn’t even do anything wrong apart from having a horrible experience and haven’t been offered anything in return to cover these costs.
I am wondering if there is anyone else that has had this same experience that we can connect with or any information of who to contact to try to resolve this? The airline is denying any responsibility.
I have reached out to Lisbon Airport and the Airport Authority for compensation for losses due to this incident. I am sure many others experienced similar problems as we talked with them as we collected our bags.
At this point, although we love Europe vacations, we will be spending money elsewhere next year.
Any information is kindly received.
