At the suggestion of a Fodorite in the Euope forum, I am posting my problem here as well. I hope no one minds the duplication, but I am a bit frantic.

I was so proud and happy that I was able to book four business-class tickets on British Airways for next summer's trip to Italy for our family, flying into and out of Zürich. Two tickets are with partner miles (Alaska Airlines) and two with BA miles.

Now it's all messed up.

I got a call from BA last night saying I should contact them because our return flight had changed. It turns out they changed our London to Seattle flight to an earlier departure (they have apparently cancelled the later flights between Seattle and Heathrow that they started last summer). So they also changed our departure flight from Zürich to an earlier one, with ample connection time at Heathrow (3 hours)

The problem is that only the two BA tickets were changed for the Zürich to London portion. The other two tickets---the ones booked through Alaska with partner miles---still have our daughters on the original flight out ot Zürich---which departs there AFTER our flight leaves Heathrow. In other words, it is an impossible routing.

BA says they can't do anything because Alaska has to "re-issue" the tickets. Alaska says they have to get permission from BA to change the flight, and that will take several days. In the meantime, it appears there are no "award" seats left on the flight, neither in business (which the original tickets were for) nor in economy.

There is an earlier flight from Zurich, leaving there at 7:00 am, and that may have award seats available, but I hate to have to end our trip that way, with us on separate flights, an early-morning dash to the airport for their flight, and leaving them with hours and hours to chill at Heathrow before we get there. I can see them both in tears about that.

In the meantime, of course, it is very difficult to get through to BA because everyone is in a panic about the impending strike.

What should I do? We will be in Milan the previous day, and could fly to London from there instead of returning to Zürich, but that would mean changing all four tickets, juggling with the two different systems. . . seems difficult.

I even checked on the price of one-way tickets on the correct flight from Zürich to Heathrow; they are available but would cost us around $600 for the 2 tickets. And would that cancel their onward leg (LHR to Seattle) if they don't get on the Zürich flight that award booking itinerary give them?

Thanks for letting me vent. I would appreciate any advice or insight.

enzian,
Don't Panic...
Try to talk with the airlines.
Explain the situation...and maybe you
can change the names on the tickets to
have one parent and one child on the
different returning flights from Zurich.

So all 4 of you are on the same Heathrow-Seattle flight right now and all you need is your daughters' Zurich-Heathrow flight changed and Alaska is already working on it but will take a few days, do I have that right?

This is a fairly common problem when schedule changes occur and connecting flights aren't taken into account and should be easy to resolve. There doesn't need to be award availability since it's a schedule change. The complication arises because BA cannot change your Alaska issued ticket and Alaska cannot override BA award availability. That's why Alaska needs to contact BA. I wouldn't panic yet and would wait to see what Alaska comes back with. Did you give them the Zurich-Heathrow flight number that you're currently on and want your daughters to be reaccommodated on?

You daughters can't just skip the Zurich-Heathrow unless you have their tickets reissued to drop that segment.

I would not worry. Alaska is fairly adept at handling these things with partners, and nobody is interested in splitting up families.

There may not appear to be award seats on the ZRH-LHR segment (or on the LHR-SEA one either) now but that does not mean that BA's revenue management people can't make two available. For trips this summer, I'm sure there's still capacity on the aircraft; it's just how many seats BA are willing to designate for awards. Once it's ticketed they're obliged to get you to Seattle, so they'll have to work it out. Just make sure AS knows that you're two parts of one family.

Thanks!

Gardyloo, the LHR to SEA segment is not a problem---we all have confirmed business class seats on Flt. #49 (we were previously on the later flight, # 53, which apparently they have cancelled altogether). We just have to get the girls to Heathrow in time to catch it.

I did give Alaska the flight number for the ZRH to LHR leg that the girls need to be on, as well as my BA confirmation cod so they can link everything (and conversely BA has the girls' confirmation number).

I've calmed down a bit and will just wait as Alaska asked. I just went into a panic when I saw no more award seats available on the Zürich flight---not even in economy.

Update--I just checked the BA website, under "manage my booking", and the problem has been fixed. We are now all on the same flight from Zürich (and all the others as well.

Thanks everyone, for reassuring me that it would all work out.

Good to hear! Thanks for the update.