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<\/p>\nIt’s a parent’s nightmare – being stranded unexpectedly at an airport with a small child.<\/p>\n
Fleur Lonsdale was travelling in late May with her son, Oakley, one, from New Zealand, where she lives, to Europe for her mum’s birthday.<\/p>\n
After flying to Auckland Airport, she arrived at the check-in counter three hours early for her next flight to Geneva.<\/p>\n
But she missed it after being told her son couldn’t board because of a mistake on his ticket – a mistake she had been assured wouldn’t matter by the airline.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been in some fairly stressful situations, you know, I’ve worked for the military. I’ve worked with some very high-level people – and that had to be one that had to top some of them,” she said.<\/p>\n
Three months earlier, in February, Lonsdale had booked her flights on British Airways’ (BA) website. Her one-year-old would be travelling on her lap for free but he needed his own ticket.<\/p>\n
However, the ticket that had been generated looked strange, she said. Only the first letter of his name and four of his surname appeared.<\/p>\n
Lonsdale was sure it wasn’t her mistake.<\/p>\n
“If that had been my mistake, then it would have been a one-letter mistake … but there’s no way that I would have put ‘O’ and then four letters of his last name.”<\/p>\n
She said she went to the company’s online chat for help, in which an agent reassured her that this was a known system error and would not cause any problems with boarding.<\/p>\n
However, when she made it to the airport, this turned out not to be the case.<\/p>\n
BA declined to share the chat history or call logs with customer service with her, which Lonsdale is entitled to under the UK’s General Data Protection Regulation laws.<\/p>\n
RNZ has contacted its customer service and can confirm it records calls for monitoring and quality purposes.<\/p>\n
In an email seen by RNZ from the airline to Lonsdale, BA appeared to admit fault for a system error which caused the misprint of her son’s name.<\/p>\n
“I also understand your frustration that the matter was ultimately acknowledged as stemming from a system-related issue rather than any error on your part,” a customer service agent wrote to Lonsdale.<\/p>\n
But when asked about this directly by RNZ, it did not provide an answer.<\/p>\n
It also did not answer questions on whether such a system error was known about, or whether there were plans to fix it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
British Airways appeared to admit fault for the system error in an email seen by RNZ.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n
The flight’s operator, which was not British Airways, told Lonsdale she would need a form from British Airways to change her son’s name to be allowed to board.<\/p>\n
Lonsdale said she spent hours on the phone with British Airways’ customer service, but nobody could help her.<\/p>\n
She told RNZ that an agent left during the call to go home for the day.<\/p>\n
“They’ve literally just kept me on hold, complete carelessness and just gone: ‘Oh, well, I’m going to go home now. Screw this girl who’s waiting at the airport with her one-year-old’.”<\/p>\n
Lonsdale said she was becoming increasingly distressed at missing her flight – and potentially her mum’s birthday celebrations.<\/p>\n
“It was just blame, blame, blame, your fault, your fault, your fault, you’re going to have to pay for it.”<\/p>\n
Eventually, she broke down in tears, despite usually being calm, she said.<\/p>\n
“I was just so shocked, I think. How is this even happening? Are you kidding me?<\/p>\n
“Like I’m at the airport for a 35-hour flight with my one-year-old by myself and you’re telling me that you can’t get me on my flight when you told me you could?”<\/p>\n
The agent then escalated the matter, and another told her they would book her on to a flight the next day.<\/p>\n
She arrived in Europe a day late but in time for the party.<\/p>\n