Let's all be honest - OP took a pretty unreasonable risk and lost. Call me a coward if you will, but I know that if it were me, if I had any good reason to worry, I'd much prefer to seek approval from someone above me to cover my back and show i had consulted my hierarchy in case anything went pear shaped. I'll venture a guess that many who feel that this was an easy open and shut case might have reacted in a slightly less carefree way had they been a junior employee knowing they might be in big trouble if they made a decision that could cost their airline many thousands (or possibly tens of thousands) of pounds with the said airline coming back to them for some uncomfortable explanation. Only a few contributors here know what it is to work for BA, I am not one of them, but at least from what I have heard, BA certainly doesn't have the reputation to be a gentle machine with its staff. I and many others regularly complain about BA, but remember that we all experience BA as passengers and as such, in a way, we get the more "gentle" side of the company - however hard it might be to believe - because they have something to sell us. It's not only that none of us had to make up our minds on this affair in just 15-20 minutes, but more importantly none of us have to live with the consequences of that mind. ![]() The main constituency of those individuals is neither the passenger nor immigrations services in South Africa or elsewhere, it is their company itself. "BA" does not decide anything here - individual people do on behalf of their company. If they get the decisions wrong, the agent may well get in trouble personally, especially if they are in a vulnerable position for any reason. Check in agents and visa check people are asked by airlines to ensure that airlines do not fall foul of their obligations with immigrations services. If the airline doesn't comply, it will have to pay the costs of deporting the passenger back and a penalty (and again, the question, here, is what trip are we talking about when a pax books a Ba Hol with hotel to South Africa, and then adds a separate JNB-MRU undoubtedly without cancelling the hotel arrangements made through the airline). Airlines are asked by immigration services to make sure that passengers have the right documents for their trip. But personally I’d be tempted to let sleeping dogs lie on this one.Ĭheck in agents ins a scenario like this aren't being asked to make a judgement based on intent, but (subtle but important difference) on the probability of how the intent might be seen at the other end with the possible cost of repatriation.Actually, I think that there is an important nuance that is being missed in the debate but that is a slightly different one: There may well be some legal merit to that, depending on which T&Cs were in effect when you booked. *Those who like arguing over T&C’s will likely point out it matters when you booked this, as previous versions of the BAH T&Cs did not care whether the car/hotel was actually consumed, whereas more recent versions do have clauses that state that failure to use the hotel/car as booked may invalidate double TP’s. ![]() Now that everyone has been reunited and the family holiday in MRU happened as planned (albeit with some stressful setbacks), and the double tier points have credited, it might be worth reconsidering how much to pursue this, or whether, in the grand scheme of things, all’s well that ends well. Your family were transiting SA taking advantage of that country’s TWOV scheme and were involuntary denied boarding, but also incorrectly awarded double tier points as you clearly had no intention of using the 5-night hotel booking*. ![]() Your family had a 5-night holiday (including hotel) booked to JNB and were denied boarding due to lack of proper documentation to enter SA.The detail of this being a BAH booking changes things, IMO. If so, it might be time to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. BTP, are you still pursuing IDB compensation?
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