One World fail...
Discussion
After a few years using Star Alliance, I've lost all my status and I'm a nobody - so I've starting flirting with using British Airways instead.
Tomorrow is my first effort at using the One World Alliance, with a BA flight to Miami, followed by an AA flight to St Martin. I've checked in for the BA flight, but nothing I do allows me to check in for the AA flight. What kind of clusterf
k are these people running?
Further to that, it appears that when I land in the USA I have to collect my bags, go through immigration and customs and then start all over again. Now this isn't One World's fault - but I'll be avoiding the US from now on.
Maybe I should have used Air France after all...
Tomorrow is my first effort at using the One World Alliance, with a BA flight to Miami, followed by an AA flight to St Martin. I've checked in for the BA flight, but nothing I do allows me to check in for the AA flight. What kind of clusterf
k are these people running?Further to that, it appears that when I land in the USA I have to collect my bags, go through immigration and customs and then start all over again. Now this isn't One World's fault - but I'll be avoiding the US from now on.
Maybe I should have used Air France after all...
Kudos said:
Surely it's not that bad?
Oh yes it is.Maybe KLM would have been an option, but I notice their owners Air France are making them keep their s
t old planes. I saw a KLM MD11 at SFO the other week. I mean how old is that? I flew on those planes with KLM when I lived in NL 20 years ago!BA will through check your bag to Miami with AA now. They introduced a new tag last month.
You might not be able to check in, but you'll get as far as reserving your seat.
When you have a customer profile, in the form of a frequent flyer card, you'll soon find you can check in for flights over the pond. It's all to do with the passport data capture.
Trick is to use a self check in kiosk and let it read your passport IN THE US on you return, then you should be good to go next time.
BA have introduced a Bronze level now, business queue but no lounge.
I'd be interested to hear your opinions on AA btw.
You might not be able to check in, but you'll get as far as reserving your seat.
When you have a customer profile, in the form of a frequent flyer card, you'll soon find you can check in for flights over the pond. It's all to do with the passport data capture.
Trick is to use a self check in kiosk and let it read your passport IN THE US on you return, then you should be good to go next time.
BA have introduced a Bronze level now, business queue but no lounge.
I'd be interested to hear your opinions on AA btw.
Well, the whole BA experience was pretty good. We even paid to bump up to PE and BA managed to get us new seats together on the AA flight, but no boarding pass. Our luggage was tagged through for transit at MIA.
That's where the good bit ends. We were scheduled for a 2.5 hour transit at MIA - not enough time, we ended up running for our onward plane!
MIA is a mess of unimaginable proportions - anyone reading this should know that they should avoid this airport under any circumstances.
Passengers in transit are treated as people arriving in the US, no special status even if you have limited time! We queued for 75 mins in a crowded, chaotic immigration hall. Sharing a line with people with no ESTAs and visa holders alike. Some flights were called out for queue jumping but not us. After eventually passing through immigration we had to queue for 15mins at customs. That's right, customs but with no luggage! Next it was a case of follow some yellow transit dots - which disappear. Luckily we heard some fellow US passengers entering a lift that they were looking for AA and followed them.
We eventually found the AA check-in hall, another scene of queuing and chaos. By now we had 55 mins left. We found one AA agent who didn't believe we did not possess our boarding card and helpfully told us we needed to get a move on and rin for the plane! Why would we lie?! She helped us use the AA machine for one of us then left us telling us to do. Immediately a big warming sign came up and we found another agent, she helpfully produced 2 boarding cards and then escorted us to the front of the security queue where Mrs Puggit was placed in a Perspex cube of shame for setting off alarms.
30 mins left! Miami has no moving walkways, you have to use a frigging train to move about, which we just missed and waited for the next one before sprinting to the gate.
As for AA? I have no idea why they have so many loyal passengers as they offer nothing but a cramped seat and one free 'soda'. Ryanair if you like... 2 fat old stewards took care of every whim for the business passengers...
That's where the good bit ends. We were scheduled for a 2.5 hour transit at MIA - not enough time, we ended up running for our onward plane!
MIA is a mess of unimaginable proportions - anyone reading this should know that they should avoid this airport under any circumstances.
Passengers in transit are treated as people arriving in the US, no special status even if you have limited time! We queued for 75 mins in a crowded, chaotic immigration hall. Sharing a line with people with no ESTAs and visa holders alike. Some flights were called out for queue jumping but not us. After eventually passing through immigration we had to queue for 15mins at customs. That's right, customs but with no luggage! Next it was a case of follow some yellow transit dots - which disappear. Luckily we heard some fellow US passengers entering a lift that they were looking for AA and followed them.
We eventually found the AA check-in hall, another scene of queuing and chaos. By now we had 55 mins left. We found one AA agent who didn't believe we did not possess our boarding card and helpfully told us we needed to get a move on and rin for the plane! Why would we lie?! She helped us use the AA machine for one of us then left us telling us to do. Immediately a big warming sign came up and we found another agent, she helpfully produced 2 boarding cards and then escorted us to the front of the security queue where Mrs Puggit was placed in a Perspex cube of shame for setting off alarms.
30 mins left! Miami has no moving walkways, you have to use a frigging train to move about, which we just missed and waited for the next one before sprinting to the gate.
As for AA? I have no idea why they have so many loyal passengers as they offer nothing but a cramped seat and one free 'soda'. Ryanair if you like... 2 fat old stewards took care of every whim for the business passengers...
All major entry points into the USA are the same, we had a similar experience to yours when flying into Newark (our final destination was Orlando). Queued for 1.5 hours in immigration, then had to collect our bags go through customs then leave our bags in another section to be put on our flights to Orlando and then get a monorail to the other terminal for our next flight. Total Nightmare.
I did Heathrow - Cincinnati with KLM (or "Delta" under another name) with a 2.5 hour stopover at Michigan and had plenty of time, security was nice and quick, bags were retrieved quicker than anything I've ever experienced before, I ended up with well over an hour to kill.
Miami is a big tourist area, Michigan isn't, next time try seeing if you can get a stopover at a less popular point? Might be a longer 2nd leg of the journey but you'll clear the important stuff quicker (although Delta did change my return itinerary 2 days before I was due to fly out without any explanation, which really annoyed me and involved having to re-arrange most of my last day in the USA, but it was okay in the end!)
Miami is a big tourist area, Michigan isn't, next time try seeing if you can get a stopover at a less popular point? Might be a longer 2nd leg of the journey but you'll clear the important stuff quicker (although Delta did change my return itinerary 2 days before I was due to fly out without any explanation, which really annoyed me and involved having to re-arrange most of my last day in the USA, but it was okay in the end!)
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