Dear fellow travelers,
I have never experienced with inefficiency and harassment in my entire traveling life as I have at CDG. Mind you I was not the only one who experience the abuse this morning Nov. 9, 2023. I had a boarding pass already on my phone but felt since I was 4 hours early, I would go in the front desk to check in. It opened 3.5 hrs before the flight and it was 6:45 AM Paris time. The check in people were nice but a woman acting like a supervisor was making everybody check it the bag fits the hold. Fair enough. Once I got to the desk she made me put it in to test if it will fit vertically (it did) and horizontally (it did) and she said it didn’t fit and I had to pay 85 euros. I told the front desk I have to catch a flight only 2 hrs once I arrive at LHR to USA. She replied she didn’t care. Ok so I paid the 85 euros, and she would not give me my passport. Now it is 6:45 am, I made sure I arrive at CDG early and she was giving me a hard time. To be fair she was giving other people a hard time too. But what I didn’t understand is why she would not give me my USA passport back? Remember technically I already have my boarding pass from checking in on line and have used BA for decades. She was literally harassing me and treating me like a child. I paid 85 euros to check my small soft bag in, got another boarding pass, and proceeded to the gate. Once I got to the gate, the people said my flight was cancelled….just me not the rest of the passengers. What? I had to step out through security, retrieve my bag, buy a new ticket, change my flight from LHR to USA and get a hotel in London. In all, cost me more than 600 euros, time, stress for being 4 hours early!!! What? I’ve avoided CDG for almost 10 years and I thought maybe something has changed …but no it has gotten worse. Then I met a mother and daughter crying at the gate, she had cancelled them too. I asked why? They said they arrived 15 minutes before the deadline of checking in. To make it worse the desk people gave no warning that if you at all discuss or argue, you too will be cancelled.
Posted by
Upstate NY, USA
852 posts
BA needed to rebook you, there was no need for you to pay. EU261 also applies.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you for recommending but I was so hurt about the treatment that I just bought a new ticket from BA which cost approximately 146 Euros (CDG to LHR) and like my original flight I was sent my boarding pass on my mobile. The flight was late afternoon around 4:15 pm and instead of going to the desk, I just went directly to security without incident. My bag fit perfectly in the hold, my boarding pass in the green. I had already missed my flight to the U.S. upon arriving to LHR (2 hours late) so I also changed my flight for the next day but was charged a fee of $199. The BA people at LHR, automatically gave me vouchers for a shuttle, a Hotel (Arora), and dinner/breakfast and explained that it happens all the time. All in all, the whole incident cost me approximately 450 euros because a power trip in the works. I have used BA for decades on business and personal trips. BA needs to work with the CDG staff in Paris because it really does not show the BA culture that I am accustomed to... good service and care. Normally, I would have meetings to attend but this was a different circumstance as a friend's husband recently passed away. I am debating very seriously to file a legal complaint but sometimes one has to choose the battle he/she wants to fight. With all the serious fights going on in this world, I may just enjoy the dinner provided by BA downstairs in Arora hotel.
Posted by
Freedonia
15598 posts
This should cost you nothing if it was on one ticket.
When you were bumped off your first flight, BA is responsible for getting you to London. No extra charge.
If because of this you need to take a different flight to the US, again it should be no charge.
If it was two separate reservations, then any extra cost to the US bound flight is yours.
You need to file a claim with BA.
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/help-and-contacts/complaints-and-claims
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2764 posts
I am very confused about the passport. You claim she would not give it back but you somehow got back to the USA?
If you were refused boarding because of your behavior which is POSSIBLY what you are trying to say with "my flight was cancelled….just me not the rest of the passengers" then I don't think EU261 applies. (And before everyone condemns the airline remember we haven't heard the full story here)
This really appears to be two tickets Not one. That's a key element here3
So the only EU compensation you might be owed would depend on what British Airways was going to do to book you to London. Not what you were going to do to book to the United States. And it sounds to me like you booked your own ticket without finding out what that was, so that’s a separate issue.
And arriving 15 minutes before cut off? I feel sorry for the mother and daughter but that’s just cutting it too close. Arriving 15 minutes before cut. probably means they were not at the counter at cut off. It’s not I’m at the back of the line, it’s that you’ve checked your bags at cut off.
One note, in the future if you are booking unprotected connections two hours is so minimum that it’s basically useless. It’s a minimum of four hours and willing to pay the $600 you just paid.
I realize that you think that all of this is related to Cdg but at least 90% of it could happen in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Edited to add by they way 'bags fit" generally means easily not "If I push and shove I can get them in" I am not saying that's what happened here but I have seen people try that trick :) )
Posted by
448 posts
So your bag fit in the "sizer" and the supervisor said "Not good € 85 please". And you paid just like that? Really? With 3 hours till flight time there was surely time to negotiate. I would at least have documented the bag size and fit with my phone/camera, and gotten a name of the person. Then having given you a boarding pass being singled out at the gate??? something fishy here.