She was on the flight but BA said she wasn't

Wow, interesting story. Hard to believe that something like this would happen but definitely a big SNAFU. At least she was able to confirm she was on the flight and things worked out. And I would imagine working for the BBC didn't hurt the process, but still, not pleasant to go through.

LOL This is not surprising.

About 6 years ago I was headed to Europe from Miami. I handed my passport and boarding pass to the guy at a security check point before actually getting into the security line. He looked at it several times and then called someone else over. They BOTH looked at my boarding pass, talked, and finally I asked what was the problem.

The one guy said, "Your flight is not until tomorrow." Now for a split second or two, my mind exploded into WAIT, WHAT? Had I lost my mind and arrived a day early? I quickly said, what are you talking about? He pointed to my boarding pass. Being as nice as I could, I explained to the two gentlemen they were looking at my arrival date and time in Europe. Yes, I would be arriving the following date of tomorrow morning. I pointed to my departure time and they said, "Oh, okay, go ahead."

So this story for me was certainly not hard to believe.

I explained to the two idiots

But we expect them to have respect for us and be understanding of our mistakes.

Interesting story, Frank. Thanks for posting. Interesting she should not check in online or at the kiosk either.

NOTE TO SELF: Verify the information on your boarding pass to make sure it's you!

In October 2023, my parents and I were flying home from our Italian vacation — Aer Lingus FCO to Dublin to Boston. At FCO airport, we stood in a long line to check our bags and get our boarding passes printed. All went well, with boarding passes in hand we walked 5-7 minutes to the security area to go through the procedures. Before you can enter the security area, you have to scan your boarding passes. We each scanned them and the gate opened and we went through. Luckily I took a quick glance at my boarding pass before putting it away, I realized the name on it was a total stranger’s name! My parents’ boarding passes had strangers’ names on them. I PANICKED and asked one of the employees to let us out so we could go sort it out. Ran back, I cut the line and went to the same agent, and explained the mistake. She didn’t seem to care — all she said was “oh.” Anyway, we got the correct boarding passes printed. A good 30 minutes wasted. But if I hadn’t noticed the mistake, we probably would not have been allowed on the flight.