When an E-ticket is not a ticket.

‘I left my Mum and Dad on holiday near Montpellier in France to visit a school friend who lives in Kenya,’ explains 15 year old Lydia . ‘I’ve travelled quite a lot on my own and was happy to fly to London for the connection to Nairobi.  But when I checked-in at Heathrow, they told me my e-ticket wouldn’t work’.
If you purchase an airline ticket today, the chances are that you will be issued with an electronic or e-ticket.  Whether issued directly by the airline or through an agent, e-tickets should work exactly as paper tickets and offer additional advantages.  They can be changed at the last minute in person or on-line, they cannot be lost or stolen and are cost effective.  The only imperative is the reference number.  But what happens if that reference number is invalid as happened to Lydia this summer? 
Despite being on the flight list, the airline had no record of having been paid by the agent for the journey.  The agent’s office was closed and Lydia was advised to purchase a new ticket and arrange reimbursement of the original transaction. 
‘This was very unfortunate,’ says Anna Martin for British Airways, the carrier involved.  ‘Where possible the airline will contact the travel agent who has made the booking to resolve the issue – many operate a helpline 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  But if we have not been paid for the flight by the booking agent, we have no way of recouping the cost after the journey.’  Lydia’s ticket had been purchased in March for the August holiday through a recognised ABTA agent, Somak Travel of Wembley, London.  Somak is adamant that it processed the ticket correctly but unfortunately does not offer an emergency number out of office hours.   In such circumstances, ABTA spokesman, Sean Tipton says,
‘BA should have honoured the agreement between its agent and the customer and sorted the question of payment with its agent afterwards.’ BA disagrees but insists that they do everything possible to ensure the passenger can fly to their final destination as soon as possible.
There is agreement between the airline and ABTA on the general efficiency and effectiveness of e-ticketing.  Over 2.5 million British Airways passengers travel each month using e-tickets.  In theory, if a passenger has received an e-ticket receipt and hence proof of payment, there should be no need for them to check its authenticity before they fly.   But problems do occur and according to Al Whiteside, a consultant with a leading travel agent, human error is more common than the industry admits.
‘There are so many different booking methods used by the airlines which are constantly being up-dated, that it’s very easy to make a mistake,’ he says.  ‘In addition, with British Airways for example, not all of their routes are e-ticketable.  If you issue an e-ticket for a route that needs a paper ticket, there is bound to be a problem on check-in’.
British Airways is not the only airline to use e-tickets or have problems.    Pascale Davis, a regular business traveller with Air France experienced a hitch with an e-ticket to Montreal earlier this year.
‘On checking-in, I was told that there was confusion with the reference number,’ says Mrs Davis.  ‘I had to pay for another ticket before I could fly.’  But young Lydia was not in the financial position to pay for a new ticket herself.  Also, for security reasons airlines cannot accept credit card payments over the phone for immediate ticketing and so BA were unable to accept payment from her parents in France.  Any last minute purchase of a ticket has to be made in person to the airline or its agent.  Finally, BA arranged for Lydia to spend the night in a Heathrow hotel and her family paid for a new ticket as soon as their local BA office in Montpellier opened the following morning.  She flew on to Nairobi and had a fantastic holiday as planned, albeit a day late. Needless to say the return flight was an anxious time for Lydia. Somak reimbursed the cost of the original flight.
            The industry is at pains to promote the advantages of e-tickets and believes its ticketing process to be robust and secure.  It charges a fee if a paper ticket is requested for an e-ticket route and no longer recommends ticket confirmation prior to checking-in.  However, unless you have the means to pay for a second ticket should difficulties arise, it may be worth double-checking a day or two before flying that the booking is in order, either on-line or by phone. 
‘Although everything worked out well in the end and the British Airways people at Heathrow were really nice, no-one could explain what went wrong,’ says Lydia. ‘Another time, I’d make sure my ticket was valid before going to the airport.’

© Judith Cameron