Unusual check-in issue at JFK last night

Debated where to post this, mods please move if not appropriate for "general discussion".

Just had a call from a friend to whom I'd recommended VS a while back (she normally flies BA) - her & a friend flew back from JFK last night. They were in Economy and booked on the VS10 departing 21:45.

Check-in was fine, except they were told they couldn't be be seated together, issued with boarding passes, then onward with luggage to x-ray. In the queue the security people were shouting out for "anyone on the 46 please come to front of line". My friend took a casual look at the tag on her case and noticed that it displayed VS46, however her friend's tag showed the expected VS10.

Panic set in and back to the check-in. A very matter of fact agent (no apology or anything) simply said that "the 10 has a two hour delay so I'll move your friend on to the 46 as well".

In a nutshell, they both ended up on the 46 and sat together. Baffles me how two passengers on the same reservation who check in together can "accidentally" be issued with boarding passes for two different flights?

Thanks
James

[Nottingham Nick]

Don't have a problem with it being in General Discussion, James.

Though I do struggle to understand the rationale for splitting a party onto two different planes. [?]

Can only assume that the loads were heavy, and the delay had caused the agent to get distracted. [:?]

Not exactly the way to attract pax over from BA, though when their luggage arrived with the flight, I suppose they would look upon that as a bonus. [:I]

Nick

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Don't have a problem with it being in General Discussion, James.

Though I do struggle to understand the rationale for splitting a party onto two different planes. [?]

Can only assume that the loads were heavy, and the delay had caused the agent to get distracted. [:?]

Not exactly the way to attract pax over from BA, though when their luggage arrived with the flight, I suppose they would look upon that as a bonus. [:I]

Nick

Ahh, but Nick we've witnessed first hand how crap the check-in staff at JFK can be. I remember the look on your face when you and Buns were checking in for the flight home on the Haircut run last year.

Thanks,
Richard

[Darren Wheeler]

You are so filling me with confidence for September:D

As a virgin JFK'er I'm now slightly wishing I had gone via BOS instead....[:w]

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by RichardMannion

...we've witnessed first hand how crap the check-in staff at JFK can be. I remember the look on your face when you and Buns were checking in for the flight home on the Haircut run last year.

LOL. True Richard, but at least Buns and I were never in danger of coming home on separate planes.

Ain't outsourcing great? [:w]

Nick

oh dear we are off to jfk on the 19th and coming back on the 23rd the better half would have a hissy fit if shes not on the same flight as oneself (she dont enjoy flying even ucs)

Come to think of it, JFK ground-staff have screwed up on several occassions in the not too distant past - the two incidents mentioned in this thread and the handling of the 24 hr delay of the VS10 the other week.

45.

Originally posted by Vegascrazy
Debated where to post this, mods please move if not appropriate for "general discussion".

Just had a call from a friend to whom I'd recommended VS a while back (she normally flies BA) - her & a friend flew back from JFK last night. They were in Economy and booked on the VS10 departing 21:45.

May seem like a stupid question, but were they both in the same PNR. Not saying it is the case, but it could be an example of VS giving good customer service. If they were traveling on seperate PNR's (ie they each paid for their ticket's seperately), then the person that rebooked friend A for the earlier flight may not have known that there was a friend B.

I only mention this because it used to happen to me all the time when I worked for DL. We'd have a delayed flight and rebook people to other airlines and such, and often times don't know if there's multiple families or individuals traveling together.

This is why you should always call your airline and notify them if there is more than one PNR traveling together. There is a special remark (DL's is a 4SSR entry) that has to be put into the PNR to tell the computer to link the two records together. Otherwise something as simple as a ship number change for the flight can result in the computer reassigning seats for the flight and not seating you together.

I phoned VS reservations last week to have such remarks entered into my PNR for my upcoming trip. Takes all of 5 minutes, and just requires the two PNR confirmation numbers.

Just wanted to point out that everyone was really quick to assume JFK staff at fault, when it actually could have been a simple case of them rebooking one person and not knowing that another was traveling with them...

Hi Mike, yes they were on the same booking and were both physically there together at the check-in desk.

Thanks
James

Unless deliberately done, there is no way for Pax on the same PNR to be accidentally checked in on separate flights. Either the agent in question changed the booking of one passenger without telling the other (a HIGHLY unlikely scenario, namely because that particular entry is pretty complicated and because the agent would get their heads torn off for it) or the passengers were not on the same PNR and were, in fact, on separate flights.

If you'd like, Vegascrazy, please PM me the names of the two passengers and I'll check our database to see exactly what happened.

Will do, I'd rather check with them beforehand though. Thanks for offering to look into it.