Orly to Newark with Openskies, ticketed through British Airways. My sister and I were returning from Barcelona through Orly Airport with a final destination of Newark, NJ. Our flight arrived at Orly Airport at 8:55 a.m. on Jan 19th. We had been unable to confirm our boarding passes in Barcelona for the next leg of our flight because the British Airways app would not allow it. Upon arriving, we proceeded to the British Airways counter only to find no associates present. We were instructed by another airline’s agent that British Airways only staff the counter two hours prior to a flight. We waited until they came to open the counter and were first in line to get our boarding passes. We stayed in the area until closer time for our flight. At approximately 13:10 we went through security check and entered the boarding area. Our ticket showed gate 31. We were at gate 31. There were gates A, B, C, D, E, and F. As we looked at the monitor, it showed that BA 8003, scheduled to depart at 13:40, had closed the boarding process. We immediately went to the gate and were told by the associate that the flight had already left the gate. It wasn’t even 13:20! This was a flight scheduled to depart at 13:40 and this is the time showing on the monitor. The associate at the gate told us he would take us to the booking counter to see what they could do for us. When we returned to the counter (the time showing on my sister’s Fitbit was 13:24), we were told we had missed our flight and it was taking off. My sister showed the associate her Fitbit time of 13:32 and stated “This plane should still be on the ground.” The associate at the gate stated that the flight departure time had been moved up 3 minutes. I assured my sister to not worry that they were trying to help. The agent was trying to locate our reservations and when she realized we had booked a travel package, she informed us she could not help us other than to book tickets on the next day’s flight for $1500 per ticket and that we needed to contact our agent. She also informed us that her colleague had called our names before closing the door. I don’t speak French, but I do recognize my name and would have heard it if it had been announced. After this information, my sister again showed her the time on the Fitbit, which was 13:37, and said “This plane should still be on the ground!” I assured her we could not afford $3000 for one way tickets home. I asked if there was anything else British Airways / Openskies could do to make this right. She said, “No, you’ll have to contact your agent.” She was not interested in offering help once she realized we had not booked directly through British Airways. I am not sure what happened to make flight BA 8003 on January 19 depart early, but it wreaked havoc on our vacation, not to mention our wallets! The real question it left with me, however, is how the airlines could have announced our names, pulled our luggage from the plane and still managed to depart so early. The airlines did respond but did not address many of the question that were raised with them. Customer Relations, essentially, stated we are sorry for your experience.
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