oneWorld Alliance

Select country

Home

Reservations & Ticketing



Use and issuance of British Airways e-Tickets following the IATA e-Ticket deadline Baggage British Airways checked baggage policy for tickets booked before 07.Oct 2009 Cabin Baggage guidelines Excess baggage Lost Baggage Procedures Pets Sporting Equipment World Cargo Musical Instruments Standard Commercial Policy for delays and cancellations New liquid policy New liquid policy for Customer Departing Albania & Kosovo Liquid policy for Customer departing non EU Airports New liquid policy for Customer departing any EU Airport (including UK airports) Iceland, Norway and Switzerland Liquid policy - Turkey Qantas baggage General Banned items British Airways checked baggage policy for tickets booked on or after 07.Oct 2009 Missionaries Baggage Allowance e-ticket guide e-ticket with Abacus e-ticket Itinerary & Receipt e-ticket status change from CHECKED IN to OPEN e-ticket guide for all CRS's Sales Tools Rules and regulations Conditions of Carriage Dupe Bookings Extra seats Name Changes Oneworld fares Rejections of passive segments in same CRS Separate tickets policy Oneworld online planning and booking tool Non refundability of YQ surcharge on non-refundable tickets Servicing Minimum Connecting Times Transfer between London Heathrow and Gatwick APIS APIS Q&A's APIS Industry Standard entries EU Regulation on passenger disruption BA - Bassinet Request Executive Club card - entry format Flight reconfirmation Infants Medical cases Additional needs passengers Pet Travel Scheme Special meals Unaccompanied Minors (UM) service Waitlist regulations Seating Policy Qantas - Bassinet Request Missionaries BA Seating request changes Expectant Mothers BA self service check in at the airport Infant seats and carrycots Sporting Guns Limousine transfer between Bahrain and Dhahran (Dammam), Saudi Arabia Ticketing IATA 100% E-ticketing BA Brief IATA 100% E-ticketing QF Brief Lost Tickets Guidelines Agency Debit Memos - British Airways Policy Ticket audit Change Fee Collection on BA ticket stock Change Fee or Credit of Exchange Fee colletion on British Airways Ticket Stock Change Fee or Credit of Exchange Fee colletion on Qantas Airways Ticket Stock (copy) Fare Class Realignment 19 Nov 07 Fare and booking class changes ex Singapore 13 Nov 07 Ticket Monitor Gold Upgrade For Two - now bookable via Travel Trade Trade Ticketing with e-ticket mandate effective 01. Jun 08 Interline e-ticket agreements BA Ticket issue policy e-ticket guide for all CRS's e-ticket Itinerary & Receipt e-ticket status change from CHECKED IN to OPEN Infant e-ticket-not enabled Interline partners Automated ticket number checks Paper ticket refund via GDS Fare Class Simplification 20 Aug08 vMCO for refundable balance Prompt cards E-mail and mobile number collection Marine Sales Guide Improvements to our Marine Proposition for you New "OK to Board" Process Marine Help Desk Contact Information Marine Keywords Marine Baggage Allowance Marine Fare Product & GDS entries BA Marine Fares Problem Resoloution Form

Use and issuance of British Airways e-Tickets following the IATA e-Ticket deadline

The purpose of this instruction is to provide guidance on the use and issuance of British Airways e-Tickets on and after 1 June 2008, when paper tickets are eliminated from IATA BSPs. Sales of British Airways tickets through BSP are now 99% e-ticket, and BA has more Interline e-ticket Partners implemented than any other European Carrier. This document is primarily concerning administration processes with other airline partners

It covers the following:

1. e-Tickets Only from 1 June 2008 in IATA BSPs

For tickets issued on or after 1 June 2008 paper tickets must not be issued on BSP neutral paper ticket stock using British Airways airline accounting code (BA 125).

2. BA Ticket Issue Policy

British Airways may be selected as ticketing carrier by Travel Agents when issuing e-Tickets to cover journeys which include travel entirely or partially:

(a) on BA flights with a BA flight designator code (including flights with a BA prefix operated by a BA franchise carrier*) and/or

(b) on the flights of Qantas (QF)

In all other cases, British Airways must not be selected as ticketing carrier.

British Airways has a ticket issuance misuse fee of GBP25 (or equivalent local currency) in place. This will be applied in each case where a BA ticket has been used to issue tickets, which do not conform to this policy. In the event of a fee being applied, it will be charged to each ticket and debited by means of an ADM.

*BA franchise carriers
Comair Limited
Loganair Ltd (Until Midnight on Saturday 25th October 2008)
Sun-Air of Scandinavia A/S

3. Amending bookings in e-Tickets

When making an amendment to a booking that has previously been issued as an e-Ticket, it is imperative that follow up action is taken, either to:

a) revalidate the original e-Ticket; or
b) reissue an e-Ticket through your GDS to reflect the new itinerary.

If this is not done, it will mean a mismatch between the itinerary information in the booking and the e-Ticket. Consequently, the mismatch between bookings and tickets will lead to check-in delays on departure and inconvenience for passengers.

By ensuring an e-Ticket always matches up with the latest itinerary in the booking, passengers can benefit from online services like online check-in, home printed boarding passes and early seat selection.

A new automated process was introduced on 28 February 2008, which identifies “mismatch” bookings and the originating booking offices. Where servicing is required, messages are sent to these offices to take corrective action to revalidate or reissue the e-Ticket to match the booking.

4. Interline e-ticket Agreements (IET) on British Airways

British Airways has completed IET Agreements with the carriers in this list. This means that providing British Airways flights are part of an interline journey with the following carriers, British Airways tickets may be issued in accordance with the BA Ticket Issue Policy.

5. Interline e-ticket Agreements (IET) to be completed

British Airways intends, over the course of the next few months to complete IET Agreements with the following carriers on. This means that Travel Agents cannot issue e-Tickets for journeys involving British Airways and the carriers on this list until IET is implemented.

Please see Section 10 for the process for requesting a paper ticket for journeys involving these carriers and British Airways.

6A Aviacsa AE Mandarin Airlines AJ Aerocontractors

B2 Belavia CM Copa Airlines DT TAAG Angolan

F9 Frontier GJ Eurofly OV Estonian Air

QI Cimber Air TC Air Tanzania UN Transaero

YX Midwest Airlines Z5 GMG Airlines

6. Ticketing of Infants on Interline Journeys

The carriers on this list have completed IET with British Airways but have limited functionality in their system to accept e-Tickets for infants who are travelling as part of an interline journey involving British Airways.

Please see Section 10 for the process for requesting a paper ticket from British Airways for these journeys.

7. Ticketing airports that are not e-Ticket enabled

A paper ticket will need to be issued for itineraries that contain airports that are not yet e-Ticket enabled, either where BA is a marketing carrier on a codeshare route or where an existing IeT airline is the operating carrier.

Please see Section 10 for the process to request a paper ticket from British Airways for these journeys.

8. Existing IeT partners that do not support Open Flight Coupons.

The following existing IeT partner airlines do not support the issuance of open e-Ticket flight coupons. Therefore an e-Ticket cannot be issued if it contains an open sector with any of these carriers. BA will not be able to issue paper tickets on the travel agent's behalf in these instances, and we would suggest that a segment be booked for a specific flight in order for an e-Ticket to be issued.

Note – this list is subject to change.

AA

American Airlines

AC

Air Canada

AP

Air One

AS

Alaska Airlines

AV

Avianca

AZ

Alitalia

BD

BMI

BE

Flybe

BR

Eva Air

CI

China Airlines

CO

Continental Airlines

CX

Cathay Pacific

CY

Cyprus Airways

EI

Aer Lingus

EK

Emirates

GF

Gulf Air

HA

Hawaiian Air

JL

Japan Airlines

KA

Dragonair

LH

Lufthansa

LO

LOT Polish Airlines

LY

El Al Israel Airlines

MI

Silkair

MX

Mexicana

NH

All Nippon Airways

PG

Bangkok Airways

PR

Philippine Airlines

SQ

Singapore Airlines

TG

Thai Airways

TP

TAP Portugal

UA

United Airlines

UL

Sri Lankan Airlines

WY

Oman Air

9. Itineraries containing more than 16 Segments

Effective 01 June 2008 BA will be amending some round the world fares to limit them to a maximum of 16 segments, including surface segments, for the entire journey. This is to enable fare products to be ticketed by IATA Agents after 1 June 2008, when the maximum number of segments is limited to 16.

10. Process for requesting paper ticket from British Airways

British Airways has mandated the use of e-ticket on all itineraries where e-ticket is available and applicable. If a request for paper ticket is received where e-ticketing is possible, it will be rejected.

Apply to British Airways to issue the paper ticket as follows:

If your GDS supports the use of MD50’s without a value coupon BA’s preference is that this is used.

Use the following procedure to issue a vMPD or MD50 as appropriate. You will need to issue a vMPD/MD50 for each passenger to be ticketed.

Enter the following mandatory fields:

NAME OF PASSENGER

REASON FOR ISSUE: Select 50 -Specified MCO

REASON FOR ISSUANCE CODE: Select 1 - Prepaid Ticket Advice

AIRLINE CODE: enter 125

FARE – enter the fare

TAXES - insert all taxes applicable to a ticket issue

SERVICE CHARGE/TAX ON MPD: enter if applicable

PNR – enter PNR locator

FORM of PAYMENT: If form of payment is CREDIT, the credit card type, number, expiry date and amount fields have to be completed.

REMARKS: enter any additional information

Then enter the vMPD/MD50 number in the PNR (Booking record) as an OSI item. This is a mandatory requirement.

Amadeus: OS BA MPD 1251234567890

Galileo/Apollo: SI.BA*MPD 1251234567890

Worldspan: 3OSI BA MPD 1251234567890

Sabre/Abacus: 3OSI BA MPD 1251234567890

11. BA Policy for Other Documents (vMPD/MD50)

IATA member carriers have already adopted standards for an Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) that will replace all other non-ticket documents, however it is not anticipated that this will be fully available for use until 2009 at the earliest. During the interim period all other documents can be issued by means of a virtual version of the MPD known as the vMPD.

On/after 1 June 2008 the value coupon of the OPATB2 coupon-by-coupon MCO (known as the MD50) will no longer be available for the issuance of automated MD50 MCOs. However, some GDS companies may choose to continue to provide limited MD50 functionality for transactions that do not require a “value coupon”. Any interim solutions developed by the GDSs (e.g. suppressing the printing of a value coupon in OPATB2 markets) would be based on the fact that their airline/travel agency customers have approached the GDSs directly.

British Airways will accept MD50 transactions, but it should be noted that certain transactions cannot be fulfilled without a value coupon, e.g. part refund transactions, or any other transaction where the customer would need a coupon, which has an exchangeable value.

As a result, vMPD/MD50 transactions can only be issued with the following “Reason for Issuance” codes:

1 PTA/TOD

P Rebooking Fee Domestic

Q Rebooking Fee International

R Lost (Paper) Ticket Fee

These are the only codes that will be supported by British Airways in BSPlink or where MD50 is retained with limited functionality, through MD50. BA does not support any other “Reason for Issuance” codes, including “Excess Baggage” or “Oxygen” transactions. Travel Agents should direct passengers wishing to arrange “Excess Baggage” to BA.com or via a BA Ticket Desk and passengers wishing to book “Oxygen” to a BA Contact Centre. Procedures are being put in place for Group Deposits that negate the need for an MPD/MCO and which will be confirmed by local BA Sales Teams.

BA will be monitoring reasons for issuance code usage to ensure best practise is used.

Incorrect usage of reason for issuance codes may result in BA not recognising the payment and attempting to recover it via the ADM process.

12. Collecting change fees on British Airways

There are two methods for collecting change fees on British Airways:

1. Travel agents who have MD50 GDS functionality.

2. Travel agents who have a Virtual MPD (vMPD) - Details on completion are published below.

In essence the completion of the entries for either MD50 GDS functionality or vMPD are the same; these are summarised below.

Completion of vMPD/MD50 for change fees:

AIRLINE CODE: Enter 125 British Airways
REASON FOR ISSUANCE CODE: Enter either P for 'Rebooking Fee Domestic' or Q for 'Rebooking Fee International'
CURRENCY: AMOUNT IN FIGURES and AMOUNT IN LETTERS complete in the normal way
FARE BOX: Enter the change fee amount e.g. GBP30 in this box NOT in the 'Tax' box
ISSUED IN CONNECTION WITH: Enter the associated/new ticket number (i.e. 3- digit airline code followed by the 10-digit ticket number without any spaces e.g. 1251234567890)