Our airport transfer booked through British Airways was late and we missed our flight: CRANE ON THE BUSINESS

In May my husband and I went on holiday to Lake Como in Italy. We flew from Heathrow to Milan Malpensa Airport with British Airways and paid with Avios.

We also booked our hotel and an airport transfer on the BA website. The latter cost £432 and was described as a ‘private premium car transfer service’.

On the way there the car transfer took an hour and fifteen minutes. On the way back we booked the pick-up at 11:00 for our 15:05 flight and we would arrive at the airport around 12:15, so we had plenty of time.

However, the car arrived 35 minutes late, which the driver said was due to traffic. The hotel checked the car’s navigation and suggested an alternative route to avoid it.

The driver insisted on continuing his route and we arrived at the airport at 2:40pm – more than two hours late. The check-in desk was closed and we missed our flight.

We called BA but were told we couldn’t be rebooked onto the next flight without paying, as we had used Avios to make the booking.

I had to go home that evening for a doctor’s appointment so I booked the last available seat online for £444. My husband booked at the ticket office for £618. Both were economy class.

We complained to BA and were told to take it up with the car company, but our booking did not mention the name of the company and BA will not tell us.

We are out over £1000 on the replacement flights and would also like some of our money back for the £432 ‘premium’ transfer. We have also lost the Avios on the return flight we missed. Left, Essex

Helen Crane, Money’s consumer champion, answers: You and your husband were loyal British Airways customers and had saved up enough Avios loyalty points for two return business class tickets to Milan.

When you booked you said it would have cost around £800 cash. You spent 18,250 points and also used a companion voucher.

You had planned a short trip to Lake Como, the beautiful northern Italian spot where George Clooney owns a waterfront villa.

You enjoyed the good life for a few days, but that came to an abrupt end when it was time to go home.

When your trip back to the airport ended in disaster, BA essentially said to you – in the words of Clooney’s 2005 drama – Good Night, and Good Luck.

In total you paid around £2,800, plus Avios, for the original holiday. Although it was all booked on the BA website, the hotel and car company are not run by BA.

The airline states that it is not responsible for the missed flight, as the car transport was carried out by a third party.

But I would say that because the ride was booked on the BA website in addition to your flights, and you had paid your money to BA, the car company took some responsibility.

“We had hoped that it was a reputable company that would have gotten us to the airport on time and taken the traffic into account,” you told me.

Even if you wanted to complain directly to the taxi company, you wouldn’t be able to do so. BA won’t name the company. I’ll come back to that later.

Of course, traffic jams happen – but it was made worse by the late arrival of the driver. If you had arrived at the airport 35 minutes earlier, you might have just barely made it to the flight.

He also refused to go along with the hotel receptionist’s suggestion of taking the ferry across the lake to another town.

I was also surprised to hear that British Airways would not give you a seat on another flight that day because you paid with Avios, not cash. What a way to treat your brand’s most loyal customers.

To make matters worse, when you finally got on the plane you told me that your £444 seat appeared to have been double booked.

In what may have been your one stroke of luck that day, the person who booked it wasn’t in it, and had bought it for extra space. They were kind enough to let you sit there anyway.

After finally getting home from Italy, you contacted BA to try and get some of your money back – and to make a pizza out of it.

Unfortunately, the company washes it off faster than someone eating a tiramisu without a spoon.

It insisted that the car transfer was a ‘third party’ booking and that you should take it up with them. But, amazingly, BA refused to give you the name, phone number or email address of that company – claiming they didn’t even know them.

You have shown me your emails with BA where you repeatedly ask for this information and the customer service representative replies ‘we do not have the information you are requesting’.

It said to check the BA booking confirmation which simply said ‘private premium car’.

You were later told that the heavy traffic was a case of force majeure, which would in no case be covered by the refund policy.

There were still many questions left, so I contacted BA to ask some of them.

When a customer books a car transfer on the BA website and BA pays, who is the contract with? What is BA’s policy on transferring to another flight when it has been paid for using Avios? And would you be refunded for your £1,062 replacement flights, your £432 car transfer or the Avios you used for the flight you missed?

Unfortunately, I didn’t get many replies. A BA spokesperson said: ‘We’re sorry to hear about our customer’s experience and we’re in touch to resolve the issue.’

They have now agreed to refund you £300 cash and 8,500 in Avios points.

That’s better than nothing, and pretty much evens you out for the Avios wasted on the return journey. But you and your husband are still out money and still feel like BA let you down – to quote another Clooney film – Up in the Air.

You told me that you are not happy with the amount, but that you are losing ‘the will to live’ in your attempts to get the refund, and that you will therefore accept the amount.

You are also considering making a claim on your travel insurance and reporting this to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.

CRANE ON THE CASE