It's a parent's nightmare - being stranded unexpectedly at an airport with a small child.
By Anya Fielding of RNZ
Fleur Lonsdale was travelling in late May with her son, Oakley, one, from New Zealand, where she lives, to Europe for her mum's birthday.
After flying to Auckland Airport, she arrived at the check-in counter three hours early for her next flight to Geneva.
But she missed it after being told her son couldn't board because of a mistake on his ticket - a mistake she had been assured wouldn't matter by the airline.
"I've been in some fairly stressful situations, you know, I've worked for the military. I've worked with some very high-level people - and that had to be one that had to top some of them," she said.
Three months earlier, in February, Lonsdale had booked her flights on British Airways' (BA) website. Her one-year-old would be travelling on her lap for free, but he needed his own ticket.
However, the ticket that had been generated looked strange, she said. Only the first letter of his name and four of his surname appeared.
Lonsdale was sure it wasn't her mistake.
"If that had been my mistake, then it would have been a one-letter mistake ... but there's no way that I would have put 'O' and then four letters of his last name."
She said she went to the company's online chat for help, in which an agent reassured her that this was a known system error and would not cause any problems with boarding.
However, when she made it to the airport, this turned out not to be the case.
BA declined to share the chat history or call logs with customer service with her, which Lonsdale is entitled to under the UK's General Data Protection Regulation laws.
RNZ has contacted its customer service and can confirm it records calls for monitoring and quality purposes.
In an email seen by RNZ from the airline to Lonsdale, BA appeared to admit fault for a system error which caused the misprint of her son's name.
"I also understand your frustration that the matter was ultimately acknowledged as stemming from a system-related issue rather than any error on your part," a customer service agent wrote to Lonsdale.
But when asked about this directly by RNZ, it did not provide an answer.
It also did not answer questions on whether such a system error was known about, or whether there were plans to fix it.
The flight's operator, which was not British Airways, told Lonsdale she would need a form from British Airways to change her son's name to be allowed to board.
Lonsdale said she spent hours on the phone with British Airways' customer service, but nobody could help her.
She told RNZ that an agent left during the call to go home for the day.
"They've literally just kept me on hold, complete carelessness and just gone: 'Oh, well, I'm going to go home now. Screw this girl who's waiting at the airport with her one-year-old'."
Lonsdale said she was becoming increasingly distressed at missing her flight - and potentially her mum's birthday celebrations.
"It was just blame, blame, blame, your fault, your fault, your fault, you're going to have to pay for it."
Eventually, she broke down in tears, despite usually being calm, she said.
"I was just so shocked, I think. How is this even happening? Are you kidding me?
"Like I'm at the airport for a 35-hour flight with my one-year-old by myself and you're telling me that you can't get me on my flight when you told me you could?"
The agent then escalated the matter, and another told her they would book her on to a flight the next day.
She arrived in Europe a day late but in time for the party.
After complaining to the airline, and months of back-and-forth emails, it paid for the expenses incurred as a result of the delay, including accommodation for the extra night in Auckland and food.
It also provided compensation and a gift voucher, as a goodwill gesture.
But there was no mention of fixing the system error.
This prompted Lonsdale to share her story: she said she didn't want this to happen to another parent.
"This is about every mother who has to travel with her child. This should never be allowed to happen at any airline, not just them."
A spokesperson for British Airways said: "We are sorry we didn't offer the service our passengers rightly expect on this occasion, we have been in contact with the customer and have worked to put things right."
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