[mayfam]

The BA check-on agent spoke good English, but chose not to (or could not) work the reservations computer to clear up the problem. She referred my wife to call BA Executive Club in Milan, who also spoke good English. But the check-in agent left my wife to her own devices to find a telephone, pay for the call by first finding and buying the right phone card, make the call, and get lucky by finding BA Exec Club open for business and responsive, and without getting a dropped connection.

Those things aren't rocket science, but they can be challenging for foreigners. I myself am a world traveler (as in 100 countries) but I find those things hard in a foreign country. My own previous attempt to use a payphone in Italy didn't result in a connection. Remember my wife was under pressure to get this sorted out in time to make a second shot at checking in in a timely way. I don't call that an insignificant problem for a passenger. It may well seem insignificant for an airline employee based in that locale, or for a hardened and embittered airline employee at any locale.

Remember my wife shouldn't have been asked to do anything other than check-in timely in the first place, which she did. No language issues would have arisen.

I'll happily negotiate with BA on this. Whatever I mention on this forum will be counter-productive, because it will look like a demand - which it is not. Once again, I am not expecting a free roundtrip ticket from Tampa to London - which you mentioned and not me.