Don't hold your breath.

BA don't even run out of Grand Rapids Int Airport.

The closest airport to Grand Rapids that does have BA is Chicago.

So I guess he did a 6.5-hr round trip drive inc talking to various people at the airport, and was still back home on his computer by lunchtime...

I have a theory... document a bunch of difficulties in a public forum... send a bunch of e-mails to service reps who won't possibly say anything of any use... pretend to go to the airport... stay in the US for several more months, then try and get away without a ban by simply saying "look, I tried to leave, I have proof!".

They do according to their website

[QUOTE=hobbes79;7059140]Don't hold your breath.

QUOTE]

He's gone awfully quiet since we asked for his documents, probably busy with Photoshop as I write

Maybe through a code share but not as BA - http://www.visitgrandrapids.org/getting_here-air.php

BA Dont fly direct out of Grand Rapids...its a connector flight to Ohare...

But yeah, if you do happen to be serious....keep us updated....

They use AA as a partner airline. So you can book a BA flight from London to Grand Rapids, but you'll connect somwhere else in the US and take an AA flight into Grand Rapids.

The OP specifically said they spoke to a BA employee, and none are there. Other option is driving like Steve McQueen to Chicago and back.

I call bullshit...

I was thinking that surely BA would put the funds on the existing ticket towards a new ticket, and the OP only has to pay for the difference....which shouldn't be TOO bad....or am I still living in the past, and airlines don't do that anymore?

Rene

Oh give the poor man a chance.....................He'll be back in a moment with scans of his documents that proves it all to be true.............................

I just can never fathom why somebody would bother coming to a forum and spend so long making up this stuff - how bored with your life would you have to be?

So from that point of view I believe them.

I do think if they don't fly out of there it is a bit dodgy, but could it be that the AA desk has BA on it as well - I know some partners do this?

Call me cynical, but some alarm bells are going off here:

1. Already extended stay
2. Said only had travel insurance for "a few weeks" but has now stayed 3-months... clearly no job or ties back in blighty (there is a reason WHY POE officers don't like this)
3. Evidence of a partner of some sort in the US
4. Little details about this fall. If it was a broken leg, fair enough. But he was sent home the same day... clearly nothing serious enough to stop getting on a plane. Airlines clearly has a similar attitude.
5. "Desperate" efforts to return home seem to involve calling the BA 1-800 number and e-mailing the help desk
6. After having those minimal efforts critizised, difficult to believe story about doing more than that
7. Talk of "maxed out credit cards". Convenient to stay in the US and not pay those off, isn't it?

The kid clearly wants to stay without a visa.

Why make it up/embelish the story? I'm thinking he's looking for a statement along the lines of "well, you've tried everything, I guess you should just stay!".

Gives some rationalization to what is clearly a huge mistake.

Happy to be proven wrong, but don't think I will...

Not sure of his reasoning, it's one of these three:

1. Hes just a sado with no life and he's trying to wind everyone up
2. He's doing what you say and making a huge mistake
3. Telling the truth

I still say it's 1, but let's await the documentation he said he can provide

Oh you would not believe some off the classics we have
had over the years...

Do tell us a few Santa Ray.

I don't believe you Ray. You will be telling me some pack of lies about a UK guy who had to go to the emergency room and missed his flight and he couldn't change his ticket and didn't have enough money for a new ticket so he had to overstay in the US.

Well have you ever found yourself on the top of a roof in
Kirkaldy and not know how you got there