BA Masterclass in Mis-managing IRROPS (LGW-JFK)
#46
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: in a cabin
Posts: 6,513
#47
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 2,189
One might suggest that ascribing terms such as "ordeal" to what took place is equally unhelpful, given that you were presumably also not there?
#48
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 11,453
Also a masterclass from FT in how to respond to a perfectly understandable vent; post 4 'it's no big deal' and post 10 'you only have yourself to blame'. I hope we don't get to armchair lawyer disputes, 'that's what insurance is for' or 'QR J>>BA F' too quickly or my drinking game will lead to serious liver damage
#49
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LHR/ATH
Programs: Amex Platinum, LH SEN (Gold), BA Bronze
Posts: 4,489
In all of this thread, the thing that upset me most was the fact that a young woman and her disabled mother were apparently crying without a hotel room stuck in LGW. Probably they had no idea what EU261 or duty of care means. Not everyone is an FT'er or an armchair lawyer.
If I was there and had the means, I would have booked them a 200 GBP hotel room myself, booked them a cab, charged BA for all that, and give a call to DailyMail and add yet more bad publicity to BA.
If I was there and had the means, I would have booked them a 200 GBP hotel room myself, booked them a cab, charged BA for all that, and give a call to DailyMail and add yet more bad publicity to BA.
#50
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Munich, Algarve, Sussex or S.F Bay Area
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, A3*Gold, AA Plat, HH Gold, IHG Plat Amb, Marriott Plat
Posts: 4,126
The OP was was written, not at all argumentative, reasoned and in my opinion restrained under what must have been difficult circumstances.
Trivialising it as one poster did or making excuses for clearly shoddy, though not at all unusual handling from BA is not helpful.
Answering back a Mod after a justified intervention is also not appropriate. What has this place become?
Yes, we've all been in this situation and yes, some of us may have handled it better than the masses flying LGW-JFK once per year but that is no excuse for the airline and certainly no reason to confront the OP, who is clearly not in that category.
BA has a moral and more important legal duty to it's customers which it once again did not fulfil. Worse, it did not fulfil it by policy rather than temporary inability. BA is not alone in this attitude, which is also no excuse for also doing so. It really is about time that airlines started being fined for not meeting their obligations.
Leaving a disabled passenger in tears with no assistence is the icing on the cake that is worthy of far greater censure and punishment.
Trivialising it as one poster did or making excuses for clearly shoddy, though not at all unusual handling from BA is not helpful.
Answering back a Mod after a justified intervention is also not appropriate. What has this place become?
Yes, we've all been in this situation and yes, some of us may have handled it better than the masses flying LGW-JFK once per year but that is no excuse for the airline and certainly no reason to confront the OP, who is clearly not in that category.
BA has a moral and more important legal duty to it's customers which it once again did not fulfil. Worse, it did not fulfil it by policy rather than temporary inability. BA is not alone in this attitude, which is also no excuse for also doing so. It really is about time that airlines started being fined for not meeting their obligations.
Leaving a disabled passenger in tears with no assistence is the icing on the cake that is worthy of far greater censure and punishment.
#51
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Switzerland / Estonia
Programs: AY+ Platinum, BAEC Silver, airbaltic VIP, HH Diamond, Radisson VIP, IHG Diamond Elite
Posts: 6,510
My bolding
Surely people who travel (longhaul) would have either a credit card, cash or a bank card to get some money at the next ATM for any unexpected expenses.
Absolutely CWS but you have to remember many passengers do not have that much money on them to just book a 200 GBP a night hotel without worrying about going over their credit limit, and then waiting for BA to pay them a month or so later. And with the way BA's reputation is at the moment, I doubt many passengers would even believe that BA will pay them for booking their own hotel, even though the regulation provides for it!
#52
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LHR/ATH
Programs: Amex Platinum, LH SEN (Gold), BA Bronze
Posts: 4,489
You'd be surprised at the amount of people who are travelling on the trip of a lifetime and spent all their spare money for their trip and do not want to give 200 GBP and worry about never getting it back.
#53
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 6,349
Absolutely CWS but you have to remember many passengers do not have that much money on them to just book a 200 GBP a night hotel without worrying about going over their credit limit, and then waiting for BA to pay them a month or so later. And with the way BA's reputation is at the moment, I doubt many passengers would even believe that BA will pay them for booking their own hotel, even though the regulation provides for it!
BA should have dealt with this better. The main issue here seems to be lack of staffing, and unwillingness to pay for hotels. The fact that people were left without hotels overnight is absolutely disgraceful in my book. This is London, not the Sahara Dessert.
BA should have dealt with this better. The main issue here seems to be lack of staffing, and unwillingness to pay for hotels. The fact that people were left without hotels overnight is absolutely disgraceful in my book. This is London, not the Sahara Dessert.
Let's face it, BA don't really give a wotsit in these situations. No point pretending otherwise really.
#54
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 6,349
My daughter (aged 21) has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. She wouldn't immediately have 200 available, nor would she have known what to do in such circumstances.
Many families operate to tight budgets.
The whole 'I would have booked myself a hotel and left it to the next day' routine is frankly nonsense for such people. 90% of passengers wouldn't know the rules, or that 200 is the accepted amount. Not to mention the risk of BA then denying the claim with their usual excuses. Why don't the airline just do the job properly? You do have to laugh at some of this 'defend BA at all costs' forum content.
#55
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Provincie Antwerpen, Vlaanderen, Belgi
Programs: MUCCI Gold
Posts: 2,511
Even less palatable is the unwritten view undoubtably held by some that people who can't or won't deal with this themselves for financial or other reasons shouldn't be travelling at all.
#56
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Munich, Algarve, Sussex or S.F Bay Area
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, A3*Gold, AA Plat, HH Gold, IHG Plat Amb, Marriott Plat
Posts: 4,126
Indeed. I have often purchased tickets for relatives to come and visit us in various locations and many would not have had the resources to simply shell out 200 for a hotel room. And by now, none of them would ever again assume that they would be able to reecover it from BA without at least some hassle. But then again, the chances that I would be flying them on BA to visit us is also much lower than before and diminishing further with every one of these stories I read.
#57
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Switzerland / Estonia
Programs: AY+ Platinum, BAEC Silver, airbaltic VIP, HH Diamond, Radisson VIP, IHG Diamond Elite
Posts: 6,510
Sorry that is complete tosh.
My daughter (aged 21) has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. She wouldn't immediately have 200 available, nor would she have known what to do in such circumstances.
Many families operate to tight budgets.
The whole 'I would have booked myself a hotel and left it to the next day' routine is frankly nonsense for such people. 90% of passengers wouldn't know the rules, or that 200 is the accepted amount. Not to mention the risk of BA then denying the claim with their usual excuses. Why don't the airline just do the job properly? You do have to laugh at some of this 'defend BA at all costs' forum content.
My daughter (aged 21) has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. She wouldn't immediately have 200 available, nor would she have known what to do in such circumstances.
Many families operate to tight budgets.
The whole 'I would have booked myself a hotel and left it to the next day' routine is frankly nonsense for such people. 90% of passengers wouldn't know the rules, or that 200 is the accepted amount. Not to mention the risk of BA then denying the claim with their usual excuses. Why don't the airline just do the job properly? You do have to laugh at some of this 'defend BA at all costs' forum content.
I do agree on the bad IRRPOS handling, but this has nothing to do with it.
Also nowadays where everyone has a smartphone or tablet, I don't understand why people don't google their rights during IRROPS.
#58
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 404
You are assuming everyone is an experienced traveller who speaks fluent english and knows how how to move around in London.
But most probably at least half of the people in the flight travel just 1-2 times per year, some of them would not speak to much english (some of them none at all) and I would not be surprised if for some it was the first time in London (especially if they were connecting from EU).
So 'book a hotel by yourself and go to LHR tomorrow' is NOT a good way of handle things. Even when IB overbooked by 40 my MAN-MAD christmas flight last year and made a big mess on the rebooking, at least the handling agents stayed with us until 2am to be sure everyone have an hotel room (they booked us hotels 45min from the airport as all the hotels nearby the airport and the city).
#59
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 2,189
Sorry that is complete tosh.
My daughter (aged 21) has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. She wouldn't immediately have 200 available, nor would she have known what to do in such circumstances.
Many families operate to tight budgets.
The whole 'I would have booked myself a hotel and left it to the next day' routine is frankly nonsense for such people. 90% of passengers wouldn't know the rules, or that 200 is the accepted amount. Not to mention the risk of BA then denying the claim with their usual excuses. Why don't the airline just do the job properly? You do have to laugh at some of this 'defend BA at all costs' forum content.
My daughter (aged 21) has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. She wouldn't immediately have 200 available, nor would she have known what to do in such circumstances.
Many families operate to tight budgets.
The whole 'I would have booked myself a hotel and left it to the next day' routine is frankly nonsense for such people. 90% of passengers wouldn't know the rules, or that 200 is the accepted amount. Not to mention the risk of BA then denying the claim with their usual excuses. Why don't the airline just do the job properly? You do have to laugh at some of this 'defend BA at all costs' forum content.
Whilst I appreciate that many families operate to a budget, not travelling with a credit card that has at least a few hundred pounds of credit on it for emergencies is pretty foolish. Many responsible parents give their kids a credit card for exactly this type of situation.
#60
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Diamond
Posts: 7,699
The first time I had a cancelled flight, I had no idea what to do.
I just rang my travel insurance company up assuming they would sort things out for me then and there but I had to sort things out myself and then claim later.
I'm sure most people would assume the airline would deal with things if something goes wrong rather than being expected to do everything yourself.
Not everyone has 10k+ limits like a lot of people have here.
Maybe funds and already allocated to something or are due to be i.e. car hire, hotels taking 150 a night as a security deposit that doesn't get returned for 1-3 weeks etc.
A lot of people may be happier with cash so may be carrying that (or in the bank) rather than on a card.
It does give the impression here from various posters that the airline is actually doing you a favour by possibly letting you fly. If something goes wrong, it's always your fault and you should be prepared for the consequences.
I just rang my travel insurance company up assuming they would sort things out for me then and there but I had to sort things out myself and then claim later.
I'm sure most people would assume the airline would deal with things if something goes wrong rather than being expected to do everything yourself.
Not everyone has 10k+ limits like a lot of people have here.
Maybe funds and already allocated to something or are due to be i.e. car hire, hotels taking 150 a night as a security deposit that doesn't get returned for 1-3 weeks etc.
A lot of people may be happier with cash so may be carrying that (or in the bank) rather than on a card.
It does give the impression here from various posters that the airline is actually doing you a favour by possibly letting you fly. If something goes wrong, it's always your fault and you should be prepared for the consequences.