raph

Edited to remove whining and flight details. Summary: My outbound was cancelled, I was rebooked for the next day, on a flight which was delayed several times and eventually cancelled as well. BA didn't inform me about either cancellation.

Long story short: Why do I give BA my mobile number on all of my bookings, if they never use it?

I remember LH making fantastic use of it, even texting gate changes while at the airport, but BA? Not a single SMS in almost 200 flights including many delays and cancellations...

Is it just me?

sigma421

Currently showing as 'awaiting update' on ba.com so 7:30 is not when they're actually expecting it to depart. The app has now swapped to 're-warn departure' at 7:30 which pretty much means that's when your next update will be (or should've been).
Good luck!

pennineuk

I've never received an SMS update and it would surprise me if BA have abandoned this given the increasing use of the BA app. That said, I did once get a call on my mobile advising me of a cancellation, although it was probably 5 or 6 years ago now.

hillrider

Email works better. It's more accessible (multiple devices) and does not depend on being in coverage of a certain mobile network and its systems working.

travelwithross

BA never proactively update customers via phone calls or SMS. At least not for me and my flights are delayed 50% of the time.

shorthauldad

Hmm, well I'd always prefer to receive an SMS about flight delays as:

1. It doesn't cost me anything to receive an SMS

2. In places with patchy network coverage, SMS can succeed even where voice calls cut out and data connections are impossible

3. It doesn't cost me anything to receive an SMS

Tobias-UK

I have received SMS messages every time a flight has been cancelled. The only SMS received for a delay was in respect to a substantial delay.

raph

Fully agreed, particularly when travelling, as the Smartphone's roaming capabilities may be disabled due to prohibitive cost in some places.

An E-Mail would also be better than nothing, but I don't even get those. I only get E-Mail notifications after rebooking over the phone, but not in case of cancellations, where an action would be required.

I feel BA should really improve here. When asking customers to provide their numbers for notifications, use them!
At least, the App (which is mostly aware of delays and cancellations) could provide push notifications, and / or E-Mails could be sent to customers...

mjh0

As a former regular UA FF, this was something they had got nailed many years ago.

I remember being caught in a groundstop in the US, and so we were allowed to switch phones back on. As soon as I did, I got one or two text messages about the status of the flight, and that I had automatically been re-protected with a seat held on a later flight in case I mis-connected to the Transatlantic leg at IAD. This pre-dates the days of smartphones, so it was all SMS.

It was also possible, if you had internet access, to go and rebook and fix this stuff yourself, without needing an agent. This left the agents free to address the complex problems.

UA had seriously good IT which made life easier for their agents and their passengers.

Sadly, this level of automation suffered during the UA/CO system merger, during which time I also stopped flying to the US as much and so lost my UA status. UA FFs were generally pretty unhappy during this period. Haven't got a clue if the previous level of IT brilliance has since been restored.

raph

Nice, I managed a 150% cancellation rate on this journey (3 out of 2 flights)

And there are signs and wonders: http://i.imgur.com/Hy78Cgz.png ^

Unfortunately, I only noticed the SMS on arrival at LHR. [Text at 14:56; Hire car returned at 15:00] Argh.

I still appreciate it very much and can't help but wonder whether it has anything to do with starting this thread (Nicci aka BA Executive Club knows who I am, any other member of staff with access to passenger lists would probably have had enough information from the opening post and my nickname to figure it out), whether it's because I phoned them several times, or just coincidence. My uneducated guess goes for opening this thread... - hence, allow me to say thank you to that silent [or imaginary] employee who put me on the SMS list...

Also as far as SMS Experiences go: Un/Fortunately I got to fly LH again. As it is commonly the case at LHR, the Gate wasn't announced until shortly before boarding, but LH texted it to me in time (actually 10 Minutes before Gate announcement at the Airport), which came in extra useful, as I was kindly allowed into T1's BA Lounge (where LH flights aren't announced).

PantsFlyer

I recieved 2.

1 to tell me my dayflight from BOS was cancelled. It was night before and I was in transit at ORD. Allowed me to change my flight and come home that same night.

the 2nd was when I arrived in LHR. I turned my phone and recieved a txt telling me my bag hadn't made it. This meant I went straight to baggage desk rather than waiting at the belts for bag that would never be there.

rossmacd

This is where BA are quite good at using SMS. I have had numerous texts when bags have not made it - at least 3 at GLA, 1 at MAN and a couple at LHR. It does save time by just getting ahead of the queue to fill out the PIR if there are numerous passengers with missing baggage on the same flight.

HighlandPark

It worked quite well for me yesterday when quite a lot of short haul flights were being cancelled because of runway restrictions at Heathrow. I got a text and an e mail to tell me my Geneva to London flight had been cancelled, and then about half an hour later I was called by BA in Geneva to tell me I had been put on an earlier flight (by then I'd already got myself rebooked anyway, but it was good of them to make sure I knew).

GlasgowBlue

Only ever received two SMS from BA and they were a couple of weeks ago. Switched my phone on after landing at SFO to find a text to let me know one of our pieces of luggage hadn't made our flight. A few minutes later I got another one asking for feedback.