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27 May 'worldwide' BA IT outage | practical assistance/advice [Clutter-free please]

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Old May 27, 2017, 8:25 am
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Last edit by: NWIFlyer
All IT systems are back up and running and BA are operating normal flight schedules.

PLEASE ASK ALL COMPENSATION RELATED QUESTIONS IN THE DEDICATED TOPIC: The 2017 BA compensation thread: Your guide to Regulation 261/2004. The full list of cancelled and delayed flights for Sunday is to be found here, though note that it is the arrival time that matters for delays.

Successful (or otherwise) reports for claims where the information would be of use to others would, however, be very welcome in this thread.

Monday flight cancellations for LHR listed here. Services to and from LGW, LCY and STN seem to be working more or less on time.. Telephone numbers for rebooking are in this post, note also the difference between what contact centres and airport staff can do, noted here.

Updated 29/05/2017 22:50 (UK time) Link to BA updates: https://www.britishairways.com/trave...VINF4more_news

Baggage
There are a significant number of bags at Heathrow which we will be reuniting with customers via couriers as soon as we can. This will be done free of charge. Please help us to get these to you as quickly as possible by ensuring we have your latest contact details by filing a delayed bag report.



If your journey was disrupted -
Because of the scale of the disruption, most passengers should expect to make their own arrangements to mitigate the disruption as BA will not have resources to assist all passengers. BA have a duty of care under EU Regulation 261/2004 and according to this letter handed out at Gatwick the following costs would usually be claimable from BA.
  • Ł25 for reasonable meal/refeshment expenses (per adult per day)
  • 2 reasonable phone calls per customer

If an overnight stay is required
  • Ł200 for a hotel room (for 2 people)
  • Ł50 Transport to/from the airport (round trip)

Although BA has suggested some guideline costs for duty of care, EU Regulation 261/2004 doesn't specify any monetary cap. By documenting (take a screen capture of a hotel comparison site for example) that there were no cheaper alternatives, it is possible that claims exceeding the guideline costs suggested by BA may be met. Expenses not covered by BA may be claimable from your travel insurance subject to possible policy excesses.

Duty of care is separate from fixed sum compensation (EUR 250 to 600 depending on the flight distance) for flight delays/cancellations, which may or may not be payable under EU Regulation 261/2004 depending on whether BA can show that the flight delay was caused by 'extraordinary circumstances' and that it took 'all reasonable measures' to avoid the resulting delay. Also, airlines do not usually entertain claims for consequential losses (for example, the cost of prepaid accomodation which you can't now use), so you would need to look to your travel insurance for these costs.

EU Regulation 261/2004 does not cover delayed/damaged/lost baggage. The Montreal Convention sets an upper limit for delayed/damaged/lost baggage compensation. For more information, visit the BA.com webpage on delayed/damaged/lost baggage.

You can read the forum thread for guidance on EU Regulation 261/2004 or check back on these forums later for more advice on claiming, but first of all look after yourself during this disruption.

Claiming expenses incurred during the disruption
https://disruptionclaim.britishairways.com/

Historic update as of 18:55 on Saturday

All BA flights from LHR and LGW are cancelled for the remainder of the day (Saturday 27th May). This is due to a major systems outage of most of BA's computer systems. The original cause of the outage was a power failure from which BA has found it difficult to recover.

Because Call Centre systems are also down, and their own web pages may be affected, BA is encouraging affected customer to seek updates via BA Twitter feed and Facebook page.

Alex Cruz has indicated that those passengers who no longer wish to fly with BA on their booking for today will be "fast tracked" for refunds. However, no mechanism for this has yet been communicated (7pm Saturday). Again affected customers are asked to follow the relevant Twitter and Facebook communication channels.

There are reportedly long delays leaving the airport with some customers claiming delays of many hours.
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27 May 'worldwide' BA IT outage | practical assistance/advice [Clutter-free please]

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Old May 27, 2017, 4:17 am
  #46  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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Just been on the news in the CCR.
xenole is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:18 am
  #47  
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Isn't it half-term week? What a nightmare!
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Old May 27, 2017, 4:19 am
  #48  
 
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Originally Posted by msm2000uk
Passengers on BA343 (NCE-LHR) being bussed to the aircraft - previously the gate staff knew nothing and weren't sure what to do.

M
When I first read that, I had visions of a coach heading up the autoroute to Calais!
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Old May 27, 2017, 4:20 am
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by ratechaser
And if it is a lightning strike, I'm guessing we wouldn't even get the silver lining of EU261
There is an argument to be had that if a lightning strike causes such chaos then BA may be negligent for not building sufficient resiliency and redundancy into their systems.
techie is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:21 am
  #50  
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Originally Posted by BlueThroughCrimp
When I first read that, I had visions of a coach heading up the autoroute to Calais!
My family always joke that the only time my Dad and I use buses, are at airports!

M
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Old May 27, 2017, 4:23 am
  #51  
 
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We are feeling slightly smug that we chose AY for our weekend in Tallinn
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Old May 27, 2017, 4:23 am
  #52  
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According to FR24, not many BA flights have left LHR in the past hour or so, and those which have, are delayed (PRG 2h delay, BCN 2.5h delay, GVA 1.5h delay).
florens is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:26 am
  #53  
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What happens to those on plus fares who wanna change to earlier or later?
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Old May 27, 2017, 4:27 am
  #54  
 
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BA7 to HND delayed as the aircraft dispatcher is stuck on another flight! Delay could be from 10mins to an hour, IE: they have no idea.

Advising to walk back to B lounge but I have 2 non-status companions so not much point if both can't get in!
DrBenO is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:28 am
  #55  
 
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If FR24 is accurate there are a couple of BA flights sitting down near Terminal 4, must be running out of space to put all these planes if nothing is departing.
The Ginge is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:28 am
  #56  
 
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Originally Posted by techie
There is an argument to be had that if a lightning strike causes such chaos then BA may be negligent for not building sufficient resiliency and redundancy into their systems.
Even if it's a lightening strike and the whole datacenter goes down there has to be a DR site which in any normal organization takes over. This DR exercise should be practiced at least once or twice a year.

Otherwise the CTO should be sacked....

So it's BA negligence if a single datacenter outage can cause such a problem.
Krisz is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:29 am
  #57  
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Originally Posted by nufnuf77
What happens to those on plus fares who wanna change to earlier or later?
I suspect that is not going to be a very easy task. I don't think I'd even attempt to change on a day like today - the earlier flight might only depart well after the later flight is scheduled to depart. The risk of cancellation is high today given the apparent length of delays.
Tobias-UK is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:31 am
  #58  
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Marriott Bonvoy
 
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Just reported by Sally Traffic.

It really must be bad then.
Oxon Flyer is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:38 am
  #59  
 
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The Daily Mail Fail has also published a story on this in their usual understated manner.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ng-delays.html

They mention that ba.com is down and that it's a global outage. Lots of references to twitter messages from pax and one or two relevant pics amongst the stock images.
Quarky Quark is offline  
Old May 27, 2017, 4:42 am
  #60  
 
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Where's the failover to the secondary data centre?

I've just outsourced the infrastructure for my company and we have an RTO of 1hr max and we're a not for profit. And we do failover tests twice a year.

I'd expect tier 1 bank levels of failover and redundancy in BA's case. Clearly not.
Tiger_lily is offline  


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