ahmetdouas

The adventurous option would be to drive to LAX and fly out of there = ) Maybe ask one of the rental companies if they want to move one of their cars to LAX from LAS, give you a good rate on the rental.

Also, it is not Europe so petrol is cheap there!

I think any passenger who reads FT and is persistent enough to really want to get home would have found a way one way or another, without costing too much money, certainly not more than the 600 EUR compo you are going to get anyway!

Ber2dca

It's not 100% clear from the OP if the passenger has tried to be re-routed via the hotline. There's some ambiguous wording in there with regard to re-booking options. I can certainly imagine BA staff playing dumb as it is a much more convenient solution to just let them wait for the plane to be fixed.

It's not like at this point any EU compensation claims wouldn't be maxed out anyway. Re-booking all of them via your own metal and probably also other carriers' metal would likely be more expensive and messy.

But if I were in the pax's shoes I'd definitely have tried to call and get re-booked very early in the game. Even if I had to rent a car and drive out to Bakersfield, Reno, SLC or something.

windowontheAside

I really can't imagine that someone who wants to get home enough to vent like that on FB hasn't tried all the obvious things like phoning, trying to get rerouted etc.

I get that people lucky or savvy enough to find FT and spend time here learning all the irrops tips would be back in the bosom of their families by now, but really - why should that be necessary? It sounds like pretty poor handling by BA, whether someone has flown once or hundreds of times; been disrupted never or many times.

Ldnn1

You seem to be assuming that both are the same price for the desired date. How much more would you pay for the above on Swiss before you'd consider BA? Me, I'd say £20 at absolute most (even ignoring BAEC status benefits which obviously add value on BA). And course, if U2 were cheaper, I'd consider them too.

This "don't even consider" lark is meaningless without knowing the price.

Anyway it's OT, but it does wind me up a bit!

apollo00

I'm drawing no conclusions about the particular gentleman writing the post but the modern world has an entire army of people for whom venting at length on social media sits far higher on the priority list than actually trying to find a solution, so I think it's worth trying to imagine

NickP 1K

Funny LAX-LHR BA flights haven't been going out full last few days, a cheap rental car ONE WAY from LAS to LAX with a BA Avis rate is 42GBP - I can estimate a B group would be 30GBP of fuel. So for under 72 Pounds he would be able to get on any of the BA LAX-LHR flights and be on his way. BA has with me before shifted a mechanical cancel flight to another airport if I found my way - and in some of those cases I submitted the hire car to BA and they paid it.

Doesn't seem like he cares to have BA rebook him or have his own rebooking do something effective.

wrp96

I agree with this. Some people just like to complain. Think of the number of times we've seen people post after the fact about getting ignored by the crew when needing something onboard and when asked if they rang the call button the response is no, they didn't. Now, in that case, they shouldn't have been ignored but just because there are self help options available, doesn't automatically mean people have taken advantage of them. And pointing out the self help options available doesn't mean that a poster is excusing any failings on the part of BA.

apollo00

It's an option of course but an unnecessary one. There are 7 flights a day on AA alone and if it was me I'd expect them to put me on one if there was availability through LAX. Indeed, in similar circumstances, they have done so in the past without any problems at all.

Geordie405

Apart from the weather (and as others have said it is very hot here in Las Vegas at the moment - it's 101F and not yet 9.30 am) we also had EDC this weekend which means that flights and other transport options are exceptionally busy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if availability out of Las Vegas to places such as PHX, LAX etc. was severely constrained as a result.

rossmacd

I assuming no such thing. I am willing to pay more (and frequently do so) for better service.

ex-LON, particularly LHR, LX and BA are frequently +/- £10 of each other for similar timed flights.

In any case, going OT, so I will refrain for assisting other posters with their carrier decision dilemmas.

nallison

I think the reaction is against the all too typical post that serves no purpose other than highlighting the poster's own 'saviness'. It also took a rather judgemental tone accusing the OP of 'not bothering' to rebook through BA despite there being no evidence for that in the OPs own post, and the OP mentioning that all flights were full, later corroborated by others. Despite this others still piled in. Perhaps not such savvy readers despite their almighty powers of dealing with airport disruption

beachmouse

As a veteran of the US Southeastern summer ground stops from thunderstorms (can't have the ramp workers outside when they might get hit by lightning) I'd say because IRROPS is often a zero sum game with a limited number of seats available for rebooking passengers. Even when it's a single plane impacted instead of a whole airport, I learned early on to hustle the rebookings and be proactive rather than waiting for a GA to offer up the 'Well folks, .....' to the bulk of the passengers who don't pay attention to such things. And I learned this long before I discovered FT.

For those that don't drive or don't want to drive in the States, LAS-LAX is effectively a shuttle route with many airlines including AA offering $85-$95 one way, same day tickets that get you to an airport with even more flight options.

KARFA

Since the OP is not on this thread the focus here is clearly not providing an OP with advice on how to deal with the situation. If you have a problem with a particular post take it up with the person concerned. All I see is the specific FT'er you pick on didn't actually say what you accused him of in your post.

In order to get back on topic, have you got any advice on how best to deal with that kind of situation if it does happen to someone or some suggestion of how the Facebook poster could have resolved the issue quicker?

wideman

• 21 hours before this post: "This is priceless. I just called BA for the 3rd time today.....spent ages waiting when I finally got through I explained everything to the guy he said "can you hold on a minute" - I said sure. He then took 7 minutes while i waited listening to that tiresome hold music that is the same loop playing over and over again like a George Orwell inspired bad dream. He then comes back on and says "So..." and then the call gets cut off. I think I'm going to go and stare out of the window at the wall across from my room for a bit."
  
  
• 9 hours before this post: "You literally couldn't make this **** up. It's now nearly 51 hours since our original departure time. The new flight was due to depart at 22.00 and we've been on board since around 21.50. It's now ******* midnight and we haven't even left the ******* gate!!! What the **** are you doing to us British Airways!!!!!"
  
  
• 8.5 hours before this post: "Here we go 51.5 hours after original departure time.....we finally have lift off. Goodbye Vegas. Big love EDC. Now can't wait to be home"

Link to source

nallison

It sounds like they did all they could, but while they couldn't improve their own situation, hopefully by publicising such lack of aftercare from BA, that will help provoke a response from the airline and might improve things for other passengers in the future. What could anyone have done? Maybe the focus should be on improving the airlines response?

Those critical of these kind of public complaints forget that it may be about the only feedback the airline listens to.

Anyway, noted that some are only interested in picking on the person BA let down and anyone on their side, and have nothing to say about the specific incident.