KeaneJohn

Gatwick refunded me the whole APD 20 years ago as the door to board our flight to Jersey from the North Terminal Door 55 area was set for arrivals and not departures and opening it would have set off alarms. It was the first flight on a Sunday morning and I’d been up all night out in London and was tired and grumpy and wanted my bed. We were delayed boarding by 45 mins and missed our slot so took off 90 mins late.

RichardInSF

The pilot kept repeatedly telling us that there was no hope of an earlier departure, so the "no hot food" statement was simply slacking off. Would it really have killed BA to have allowed us to avoid boarding knowing until later, given what was going on? Or maybe distribute some free soft drinks and munchies? It seems pretty clear that this particular crew just didn't care.

etiene

Agreed - once we boarded the copilot’s announcement didn’t blame the weather at all. I’ll be claiming, because as you say the fact that their dispatch routine in an IT failure seems to require specifically trained staff that they don’t have enough of is entirely within their control. If they wish to pursue the cost from HAL that is up to them.

(Our plane and crew were available from an hour before original departure - some of them even timed out waiting for a dispatcher and loading team)

babats

My daughter & boyfriend are in the same situation - fortunately both not at work today. Managed to book them into the Premier Inn as BA washed their hands of it.

Barnaby100

Well the 7.34 train Harrogate to London was cancelled and now on the Skipton-London train where half of the carriage seem to be from the LBA flight.

northeastflyer

Just for some light entertainment.....

We started travelling ex Las Palmas BA2601 to LGW Saturday. Two missed approaches later due to wind, we diverted to the very handy Cologne.

Eventually put up in a hotel, but there was no information or staff on hand to assist for far too long at the airport. Crew dissappeared with no instructions, but I accept not there responsibility really.

We were originally booked for a hotel in LGW Sat evening so lost that. No biggy.

BA2601 rescheduled for Sun Dep 1630. Our connecting flight (or not) BA1334 Dep 1515 Sun cancelled and rebooked on BA1338 2020.

​​​​​​BA 2601 Cologne to Gatwick went fine, but a bit late. Got on National Express to LHR via the scenic none motorway route via Reigate. Looked as though we'd be fine to catch the final flight leg. Checked MMB..... flight cancelled.

The first flight we could be rebooked on is Tue am. Two days after for a domestic flight, blimey!

So we're in an airport hotel with an extra day of.... errr... not much... but after that short (no so much) haul journey I'm now happy to go with the flow.

Wine o'clock by lunchtime I suspect.

Happy days. Could be MUCH worse😁

See what occurs tomorrow.

Barnaby100

Where is your final destination?

corporate-wage-slave

I sometimes think that when BA invites passengers to spend 2 nights at their expense in a hotel rather than (e.g.) handing you a First Class ticket on LNER to NCL, they do so in the hope that people make their own arrangements. In your case you are OK to go with the flow, which is fair enough. If it happens again - hopefully not - then you can bypass queues, sort your own hotels out, and call BA when you're comfortable.

What hotels did they put you in? And what was the reaction on board when people were told they were off to Germany?

Barnaby100

I would keep checking flight availability to newcastle if you are at LHR or see about standby? I have been automatically booked onto a flight later today which I wont be taking but cant get through to let them know yet. I assume that lots of people are like this. I know when we were told we coudlnt fit on an LBA flight a couple of years ago and rebooked for the next day I held my ground (albeit in the CCR) and waited at the airport and the flight ended up less than a third full as those with connections couldn't get to LHR to catch the LBA flight.,

crazyanglaisy

Does anyone know if everything is back to normal at LHR today?

corporate-wage-slave

Yes it was resolved yesterday.

Twitter

The multi notifications that people got yesterday were a sign that they had restored from backups and the flow of data via notification was a sign of the database being brought back on stream - it was catching up on itself by sending out notifications again. I would hope HAL would add in a switch to any future rollback to turn off the notifications.

There are some lingering weather issues around, see the other thread.

bobbytables

How does a HAL failure lead to BA’s MMB not working and their call centre staff being unable to help with people’s bookings? Smells fishy to me.

10 years in IT management here. Normally I’d be happy to offer to solve BA’s problems on a no-fix-no-fee basis, but with the frequency of them something tells me the issues are not in IT but rather higher up.

DYKWIA

Did this also affect MAN? Somebody I know said the queues in T3 were horrendous around 17:00 (open goal...) and it was being attributed to a systems failure.

Confus

That problem being that HAL’s odd funding mechanism means that any ‘fines’ or ‘compensation’ only ends up being passed on to the airline community anyway. So BA pays even if they try to claim it from HAL.

Confus

Standard ops at MAN isn’t it?!
I also heard similar from a friend travelling AF last night... think it was just a combination of the start of half term plus delays from earlier in the day (FR24 showed a lot of holding circles and not much landing for an hour or so in the afternoon) plus the usual absolute idiots that MAN seems to attract who apparently haven’t flown since before the current security rules came in (c.2006). The ‘delightful’ security staff probably didn’t add much to the situation, if we’re honest.