Feb 26, 2022, 1:56 am
Last edit by: plunet
Because of the scale of the disruption resulting from an IT system outage, most passengers should expect to make their own arrangements to mitigate the disruption as BA will not have resources to assist all passengers.
Your travel plans are probably in tatters, you should give BA a reasonable chance to fix things for you before you take matters into your own hands.
Firstly do not cancel or refund or credit to a voucher your ticket if this option exists as you effectively voluntarily cancel the contract for transportation with BA by doing so and hence end any right to claim for replacement transport, duty of care, or anything else.
If BA.com is working, at least give it a go and see if Manage my Booking is giving you any sensible options. You don't have to take the option(s) presented if they do not meet your needs and you might be able to find better options yourself. However, not that by default BA will be only offering rebooking onto BA and any Joint-Ventre carriers and possible OneWorld partners. If there are no sensible options, document it (take a picture). Also try the BA app, it may work when the website doesn't, or vice versa. Take a screenshot of any errors you get when trying to log in or do anything reasonable.
Try calling the call centre. You probably won't get through in a sensible length of time, but document that you made several calls. Take a screenshot and save it.
If BA have given you a rebooking on the same day for a short-haul (typically up to about 4 hours flight time), previous cases submitted for judgement by 3rd parties have considered this remedy reasonable, so arranging your own transport in this situation is not advised. However a rebooking on the same day might still not meet your needs (ie. not being able to get there by a specific time resulted in your trip being in vain) so you can still not travel.
If you have made reasonable attempts to contact BA and have not been able to do so, this now puts you in a strong position to organise your own onward travel arrangements, and to claim the difference from BA later. You need to act reasonably, choose travel arrangements that are similar where possible to what you had purchased from BA, and where possible you should document with photos or screen shots that the actions you are taking are reasonable, there are no other cheaper options. Even if you don't plan to use it for booking, use a comparison service to show current market costs for the transport you are choosing. BA should respond positively to customer service claims for the cost of onward transport where you can show that BA were unable to provide you timely assistance to rebook. You should do this bearing in mind what coverage you might have from your own travel insurance policy and whether your planned trip is salvageable or if it is entirely in vain and should be abandoned. Note that BA are not responsible for consequential costs beyond their initial contract for transport, but any insurance you may have could be.
If you were booked on a return or multi-segment jorney, and your outbound or earlier flight in your sequence is disrupted but you make your own way to your destination, you will need to contact BA to let them know this, and to protect the other flights in your ticket. By default if you no-show for a flight, all subsequent flights on that ticket get auto-cancelled. In the situation where there is significant disruption this could mean that your seat is released without your knowledge to another disrupted passenger, so there is an onus on you to communicate your intentions to BA as soon as possible for them to protect your onward flights, and it probably means a phone call as you can't expect a timely response from social media channels.
BA have a duty of care under the UK successor to EU Regulation 261/2004 and based upon forum experience the following costs would usually be claimable from BA without any significant pushback.
Ł25 for reasonable meal/refreshment expenses (per adult per day)
2 reasonable phone calls per customer
If an overnight stay is required in a location a significant distance from your home address
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 as indicated above, 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, but having additional evidence or justification for costs going over these limits would be sensible. 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 - see https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...amaged-baggage
Set your expectation for the turnaround time for any refunds, claims, etc. It could be more like weeks rather than days, consider this if cashflow is concern.
Signposting some specific posts in the thread
#45 - for a list of flights that were observed to be cancelled
#162 - for a photo of the BA customer letter that was handed out later on Saturday
You can read the forum thread for guidance on EU Regulation 261/2004 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...61-2004-a.html or check back on these forums later for more advice on claiming, but first of all look after yourself during this disruption.
Your travel plans are probably in tatters, you should give BA a reasonable chance to fix things for you before you take matters into your own hands.
Firstly do not cancel or refund or credit to a voucher your ticket if this option exists as you effectively voluntarily cancel the contract for transportation with BA by doing so and hence end any right to claim for replacement transport, duty of care, or anything else.
If BA.com is working, at least give it a go and see if Manage my Booking is giving you any sensible options. You don't have to take the option(s) presented if they do not meet your needs and you might be able to find better options yourself. However, not that by default BA will be only offering rebooking onto BA and any Joint-Ventre carriers and possible OneWorld partners. If there are no sensible options, document it (take a picture). Also try the BA app, it may work when the website doesn't, or vice versa. Take a screenshot of any errors you get when trying to log in or do anything reasonable.
Try calling the call centre. You probably won't get through in a sensible length of time, but document that you made several calls. Take a screenshot and save it.
If BA have given you a rebooking on the same day for a short-haul (typically up to about 4 hours flight time), previous cases submitted for judgement by 3rd parties have considered this remedy reasonable, so arranging your own transport in this situation is not advised. However a rebooking on the same day might still not meet your needs (ie. not being able to get there by a specific time resulted in your trip being in vain) so you can still not travel.
If you have made reasonable attempts to contact BA and have not been able to do so, this now puts you in a strong position to organise your own onward travel arrangements, and to claim the difference from BA later. You need to act reasonably, choose travel arrangements that are similar where possible to what you had purchased from BA, and where possible you should document with photos or screen shots that the actions you are taking are reasonable, there are no other cheaper options. Even if you don't plan to use it for booking, use a comparison service to show current market costs for the transport you are choosing. BA should respond positively to customer service claims for the cost of onward transport where you can show that BA were unable to provide you timely assistance to rebook. You should do this bearing in mind what coverage you might have from your own travel insurance policy and whether your planned trip is salvageable or if it is entirely in vain and should be abandoned. Note that BA are not responsible for consequential costs beyond their initial contract for transport, but any insurance you may have could be.
If you were booked on a return or multi-segment jorney, and your outbound or earlier flight in your sequence is disrupted but you make your own way to your destination, you will need to contact BA to let them know this, and to protect the other flights in your ticket. By default if you no-show for a flight, all subsequent flights on that ticket get auto-cancelled. In the situation where there is significant disruption this could mean that your seat is released without your knowledge to another disrupted passenger, so there is an onus on you to communicate your intentions to BA as soon as possible for them to protect your onward flights, and it probably means a phone call as you can't expect a timely response from social media channels.
BA have a duty of care under the UK successor to EU Regulation 261/2004 and based upon forum experience the following costs would usually be claimable from BA without any significant pushback.
Ł25 for reasonable meal/refreshment expenses (per adult per day)
2 reasonable phone calls per customer
If an overnight stay is required in a location a significant distance from your home address
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 as indicated above, 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, but having additional evidence or justification for costs going over these limits would be sensible. 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 - see https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...amaged-baggage
Set your expectation for the turnaround time for any refunds, claims, etc. It could be more like weeks rather than days, consider this if cashflow is concern.
Signposting some specific posts in the thread
#45 - for a list of flights that were observed to be cancelled
#162 - for a photo of the BA customer letter that was handed out later on Saturday
You can read the forum thread for guidance on EU Regulation 261/2004 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...61-2004-a.html or check back on these forums later for more advice on claiming, but first of all look after yourself during this disruption.
All BA short haul out of LHR 26 Feb cancelled [Rebooking assistance thread]
Feb 26, 2022, 12:17 pm
#151
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,020
Feb 26, 2022, 12:25 pm
#152
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: London/Oxford
Programs: BAEC Gold / ITA Volare Executive
Posts: 50
Due to fly back to LHR tomorrow, departure from Nap 13:30, there was no option to upload the PLF yesterday/this morning nor to change the seat. Tried to check-in Online at few minutes after t-24 and got an error message about not been able to check my Covid documents thus needed to check - in at the airport. Checked again Manage my booking and got a bold red warning:
So that you can better manage your travel plans you have the following options:
Potential service disruption may affect your journey. You can change your flights in advance for free and we’ll cover any fare difference.
So that you can better manage your travel plans you have the following options:
- You don’t have to do anything, you can keep your booking as it is.
- You can change to another flight for free.
- If you wish to cancel your booking a refund will only apply if your fare rules allow it, please contact us to do this.
cheers,
Ben
Feb 26, 2022, 12:25 pm
#153
Join Date: May 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 663
Thanks, C-W-S - in the end, I decided that I'm tired and not fit for much more today, so I've booked a €70 hotel and will sort things out in the morning. Who knows, I might even have heard from BA Holidays by then!
Feb 26, 2022, 12:27 pm
#154
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,696
My flight this afternoon from Istanbul was cancelled and i accepted a rebooking onto the morning flight BA0675 on 28th. That flight is now showing as delayed (but with the timings the same as scheduled) and I’m concerned about missing work meetings if it is delayed. If I were to book another flight for 27th probably via Paris or Amsterdam (as Turkish and Lufthansa are all sold out), would BA compensate me? Or does having accepted the rebooking ruin any chance of them reimbursing me if i then choose to make my own arrangements?
Feb 26, 2022, 12:35 pm
#155
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Rhineland-Palatinate
Programs: *A Gold (A3), HHonor Gold
Posts: 5,673
Arrived at MUC and found out the second leg is not a flight but a 3 hour coach transfer (which I am currently still on as I type at 6pm local time)... Turns out it was MUC to IOB (and not INN) which I think the agent could have told us! Please judge for yourself on screenshot to see if anything indicated there was a coach transfer when I accepted.
Feb 26, 2022, 12:47 pm
#156
Join Date: Feb 2022
Posts: 2
Welcome to Flyertalk Janehelen, and welcome to the BA forum. If it is showing a delay now, I would not take it seriously, at this stage BA doesn't know what will happen, there is a good chance it will be on time. As a general rule, rebooking to a new date means accepting that this is what you are happy with, and so it's important to bear that in mind, it's usually one bite only of the cherry. In particular if you rebooked yourself and the BA service was actually more or less on time then all you could be able to do is to claim an Future Travel Voucher and no refund. You should get EC261 for the late cancellation of your original service, however.
Feb 26, 2022, 12:48 pm
#157
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Newcastle UK
Posts: 1,114
I am a big fan on BA, but (and it's starting to become a slowly increasingly bigger but) isn't it now plain to see that the cost cutting measures put in place over the last few years could well be showing what happens to a global commercial operation when the purse strings are not only pulled too tight, but also start to strangle the generally very good employee morale. By the way I'm NOT a BA employee. I've seen it all first hand in very recent times at the customer end.
There are just too many inexcusable things happening in a short space of time. No more time for excuses BA.
I bet Shaun Doyle is cursing Mr Walsh (especially) and Mr Cruz.
There are just too many inexcusable things happening in a short space of time. No more time for excuses BA.
I bet Shaun Doyle is cursing Mr Walsh (especially) and Mr Cruz.
Feb 26, 2022, 1:36 pm
#158
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: ba silver
Posts: 724
Hopefully this does not happen to me next week when I' m traveling.
I don't know why BA does not simply reroute on any carrier regardless of alliance. I'm sure other airlines would love to sell BA tickets at full walk up fares. BA should be telling passengers if they can't get through to rebook on any airline in their ticketed cabin and get reimbursed, no questions asked.
If I was the regulator I would order BA to do so as well as declare any flight cancelled that today subject to EU compensation, no claim required.
This would benefit passengers as well as cost BA dearly, who need to insure a massive loss due to not investing in better IT. There is a season why you don't see this on the Gulf carriers. They just do a better job.
I don't know why BA does not simply reroute on any carrier regardless of alliance. I'm sure other airlines would love to sell BA tickets at full walk up fares. BA should be telling passengers if they can't get through to rebook on any airline in their ticketed cabin and get reimbursed, no questions asked.
If I was the regulator I would order BA to do so as well as declare any flight cancelled that today subject to EU compensation, no claim required.
This would benefit passengers as well as cost BA dearly, who need to insure a massive loss due to not investing in better IT. There is a season why you don't see this on the Gulf carriers. They just do a better job.
Feb 26, 2022, 2:13 pm
#159
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: UK
Programs: BA Silver, IHG Platinum
Posts: 935
And just like the outbound flight, the dreaded message has arrived for the inbound.
Zero cancellations on this route. Zero. The outbound was exactly the same. What is BA playing at here?
I'll admit I seldom fly Club Europe and have only done so in light of the double tier points promo, but what an advert for the product where they just disregard a key part of it for no reason at all.
If there had been cancellations then I would understand this entirely, but there haven't and so BA can have precisely zero of my understanding on this occasion.
As a result of the impact, we have had to take the difficult decision to temporarily use the middle seats in our Club cabin for Club Europe customers on our short haul flights to London on 27th February, to help get as many people away as possible.
Our cabin crew will still be able to provide you with the full Club Europe service, but we understand that space is important to you, so we are asking for your understanding on this occasion to help us ensure that we don’t leave customers behind.
Our cabin crew will still be able to provide you with the full Club Europe service, but we understand that space is important to you, so we are asking for your understanding on this occasion to help us ensure that we don’t leave customers behind.
I'll admit I seldom fly Club Europe and have only done so in light of the double tier points promo, but what an advert for the product where they just disregard a key part of it for no reason at all.
If there had been cancellations then I would understand this entirely, but there haven't and so BA can have precisely zero of my understanding on this occasion.
Feb 26, 2022, 2:50 pm
#160
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Yorkshire
Programs: BA Gold & HH Silver
Posts: 1,465
And just like the outbound flight, the dreaded message has arrived for the inbound.
Zero cancellations on this route. Zero. The outbound was exactly the same. What is BA playing at here?
If there had been cancellations then I would understand this entirely, but there haven't and so BA can have precisely zero of my understanding on this occasion.
Zero cancellations on this route. Zero. The outbound was exactly the same. What is BA playing at here?
If there had been cancellations then I would understand this entirely, but there haven't and so BA can have precisely zero of my understanding on this occasion.
Feb 26, 2022, 4:00 pm
#162
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 2,447
Today was a joke tbh.
This being handed out at Heathrow (me having checked repeatedly and the flight only being cancelled 30min prior to getting to the airport).
But there was a blank refusal to rebook on anything outside of BA. Staff weren't event looking to wider alliance.
I requested a Vueling codeshare and the guy stared at me like I was insane. Just wrote down an 0800 number on the back of this paper and said to call it, to which I refused...
Their advice ("don't have any answers") was appalling and, frankly, damaging to those numerous passengers in the queue around me who were failed to be offered sensible alternative bookings.
Next up: battle to reclaim fuel and parking costs... sigh.
Feb 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
#163
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,494
Not on my route either - same aircraft but middle seats used in C and seat map adjusted accordingly now with a few more rows being switched from CE to ET. In fairness, this has led to a few seats becoming available to book in Y tomorrow between NCE and LHR (full fare Y but useful for people who were affected by cancellations) so whilst thinking that it would be fair to give C passengers some compensation, I still think that opening the middle seats in C exceptionally is the right decision to make.
Feb 26, 2022, 4:28 pm
#164
Join Date: Jul 2015
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Honors Gold
Posts: 84
Might be jumping the gun here as my booking is for 27th, but just found out tonight that the BA1325 NCL - LHR (dep 9:25) is cancelled. I didn't even get an email from BA about it - was only Google that knew of my travel plans and was aware of the cancellation and sent me an alert on my phone an hour ago.
I have a connecting flight (BA 866 LHR - BUD) that I & my girlfriend absolutely must be on, so the only option was to get the much earlier 6:45 flight (BA 1321) from Newcastle. Completely screwed up our arrangements for tonight and tomorrow morning, I was planning on working tomorrow but will mostly be completely shattered. At least we can claim for the significantly earlier departure under EU261.
Less than 15 mins after I'd got off the gold line and done the rebooking, I got another alert from Google saying that the BA 1321 was now delayed and not departing until 10:00. Jesus wept.
Does the delay to the BA1321 impact on our right to claim compensation for the last minute cancellation and earlier departure? Technically we still need to be at the airport for the scheduled departure time...
I've been gold for a few years now and although travel has obviously subsided during covid, I've tried to make a few trips yet literally every booking I've had with BA for the past 18 months has been affected by last-minute cancellations or inconvenient re-routings. I've had enough - no status is worth trying to maintain if they can't just run the damn flights they sell tickets for.
I have a connecting flight (BA 866 LHR - BUD) that I & my girlfriend absolutely must be on, so the only option was to get the much earlier 6:45 flight (BA 1321) from Newcastle. Completely screwed up our arrangements for tonight and tomorrow morning, I was planning on working tomorrow but will mostly be completely shattered. At least we can claim for the significantly earlier departure under EU261.
Less than 15 mins after I'd got off the gold line and done the rebooking, I got another alert from Google saying that the BA 1321 was now delayed and not departing until 10:00. Jesus wept.
Does the delay to the BA1321 impact on our right to claim compensation for the last minute cancellation and earlier departure? Technically we still need to be at the airport for the scheduled departure time...
I've been gold for a few years now and although travel has obviously subsided during covid, I've tried to make a few trips yet literally every booking I've had with BA for the past 18 months has been affected by last-minute cancellations or inconvenient re-routings. I've had enough - no status is worth trying to maintain if they can't just run the damn flights they sell tickets for.
Feb 26, 2022, 4:32 pm
#165
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,696
The replacement flight is based on its scheduled, rather than actual timing, but there are some nuances to the wording of the Regulation here. But keep an eye on this, I wouldn't take Flight Status as definitely correct until tomorrow. In any case, you can only claim after the event so it's best to look at this in the light of what actually happens.
