kingstontoon

To be fair to easyJet, they cancelled our 2x£30 flight to Budapest at 5 days notice (not sure why they chose a route scheduled once a day rather than one of the 10 AMS flights or suchlike but hey ho). Called up and there were no other easyJet flights within 24 hours - which I knew anyway - so they told me to rebook and put in a claim. Bought 2x£450 flights on BA from LHR, enjoyed fast track security, the CX lounge and exit row seating and put in the claim to easyJet when we got home. Full amount paid within 2 weeks, no quibble. So in the end a far superior experience 😁

​​​​​

tjcxx

They can't afford it, because their owners won't give them any pocket money.

HarryHolden68

We could be at a crossroads where limited companies are faced with either satisfying shareholders or satisfying customers. Pre-Covid, IAG and HAL believed their customer was the shareholder and delivering higher and higher dividend pay outs was the goal the leadership team were handsomely rewarded for. More depressing measures such as customer satisfaction were glossed over as important, but not as important as the next dividend. The passenger, who wrongly believed they were the customer, was just a convenient means to an end. This pursuit led to the company making decisions based on short term profit rather than long term stability.

Pre-Covid, these companies took everything for granted, rewarding themselves for riskier and riskier decisions. Today, their ability to function is in doubt and this can only be rectified with either closing the doors or investing large sums in rebuilding. A great rebalancing is coming and the sooner some of these big companies realise it the more chance they have of surviving.

BA need to build a new IT system starting with a blank sheet of paper and paying for the best value not the cheapest bidder. They also need to the same with their operation. Undoing the cost cutting from the Walsh / Cruz era would be a good start.

subject2load

You’re 100% correct of course, on all counts.

Have we observed any meaningful evidence of cost-cut reversals in recent months ? Admittedly, the CEO (from whom we seem to have heard little during the current issues) is in fire-fighting mode and it’s understandably all about the here & now. However, what exactly is the longer-term vision ; and has it been communicated to customers in a convincing manner ?

One fairly simple example of how the corporate culture could be swiftly improved is in a more mature handling of EU / UK 261 claims, especially at a time when carefully-laid plans of many pax are already being disrupted by frequent delays / cancellations. And yet, refusal letters are still being sent out almost routinely, on the grounds of nonsensical explanations such as crew illness. There is, clearly, a LOT of work needed at management level.

SamYeager

I'll have some of what you're smoking or is it just drinking? Never in a month of Sundays!

Jimmie76

Have you ever used an enterprise ERP system, supported one, or worse tried rolling one out? Building your own whilst possible isn’t a thing you do in a couple of weeks more like at least a couple of years when you factor in everything from requirements gathering through to end user testing, launch and bug fixes. As I understand it BA have modified and customised existing well known and proven ERP systems like SAP for their use. Customising it to the degree they have is the potential Achilles heel here.

plunet

Ah yes. Configure, don't customise.

There's been some lively weather passing across west London this afternoon which may have been a factor in LHRs request to pull some flights today, it appears that the weather has contributed to an onmishambles of a service this evening.

DaveS

Here is the LHR passenger data since it was mentioned earlier.

califlyer8

Have you had any update or movement on your bag? My husband was on one of the flights that warned him he would get no bag before he even got off the flight. We’ve started buying clothes and toiletries and saving receipts but wondering if there’s any timeline to receiving the bags? And of course talking to anyone on the phone is completely impossible so it’s just a waiting game.

plunet

​​​​​​Basically there is no point trying to ring about baggage queries, just make sure that your current location is kept up to date with BA online where you put in your missing bag claim. It will turn up when it turns up, and there is little you can do to influence it.

JonnyA

I have an 18 night holiday to Orlando booked with BA in early August. I was previously mildly irked by the fact that they switched the flight from the new A350 with CS to old product, whilst Virgin did literally the opposite, but now my concerns are more about getting there, with our stuff, at all.

My wife is not a good handler of stress, and my kids are, well kids. It won’t be easy to explain to an 8 and 6 year old if things don’t go well.

The balance of around £13k is due on 12th July. Cancelling the holiday isn’t really an option as I’ll lose my deposit and trying to book elsewhere will cost considerably more than what we paid back in September last year.

Given the current state of affairs, what (if any) options do I have?

HarryHolden68

Then the old adage of keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting applies.

corporate-wage-slave

Consider using Airportr if you live in the London area. And also you could work out whether some creativity on what goes into cabin baggage would keep people happy for a few days even if you end up being the pack mule on the outbound. For all the reports, the great majority of bags do make it, and the greatest risk is having to wait a bit longer for baggage return than normal, whatever that means now. If the worst happens, the bags will be returned within a few days, so if it's just stuff that can be easily replaced in an outlet mall, I doubt the sky will fall in over it.

HarryHolden68

Nope, nope and nope. It all sounds like gobbledegook to me.

But I do know that if you want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t want to do something, for whatever reason, you’ll find an excuse.

But the US will one day / month / year / decade pass tighter gun control laws - the only variable being how many have to die in mass shootings until the public outcry makes it happen.

Similarly, one day / month/ year / decade, BA will redevelop the IT to be fit for purpose - the only variable being how much money is wasted before the investors make it happen.

Jimmie76

If you think it’s “gobbledegook” then you’ve no idea how complicated these things are. ERP is Enterprise Resource Planning, SAP is one vendor of this type of software.

Personally I’d be more worried about BA if they decided to do their own ERP system because that really would be madness.