Chris_G

Lhr to mun cancelled as we taxied out to the runway...!!

Now what...??

I sit in a packed Y cabin...

Chris

corporate-wage-slave

Is this MUC? BA958? The usual problem when this happens is curfew related but I suspect you will get more information soon. On Flight Status it's showing as delayed at the moment. If you are cancelled, well hopefully BA has a hotel allocation for you.....

VSLover

always the informative jester

Chris_G

Yes muc...

Chris_G

Right...I've been lucky for the most part in recent years...and never been seriously let down by BA...

Last night was a sh*t show with us taxing out to the runway after a delay of over 2 hours, and then being informed that we had missed our chance due to local noise abatement regs at MUC...

The scheduled Captain had been delayed due to his inbound LHR being delayed...and we were then delayed...

So off loaded at close to midnight (a full flight)...fortunately I was hand luggage only...

T5 was a refugee camp for passengers from the 4 corners of the Earth, complete with kids and babies...every hotel was booked for miles around...and the floors were uninviting hard...

For me, I ordered a local taxi from Kings Langley to come and collect...and for the princely sum of £50 I was back home for a bath and to sleep in my own bed...

So what was my learning experience...??

1. The cabin crew and Captain only gave generalised info about entitlements. They were apologetic to the the extreme, but clueless about benefits under the circumstances
2. Have the courage to come forth and offer to tell everyone across the intercom about EU261, how to claim and the importance of keeping receipts. There was a window of opportunity when an embarrassed flight crew would have allowed this, I'm sure...
3. For those who need a hotel, tell everyone that under current circumstances you're better to book a room at Premier Inn or Ibis hotels in places like Watford or Kings Langley (away from Heathrow). The taxi will be expensive, but claimable, but the cost of the room and in particular availability with both be favourable.
4. T5 is a tough place to spend the night. There is a case to pack an inflatable mattress in your hand luggage along with a cycle type lock to secure your luggage to a bench while your away from your stuff having a cr*p, getting a coffee etc... Most of all, pack an adaptor that supports multi USB and sockets. Charge points were sadly lacking at T5...utterly pathetic in this day and age....

Do what I should have done...and let your fellow passengers know their rights. Too many will sleep on the floor, book alternative flights at vast expense with another airline, and meekly just get their money for their original flight off BA...

Chris

737driver

First of all, dreadful you've experienced this and there's no ignoring the stress. It's nice to read a post where someone is concerned about improvements.

Second, as flight crew, I can tell you that you will rarely meet flight crew that are more clued in about EU261 than any other normal person. General information and apology is probably most appropriate if you don't know a lot about the detail. It's a bit of a rabbit hole and if you're unsure you'd likely end up googling it as much as the passengers would, of which most are on varied itineraries with complex issues and are hard to advise.

I'd probably go as far as to say that pilots are also even less likely to have claimed EU261, as they'll fly on standby tickets or maybe don't fly abroad on their own dime very much being as they do it for a living.

Information is vital and it is a shame that it's not easy to digest or even accessible. Maybe there's a space for someone with lots of experience and advice to create some form of support website for this. Or is there one already?

corporate-wage-slave

I could't really press the Like button in these circumstances, it was pretty grim and a near midnight offload is about as bad as it gets. I had a feeling it was some sort of curfew, quite a number of German airports have strict ones, as does LCY. LHR has some flexibility, LGW is effectively 24 hour. You did the right thing going back home but I would certainly echo the above since Premier Inn and Travelodge's own websites won't appear accurately on Google or consolidation websites. And some places around the M25 and M4 are relatively quick to get to late at night. At least you are clued up on EC261 but it is relatively easy to find information about it online, Flyertalker's main thread on EC261 for BA is the second entry on Google, the first entry is BA's own website on the issue (not exactly written in clear English).

scottishpoet

BA should have some preprepared info approved by legal that the crew can hand out.

I would be reluctant to say anything on the pa as if you got something wromg someone would be looking for compensation

i would expect crew should have some generic text provided by legal to ready out.

KeaneJohn

The crew don’t but BA have ticket style A5 wallet books with what to do and guidance on hotel room, meal allowance and travel and it includes a refreshment voucher , new boarding cards and hotel vouchers if available..

I found this yesterday waiting for my friend to come in off a delayed flight sitting charging my phone speaking to 3 lovely Americans who were preparing themselves for a night at T5 after missing their flight due to late inbound from GLA.

Told them to look at Reading and they managed to snap up some rooms at the Ibis Reading for £170. They were over the moon. I told them how to get there using Railair. They spent their £8 light refreshment vouchers at M&S getting snacks and water and brought me some cookies to say thank you. At one stage there were several people huddled round the charging point in T5 arrivals snapping up the last rooms at the Ibis Reading (and Hilton Reading).

VSLover

even if not crew, they could have someone just out the jetbridge handing out a leaflet with information and where to claim for expenses.

a separate probably dumb question but i presume all pax would only be able to exit T5 via immigration? that would be more obnoxious if hit with an unexpected back up.

Door5L

Sounds awful. I don’t think the crew can start announcing or advising about compensation claims to be honest, unless you want to hear loads of call bell chimes going off with everyone asking about their individual situation and case. BA refers to compensation and rights on its website and I would suggest that this is probably all airlines have to do to be compliant. I suppose what is next is a staff shortage at the claims and compensation teams due to backlogs. Finally, let’s not compare T5 to a refugee camp. It was probably not as you would expect to see it but a refugee camp is a very different place all together.

1Aturnleft

And where would you propose these leaflet handlers are drafted in from when they can't even staff for the basic operation? By the time of the cancellation there would have been minimal staff working anyway with most flights having already departed.

Years ago I had a mid-flight turn around enroute to JNB. We landed back at LHR at 0130, leaflets distributed to First and GCH in J. Everyone else told over the PA to collect cabin baggage and meet at Bus stop ## for transfers to the hotel that had been booked. Halcyon days indeed!

Yes they'd have exited via UK border.

VSLover

not my problem but a suggestion to the issue sheesh

1Aturnleft

With retort like that you'll make stellar airline middle management some day

abligh

As it's a legal obligation to inform people of their EU261 / UK261 rights, I would expect BA to comply with it. It is unsurprising given current circumstances and given BA's response to perfectly viable claims, that they don't. I don't know how that is enforced; hopefully it is some form of fine or there would be an incentive not to tell passengers of their rights. I would hope the lack of compliance with the law makes CEDR/MCOL more generous in what they are prepare to award.

As to who the leaflet handlers are then the normal answer would be "the gate staff". If disembarking the plane, I would expect the obvious solution for it to be the flight attendants (who are normally standing by the plane door not doing a lot as people disembark, and the leaflets to be kept either at the gate or on the plane (given this seems to be relatively common). But it's BA's problem to work out how it complies with the law, not ours.

The legal obligation derives specifically from the implementation of Regulation (EC) 261/2004 Art 14 into UK law (so called UK261, still in force), see para 2 below.