Please help (flight cancelled, no availability to rebook)
Jul 11, 2022, 4:07 am
#31
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Jul 11, 2022, 4:11 am
#32
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Jul 11, 2022, 4:20 am
#33
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Well everybody is talking about how BA and HAL staff "have left and not come back". Doesn't seem to be the problem over at FR, although you would think that their staff are all hoping to leave yesterday.
Jul 11, 2022, 4:23 am
#34
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There are a number of airlines which are handling current situations and disruption better than BA in part or in whole. My personal sense is that FR is absolutely not one of them and that the comparison suggested is with what I most precisely would not want BA to emulate!!
Jul 11, 2022, 4:39 am
#35
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Well, BA (and HAL, and others) did a number on themselves when they went for the legacy contracts rather than making full use of furlough. They saw Covid as an opportunity to get rid of legacy staff and now are paying a price for it.
Jul 11, 2022, 4:39 am
#36
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For future reference and as a lesson to learn: if you have been ticketed by a TA/OTA, your first port of call should be this ticket vendor, if the airline is unable to assist with the ticket issued by them or you're not able to get in touch with them. The operating carrier should be able to assist you, when the ticket is under airport control, but in this case you had apparently a BA ticket, for a BA flight, ticketed by a TA, so then you had two options for whom to reach with day-of-travel issues.
Jul 11, 2022, 5:01 am
#37
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I don't aagree with that. This is of course true in the normal pre-flight period, but for a cancellation on the day - as happened here - after the flight has gone to airport control, I would say that airline ticket desk at the airport is indeed the best port of call to try and find an optimal solution, as airport disruption teams have more tools in their box than reservation teams (which the TA will be dealing with).
Jul 11, 2022, 5:38 am
#38
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There are a number of airlines which are handling current situations and disruption better than BA in part or in whole. My personal sense is that FR is absolutely not one of them and that the comparison suggested is with what I most precisely would not want BA to emulate!!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...line-5qtw5fwsb
Jul 11, 2022, 5:38 am
#39
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- no priority check in (and an hour long queue)
- no lounge (it was full of people from the previous day's flight which had also been cancelled) and having to sit on the floor
- no blocked middle seat
- no food
- only a bottle of warm water to drink
that I had in actual fact down in CE and therefore they would not take it further.
Of course we got some tier points but that doesn't really matter now.
I'm contrast I'm on the tarmac in Zurich because Nice can't handle the incoming traffic and Swiss have sent me a text, an email and have made an announcement to say what's going on and to apologise. And they gave me a piece of chocolate.
I get that these cancellations happen. Yes it's not strictly BA's fault. But their response to do absolutely nothing in my case is inexcusable.
Jul 11, 2022, 6:13 am
#40
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On a related note, I strongly recommend adding any upcoming flights to the CheckMyTrip app. I flew LHR-FCO yesterday, and the CheckMyTrip app promptly pushed notifications each time there was even a minor update or change. Amazingly it even notified me of the gate number in T5C a good 25 mins before the same info appeared on the flight monitors in the T5B lounge!
Jul 11, 2022, 6:19 am
#41
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Or indeed, to go back to the topic of the thread, had it been Ryanair, the passenger would not have been offered any help at the airport, would not have been offered any rebooking on another airline, and would most likely have been denied reimbursement of the flight with the other airline and had to fight at CEDR or in court to get what they were due.
There are a number of airlines which are handling current situations and disruption better than BA in part or in whole. My personal sense is that FR is absolutely not one of them and that the comparison suggested is with what I most precisely would not want BA to emulate!!
There are a number of airlines which are handling current situations and disruption better than BA in part or in whole. My personal sense is that FR is absolutely not one of them and that the comparison suggested is with what I most precisely would not want BA to emulate!!
Jul 11, 2022, 6:52 am
#42
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This is of course true in the normal pre-flight period, but for a cancellation on the day - as happened here - after the flight has gone to airport control, I would say that airline ticket desk at the airport is indeed the best port of call to try and find an optimal solution, as airport disruption teams have more tools in their box than reservation teams (which the TA will be dealing with).
Jul 11, 2022, 7:45 am
#43
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I have every sympathy with overwhelmed and under-resourced BA and HAL frontline staff. I also have some sympathy for BA itself when HAL tells them with 12 hours notice to cut 15% of its flights for the next day but I do not think failing to communicate with passengers and abandoning them to their own devices is right either.
The reality is that BA took customers cash, mostly some time in advance, and it thought that it would be able to find the resources to operate the number of flights it sold in the interim.
It is perhaps unfair and unhelpful to compare BA to Ryanair and that does not help passengers on the day but the reasons why BA is in this mess are long and varied but ultimately it is their fault.
I am glad OP was able to get themselves onto the alternative flight from T2 but it really should have been done by BA in T5.
The reality is that BA took customers cash, mostly some time in advance, and it thought that it would be able to find the resources to operate the number of flights it sold in the interim.
It is perhaps unfair and unhelpful to compare BA to Ryanair and that does not help passengers on the day but the reasons why BA is in this mess are long and varied but ultimately it is their fault.
I am glad OP was able to get themselves onto the alternative flight from T2 but it really should have been done by BA in T5.
Jul 11, 2022, 7:51 am
#44
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Thanks for the replies everyone.
Now I'm sitting on my Zurich flight (which is now delayed) I have some time to reply.
First of all, my return flight later this week was cancelled the other day. Fine, I rebooked onto an earlier flight. No issues for me personally.
This morning I was waiting for my car when I thought, hey I'll look at the app to make sure it was T5. That was my first and only notification that the flight has been cancelled. No email. No text.
I had a quick look to see if I could rebook and the only option available was to cancel the entire trip. So I thought I'd head to T5 anyway, in the hope that someone would be able to help. Maybe I could be rerouted, put on standby, whatever.
But at departures they now have a "customer response team" who appear all to be new to BA and all they could do was tell me to keep trying on the phone. I tried about 15-20 times before giving up.
People at the check in desks couldn't help either. Apparently not something that is possible.
I tried the check in machines and they offered me the option of tomorrow evening or to cancel.
Interestingly, a colleague was on the same flight and he got an email overnight saying he'd been rerouted via Madrid. I'll ask him later (assuming we get there) if he has higher status with BA.
But in summary, BA cancelled my flight, didn't tell me, offered no rebooking option today despite options being available, and refused to answer the phone.
What kind of business is this? We're a long way from the world's favourite airline aren't we?
Now I'm sitting on my Zurich flight (which is now delayed) I have some time to reply.
First of all, my return flight later this week was cancelled the other day. Fine, I rebooked onto an earlier flight. No issues for me personally.
This morning I was waiting for my car when I thought, hey I'll look at the app to make sure it was T5. That was my first and only notification that the flight has been cancelled. No email. No text.
I had a quick look to see if I could rebook and the only option available was to cancel the entire trip. So I thought I'd head to T5 anyway, in the hope that someone would be able to help. Maybe I could be rerouted, put on standby, whatever.
But at departures they now have a "customer response team" who appear all to be new to BA and all they could do was tell me to keep trying on the phone. I tried about 15-20 times before giving up.
People at the check in desks couldn't help either. Apparently not something that is possible.
I tried the check in machines and they offered me the option of tomorrow evening or to cancel.
Interestingly, a colleague was on the same flight and he got an email overnight saying he'd been rerouted via Madrid. I'll ask him later (assuming we get there) if he has higher status with BA.
But in summary, BA cancelled my flight, didn't tell me, offered no rebooking option today despite options being available, and refused to answer the phone.
What kind of business is this? We're a long way from the world's favourite airline aren't we?
Jul 11, 2022, 9:04 am
#45
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So the OP was treated exactly the same way as they would’ve been treated by Ryanair in the event of a cancelled flight, with the only difference being the likelihood of cancellation in current circumstances is materially lower flying FR. Seems like the comparison is a clear win for FR, no?
i don’t despise Ryanair but I do think their handling of passengers rights in case of cancellations (and they do have many - I and many others have experienced them first hand) is outright dishonest. I’m not one to be easy on Ba (anyone can check my posts) but incompetence is not the same as dishonesty, not by my book anyway.