[HBHLondon]

VG: please do stop your patronising attitude, this is serious matter with families and lots of people stranded abroad an unable to return because of some complicated plan put forward by BA and other airlines.

The point is that BA’s strategy of getting people back to the UK based on hiking up the prices is not working, as the Sunday Times report states, but in the meantime it is becoming a very good money making for BA and a costly saga for a lot of people. To suggest that I jumped the queque is just disgusting and looks more like a smear campaign againts people who write negative issues on BA.

People like myself had to try to return asap for family, personal, professional or health reasons, and cannot just wait till BA decides to bring us back when it is convenient (by the way, my flight from Paris was half empty while I am sure there were thousands of people stranded in Paris unable to get back). By the way, the Sunday Times is not a tabloid and rather a serious paper.

[VintageKrug]

BA is prioritising those most in need, not by ability to pay, but by ensuring space is kept available to ensure the most efficient allocation of capacity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8639287.stm

[tarisingh]

I was really surprised to see quite a few empty club class seat on my flight from LA a couple of days ago – I had a hell of a job getting on that flight and know many others who had not been successful – what is going on? BA are happy to pay for hotels instead of upgrading people?? The whole thing is a farce.

[Potakas]

Maybe my question is off topic,

Do we know if BA brought in the air the aircrafts that stored last year, In order to increase routes and capacity?

[Binman62]

Couple of points.

1. If you have really be stranded and then paid more for a seat, BA is offering to refund . Just visit BA.com

2. Empty seats should not be a surprise. No airline is allowed to bump passengers in order to accommodate those who are stranded. Many with fully flexible seats and who booked prior to the disruption will simply no show on the day, but the airline, no matter who it is, will not know this until the flight closes 60 to 45 minutes prior to departure. Then, and only then can they acommodate standbys who are actually at the airport. BA will not depart an aircraft with an empty seat if there is a single passenger at the checkin area. They will progressivly upgrade as per normal procedures and fill every seat.

3. It is simply not possible to bring back into service aircraft that have been mothballed this fast. Moreover, getting slots, especially at LHR is very challenging.

[VintageKrug]

According to Willie Walsh, all available BA aircraft were flying (I would imagine those that had been furloughed would not be included, as the checks to get them back flying would not have been completed in time).

In addition, additional aircraft were leased to get people home on the special extra services which were run over the past few days.

A shame BASSA/Unite refused to crew these extra services.

You can see more from Willie here:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/volcano-ba-response/public

[Potakas]

Sorry VK but i have to answer to you with the same way you did in a previous topic.

Ahem…

————————

Binman62 – 24/04/2010 16:21 GMT

There is a very simple explanation for this and you can find it via the link below. It has nothing to do with taking advantage and everything to do with trying to get people home. I am afraid this particualr conspiracy theory simply will not fly….

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/volcano-ba-response/public/en_gb?wtls_class=&wtls_security_level=&wtls_keyrefresh=&wtls_bulkalgorithm=&wtls_macalgorithm=&wtls_keyexchangesuite=&local_port=80

So good it was posted twice!

lol

[VintageKrug]

Indeed, well spotted Potokas.

Live by the sword, die by the sword! 😉

[Author]

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