[Anonymous]

[openfly]

The new check-in system that has caused delays at LGW and problems worldwide, is being introduced at LHR.
It hasn’t come out in the press but BA LHR is experiencing quite long delays caused by the new FLY check-in system, particularly on A380 departures…hours in some cases.
Apparently the system goes live worldwide on Monday….expect a shambles. Mind you this has already started.

[FDOS_UK]

Flew out of LHR a couple of weeks ago and the check in agent said it wasn’t going well.

I’d place my fiver on a meltdown.

[openfly]

Looks like it has started today! Almost every flight out of LHR delayed, now the cancellations are starting. It’s almost as bad at LGW.
Surprised that they are not blaming the French ATC! Always a good fall-back…..

[Window-seat]

A few weeks back I was flying every other day and every other flight got upgraded due to Fly problems according to various checkin agents (who were all lovely). At least there is a bright side! But yes, T5 opening all over again to come!

[SimonS1]

FLY has been going live at Heathrow progressively since 20th April.

The cause of plenty of delays over the last few weeks at Heathrow and Gatwick, although for EC261 reasons BA will naturally try to blame the weather, ATC or something similar.

[747foreverforus]

It has got better over the last few weeks, about 5 weeks ago it took 20 mins to get a boarding pass at Dusseldorf, the staff were not pleased, yet another own goal for BA with no visible benefits for the passengers

[openfly]

The point I am making is that not only are LHR and LGW particularly bad, with lots of missed connections, FLY is going worldwide for the first time this weekend. On its way to a total shambles…..
It’s such a shame for BA that there isn’t a French ATC strike to shoulder all the blame!!

[SimonS1]

Just to be clear when you say it’s “going worldwide for the first time” this is actually the completion of the roll out. The vast majority of overseas stations have been live for some time now.

[FDOS_UK]

SimonS1

If I understood the agent at Heathrow correctly, it’s more of a rolling cutover of (tranches of) functionality (at Heathrow).

From what I saw, they were running some modules in parallel, so when FLY decided not to play ball with printing luggage tags, he was able to revert to the predeccessor system and generate them from that.

Whether the problems are caused by buggy code, lack of training on the new system, something else or a combo of all, I suspect there will be a bit of a ‘J’ curve when the legacy systems are no longer available to fall back upon.

As the above is based on a short conversation and limited observation, I may have got the wrong end of the stick.

[openfly]

@SimonS1 You obviously know so much about this that one has to assume that you work for BA. All information would be appreciated.
To us outsiders, all I am seeing, and so are BAs staff, is a week of problems while they try to join up all the dots.

[SimonS1]

I don’t work for BA, I’m just telling you what is in the public domain (it has been published on BA website for example). If staff are telling you that it is about to go worldwide they must mean everywhere will finally be online.

The rollout started in Bucharest last October and I believe JFK was due to be the last place to go live over the last week.

As for a week of frustration well I believe that is what people have been experiencing for weeks and months so they should be well versed in it. For example it’s why there was a queue of about 1,000 people at Gatwick a couple of weekends ago.

There are full lists on a couple of the forums like FT if you want all the details.

Delays have been a feature over most of this week, of course BA will blame the weather, ATC, medical emergencies etc. Then again when didn’t BA *** and *** to get out of their EC261 responsibilities?

[SimonS1]

There we are FDOS 🙂

Equally I don’t think anyone would suggest that BA are 100% transparent in what they say, or indeed proactive in paying people what they are due.

[FDOS_UK]

Simon, I’ve deleted my comment after your changes.

As you know, I’m no apologist for BA.

[StephenLondon]

It took an agent six minutes to print out a bag tag the other day in France. She blamed FLY as she said the system was prone to long pauses, crashes and equated it to watching the circle of doom on any device. I feel sorry for front line staff as pax get angry and upset and take it out on them, when they are just trying to deal with what they have been given.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa / Swiss were checking-in at the next few counters, and they were processed four or five customers for every one BA pax.

[Author]

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