[AlanOrton1]

Thank you.
Left 2 hours late, made up some time and now enjoying a long wait for my bag….
Very little activity at T5 baggage claim, though did notice a very large number of short haul aircraft parked across A & B gates, so guessing there must have been quite a few short haul cancellations yesterday evening.

[Tom Otley]

From what I am reading all short haul flights have been cancelled this morning

British Airways short-haul flights from Heathrow cancelled

[SimonS1]

Yet more IT problems eh. Looking forward to the “feedback is that our customers enjoy long periods of standing around in airports being treated like crap” corporate communications bit.

I wonder what happened this time – office cleaner pulled the systems plug out?

The only disappointment is there is no Alex-Cruz-in-a-dayglo-vest style entertainment.

1 user thanked author for this post.

esselle

[CathayLoyalist2]

Many BA flights cancelled last night and today because of a ¨computer system problem”. People were unable to book flights, check in amongst other issues. An all to familiar story

[Tom Otley]

I’ll update the story as things become clearer

All British Airways short-haul flights cancelled this morning from Heathrow

I don’t know if the IT problems are as a result of outsourcing, but if they were, any money saved must have long ago been swallowed up years by all the compensation and loss of business.

[AlanOrton1]

I feel I was rather fortunate to have made it home, given the latest BA sh*t show.

Is there any aspect of it’s business BA has not ‘enhanced’?

Current F&B in long haul J couldn’t sink any lower if they tried, the F lounge at LHR offers thimble sized portions and is a shadow of it’s former self. To name but two.

The front line staff put on a brave front, given they go into work everyday with one hand tied behind their back by the pound shop penny pinchers upstairs.

[FormerBA]

So I awoke early on Saturday in a remote ski resort in Austria to see the dreaded message that my flight from Salzburg to LHR had been cancelled. To my astonishment i was able to re book on the app for another flight 90 minutes later. A taxi ride and just getting comfy on the train and ping!! BA cancelled the new flight. This time the option was to fly from Munich the following day, more than 26 hours later. Had I been in the hotel I might have stayed put, as the weather was great and another day on the quite slopes would have been welcome. The irritation was that the app will not allow you to change the route and so once it offered ex Munich there was no more to do. The text message which arrived announcing the cancellation also stated that the costs of getting to Munich and the overnight costs would not be covered. I knew this to be rubbish but it would have put a lot of people off.

My wife hit the Lufthansa web site, I did KLM and ITA matrix. (Thanks to OBB trains and their superb free Wifi) there was nothing that did not require a night stop and over £1000 a seat in business class and £800 pus per seat in economy. In any event within a few minutes options from Vienna, Munich and Zurich simply vanished.

My wife then noted that there was a flight on BA city flyer to Southampton from Salzburg and 5pm and seats were available. My initial instinct was to stupidly suggest we wait till we got to the airport, but my wife was having none of that and we re booked 2 seats in economy for Euro 508.

Salzburg airport on Saturday was rammed! Dozens of flights and thousands of people. BA alone had 5 or 6 services scheduled. To my astonishment there was no one at desks 17/18 for BA check-in, not a single passenger. We explained the situation and they checked us in 4 hours before the flight. It was however now full so my wife was right!! I wanted to go back into town for a decent lunch, but I was persuaded to just sit out the wait in the lounge. While there the agent told me that SZG has 16 days a year when it is very busy and 10 when it looks like last Saturday. Despite this, the food was good, the alcohol flowed freely and a good afternoon was had by all.

Much impressed by city-flyer economy and their crew who were outstanding.

Once I knew the service was operating ( inbound service airborne) I booked a Black-lane. There is no point being uncomfortable at someone elses expense and so the £209 bill for 70 minutes back to Berkshire was BA’s money well spent.

I got home around 4 hours later than planned. A good result.

After many years of travel and enduring BA delays and issues, I know you are on your own. Good insurance and an awareness of procedures helps as does the ability to spend nearly a £1000 or more on your credit or charge card. Undoubtedly however taking matters into your own hands from as early a stage as possible is vital

3 users thanked author for this post.

MartynSinclair, K1ngston, Tom Otley

[evelyn]

I have a lot of money ( via FTV and e vouchers), points and 241 tied up with BA – ie I am loaning them money.
I am required to phone BA to make FTV booking and complete travel by 9/23.
But I cannot get thru on phone.
Do you think they might expend the 9/23 date?

Also if you use the £5 hold booking option you cannot then use an evoucher to confirm booking without phoning BA.
Cant get through, so that’s more money lost to BA

[SimonS1]

Looks like taking to Facebook or contacting the CEO is the way to go here….

[sparkyflier]

ba.com… should come with a health warning.

Been useless for months if I want to do basic searches on my mobile. It takes an eternity to go beyond “Just a minute”, but although my mobile is an old one, I simply do not get any problems with other travel websites – United, Delta, VS, IAG, Booking.com, Marriott etc (largely given up on the ghastly CSD at Accor).

And today on my laptop, trying to add documents has been a joke. The BA/Sherpa Covid section details that for Portugal all you need is the Vaccination proof, and that a test is not needed. However in the Manage my Booking section for uploading documents, it does not allow to move on/submit, without uploading a test certificate.

So as I am flying to give support to a family member tomorrow, for peace of mind I invested in a test just to “tick that box” and be able to then check in.

Here is where the fun stated on this occasion. I was very time pressed and arrived at the pharmacy, who of course needed a passport number! I forget this, and thought I could retrieve it from my Exec Club profile, but it took ages and ages to get in, and there was a good signal. But it used up all of my battery. I managed to get the number however and get the negative test.

So on the return to my home the result was in my inbox, which I then uploaded.

However, that is now 6 hours ago and I still have not got the approval to check in.

Of course I called the Gold line at BAEC but cannot or do not want to take calls .

They seem to be “learning ” from Iberia on how to really make dealing with them very difficult indeed and simply do not customers to actually speak with their CSD. I will never choose Iberia again as I simply do not trust them now. I hope this does not happen with BA.

Frankly in my opinion right now – BA = Bloody Awful.

1 user thanked author for this post.

PeterCoultas

[sparkyflier]

I should also highlight in the past months have flown with both TAP and LOT and there was NO drama or ANY stress with booking and checking in with either of them.

BA are turning what should be a positive experience – helping a family member not been able to travel with for many years, into something very unpleasant indeed.

[EU_Flyer]

To Fly. To (need a new) Serve(er)

1 user thanked author for this post.

CathayLoyalist2

[FDOS]

The pertinent question is what type of masochism drives people to use this dysfunctional company, when choices are available?

I have used BA for one trip this year, simply because they were 1/2 the price of the next best price and chose to live with the cr*p with eyes open.

[JonathanCohen09]

Good morning all –

I have not posted for a while but have been keeping an eye on the forum and was taken by the last post from FDOS.

I know there are many people who do not have a choice and have to fly with BA due to company policy but I would urge them, if they have had bad experiences to speak with their travel managers and try to get them to look at what their other options may be.

A number of years ago now, I became airline agnostic and now fly with whichever carrier offers me the best price together with decent flight timings, for example I regularly fly to Tel Aviv and now EasyJet is my preferred choice from Luton or Gatwick as they are usually half the price of BA, El Al or Virgin who are the other carriers who fly on that route and they do exactly what they say they will do.

To those who do have a choice and who have had the kind of problems that are regularly mentioned on this forum, I urge you to try some of the alternatives that are available, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Safe travels everyone.

3 users thanked author for this post.

fatbear, MartynSinclair, FDOS

[FDOS]

@Jonathan – great post and good to see your name, again.

3 users thanked author for this post.

JonathanCohen09, MartynSinclair, cwoodward

[Author]

Posts