[Montysaurus]

I have just tried to book a flight on BA.com. Site shows two flights (with different flight numbers) at the same time from and to the same places but with vastly different CE prices. Tried to book the cheaper but “something has gone wrong” message appeared and no booking was accepted. Has anyone else experienced this lately?

[Montysaurus]

I’ve now tried the £5 holding your flight and price option but the message just says “booking incomplete please contact us”. I give up!

[nevereconomy]

It used to be a pretty good site – fairly simple to use and no major issues. With all the “updates” and “improvements” it is now a piece of garbage.

[Montysaurus]

I’ve phoned BA EC and was told bookings on LGW-GLA cannot be completed as the prices are “incorrect”. There seemed to be a lack of concern about advertising flights at prices that didn’t exist as the comment was “it’s being looked at”.

[Montysaurus]

I promise this will be my last post on this subject. What does it say about BA that, since at least Sunday 12th right through to the present (5 days), one cannot book through their website or app because “the prices shown are incorrect” according to the EC person I spoke to. One can’t book online at the “correct” prices as only the wrong ones show up. I seem to remember Emirates(?) having a similar problem and selling the seats at the advertised prices. Too much to expect that from BA I’m afraid.

1 user thanked author for this post.

GivingupBA

[RonaldoJ21]

It is undoubtedly the worst website of any airline, the slowest and the most difficult to navigate and the most unreliable

[CathayLoyalist2]

Tried booking using Chrome but as soon as you go to the calendar to select dates the page/dates disintegrate into words instead of numbers. IE works in a fashion. Nobody seems to care it is a poor advert for the airline!

[GivingupBA]

[quote quote=934858]Tried booking using Chrome but as soon as you go to the calendar… it is a poor advert for the airline![/quote]

Much worse than a poor advert for the airline, maybe – I thought it was their life blood?! If I had trouble booking on an airline website I would drop them like a hot potato: surely that is one thing airlines must get seamlessly and smoothly right at all times.

3 users thanked author for this post.

alainboy56, Jacob, capetonianm

[capetonianm]

It has been appalling since they outsourced so much of their IT to sixth formers in India. Apart from the fact that I don’t like flying on BA, I am put off booking due to the horrible website and its third rate functionality. The tragedy is, it’s not just their shop window or ‘advert’, for many people it’s the shop, and they go and buy elsewhere. No wonder they often have the lowest fares.

Instead of starting from the beginning and redesigning it, they keep patching it and it’s ended up like a worn out tatty patchwork quilt.

I will say though in fairness that on the odd occasion when I have had to call BA, their call centre people are generally polite and knowledgeable and they do try to find a solution.

I was going to say that they could learn a lot from easyJet, and coincidentally I saw this article :

Revealed: The UK’s favourite flight-booking websites – and it’s easyJet that’s No1 and Skyscanner in second place
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-7035821/EasyJet-UKs-favourite-flight-booking-website.html
EasyJet is ranked the top site for affordability, reliability and ease of use

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[manxman123]

Why if I try to book LGW-LIM-TIU in economy does it show the flights, but if I try to book Club Class the site tells me they don’t fly there?
But it’s not just the BA-Public interface which is a problem. I tried to book an open jaw ticket out LGW-LIM-PIU and return TYL-LIM-LGW and they told me they couldn’t do it because they didn’t have a price and their fares department couldn’t work one out either, in spite of the long haul sectors being BA and the local ones on LATAM, a One World Partner. So I’ve had to book the local sectors separately, and of course will lose the advantage of through ticketing meaning that if on the return I miss the connection for whatever reason I have to buy a new ticket at over $3000. Very disappointing!

[capetonianm]

Why if I try to book LGW-LIM-TIU in economy does it show the flights, but if I try to book Club Class the site tells me they don’t fly there?

The short answer is that LATAM don’t have J class on that short segment to Piura (PIU).

The reality is that it is pathetic that your booking/quote request fails because BA’s system is so utterly inadequate that it doesn’t offer the best alternative.

Of course they should be able to work out a through fare, and issue a ticket accordingly, provided that they have an interline ticketing agreement with Latam, which as they are a OW partner, should be the case (there are a few isolated and rare exceptions such as if Latam is not the actual operator.)

If the person you spoke to knew how to use the system, they would be able to price and ticket it manually in the system, if not, they could pass it on a specialised fares team.

Fares calculated manually are not guaranteed in case of error, the agents are therefore probably not allowed to perform manual fare quotes, but they can and should escalate it to someone higher up the food chain who can take a vestigial amount of responsibility.

The World’s Favourite Airline. Really? The people I used to work with on ticket and fares desks would hang their heads in shame if they couldn’t deal with something like this.

[capetonianm]

Another BA/Altea IT failure today, T5 baggage handling system. I understand it is the IT rather than the physical baggage belt system at fault.

Whoever subcontracted their vital IT functions out to a bunch of work experience youngsters must be very proud.

[Matt6561]

I am aware AA and BA both have a flight ORD-LHR around 17:05. land similar time.
Again they both codeshare this, so in theory 4 flights maybe displayed on some sites.

[capetonianm]

That is perfectly normally and does not constitute an IT failure or error. It conforms to EU/ECAC codeshare disclosure rules.
One physical flight with a codeshare will show on two lines.
Two flights, each with a codeshare, will show on 4 lines.

1 BA:AY5534 D ORD 5 LHR 5 1705 0650+1 0 31MAR19 25OCT19 744 7:45
2 BA 294 D ORD 5 LHR 5 1705 0650+1 0 31MAR19 25OCT19 744 7:45

3 AA 086 D ORD 3 LHR 3 1710 0650+1 0 07JUL19 19AUG19 789 7:40
4 AA:AY5760 D ORD 3 LHR 3 1710 0650+1 0 07JUL19 19AUG19 789 7:40

Lines 1 and 4 are the AY marketing flight, operated by BA and AA respectively, lines 2 and 3 are the physical flight.

[Matt6561]

Precisely, i don’t think it was an IT issue.

[Author]

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