O?T: BA flight cancelation for tomorrow

[Kinky Gerbil]

I do not think it's a case of wanting to, or not wanting to piss people off. From my experience I get the impression they are a bit out of their depth with the current situation. Anyone who knows me knows my view of BA, and the fact I have refused to travel with them for years as they are such a poor airline. Due to timings and geography I was forced into using them on Saturday.......never again. Compared to many other airlines their service, and their customer service especially, are appalling.

I think most airlines are, The main problem for them all is the timing of it all. If it was any other time of the year people would not be kicking up half the fuss and just move the holidays.

Im not a fan of BA, the service as you say is at best average but I think in this case it wouldnt be fair to blame them.

A friend of mine who works for a cruise compnay had a passenger tell him to his face the snow was his fault.

 

[Gwylan]

Maybe Brighton should cancel everyone's match day tickets the day before the first game at Falmer...then re-sell them all for £300 each?

That parallel doesn't really work though. That would only hold true if the match were postponed and then Brighton tried to recharge £300 for the re-arranged game. But even then, you had tickets for Albion v West Ham and if the game were re-arranged you'd still have tickets for Albion v West Ham, no matter what the day was, while air tickets are valid for a specific flight at a specific time on a specific day.

 

[Springal]

I don't get it, all airlines were offering new flights [within 2 weeks] or full refund for cancelled flights due to weather? I know because it happened to alot of people? So were BA not allowing you to change and only offering a refund?

 

[Bugs Hill]

Just had family xmas holiday cancelled by BA - they have seats in the same class on another flight to the same destination leaving 45 minutes earlier - can they move us into them? no, they are punting them at £2937 a pop. bastards.

Are you sure that you were being required to pay the extra? - I received a text from BA saying my flight was cancelled and was directed to the "My Booking" page of the website. I was then given the option of a refund or to rebook. I chose to rebook and although the new flight which I chose was 50% more expensive, I was not asked for further payment when I selected to "confirm" the rebooking - I was just given the revised flight for the same cost.

 

[PHCgull]

Are you sure that you were being required to pay the extra? - I received a text from BA saying my flight was cancelled and was directed to the "My Booking" page of the website. I was then given the option of a refund or to rebook. I chose to rebook and although the new flight which I chose was 50% more expensive, I was not asked for further payment when I selected to "confirm" the rebooking - I was just given the revised flight for the same cost.

indeed. We tried to re-book and were told no flights until after xmas. Then we tried to buy them independently and they were on sale for 3 grand each.

So they wouldnt re-book us into those seats but they would sell them to us for 12k.

 

[Springal]

Its probably to do with fare class, if you were in an cheapy fare class, and they only had full fare class left, they were probably looking to transfer other full fare paying customers or customers with priority onto it. Unfortunately that is the way the airlines work

 

[PHCgull]

there is no such thing as "cheapy fare deals" at xmas - these were world traveller plus tickets booked six months ago - they cost approximately twice as much as they would at other times of the year, and that was six months ago.

We already were , and still are, full fare paying customers. Its just that now we are full-fare paying with emirates - cancelled BA and now going the day after boxing day with them instead.
will miss the orient game though

 

[Tummy Burger]

I have not got time to read the whole thread, but it looks like someone has not been advised correctly. I work for ba and am dealing with this all day. Probably too late now anyway but you are able to change to next avail fly in same class, even if higher fare. Also offering 1 category upgrades on certain dates. We are trying to give priority to people who need to get home at Xmas, and not people going on hold though.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That parallel doesn't really work though. That would only hold true if the match were postponed and then Brighton tried to recharge £300 for the re-arranged game. But even then, you had tickets for Albion v West Ham and if the game were re-arranged you'd still have tickets for Albion v West Ham, no matter what the day was, while air tickets are valid for a specific flight at a specific time on a specific day.

It was a joke.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have not got time to read the whole thread, but it looks like someone has not been advised correctly. I work for ba and am dealing with this all day. Probably too late now anyway but you are able to change to next avail fly in same class, even if higher fare. Also offering 1 category upgrades on certain dates. We are trying to give priority to people who need to get home at Xmas, and not people going on hold though.

BA, incorrect advice, never.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have not got time to read the whole thread, but it looks like someone has not been advised correctly. I work for ba and am dealing with this all day. Probably too late now anyway but you are able to change to next avail fly in same class, even if higher fare. Also offering 1 category upgrades on certain dates. We are trying to give priority to people who need to get home at Xmas, and not people going on hold though.

BA, conflicting advice, never.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have not got time to read the whole thread, but it looks like someone has not been advised correctly. I work for ba and am dealing with this all day. Probably too late now anyway but you are able to change to next avail fly in same class, even if higher fare. Also offering 1 category upgrades on certain dates. We are trying to give priority to people who need to get home at Xmas, and not people going on hold though.

If I had my way I'd get a 747 and stick it right up Willie Walsh's arse, then turn it sideways slightly. Take a leaf out of Virgin's book when it comes to communication and information and customer help.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

BA, incorrect advice, never.

Give him a break, he's probably spent the last week sat at a desk being screamed at by customers, all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to be somewhere and all of whom think they should be the priority case for getting the last few seats on flights that were effectively full anyway because it's Christmas.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

If I had my way I'd get a 747 and stick it right up Willie Walsh's arse, then turn it sideways slightly. Take a leaf out of Virgin's book when it comes to communication and information and customer help.

A classic example of rumour over reality I've been at Gatwick all week and I've dealt with more problems at the Virgin desks than I have at BA, and that's bearing in mind BA have significantly more flights due to depart than their competitors.

 

[PHCgull]

I have not got time to read the whole thread, but it looks like someone has not been advised correctly. I work for ba and am dealing with this all day. Probably too late now anyway but you are able to change to next avail fly in same class, even if higher fare. Also offering 1 category upgrades on certain dates. We are trying to give priority to people who need to get home at Xmas, and not people going on hold though.

thanks Tummy - actually getting ANY advice was impossible. The BA phone line cut you off after 30 seconds.
In short, BA had WTPlus seats available on the same day, same destination, same class but wouldnt let us transfer into them. But they WERE on sale through the website, at an exorbitant rate. Anyway, problem is now solved, thanks

 

[Lady Whistledown]

thanks Tummy - actually getting ANY advice was impossible. The BA phone line cut you off after 30 seconds.
In short, BA had WTPlus seats available on the same day, same destination, same class but wouldnt let us transfer into them. But they WERE on sale through the website, at an exorbitant rate. Anyway, problem is now solved, thanks

If it's any consolation, it's been the same with almost every traveller. There's barely an airline desk at Gatwick that I haven't been called to this week, to deal with reports from staff of "abusive" or "threatening" passengers. Ninety nine times out of a hundred the passengers are no such thing, just immensely frustrated, but all say the same thing: that the airline have closed the desks, their phonelines don't connect or are constantly engaged, and the website crashes. Certain airlines have been far worse than others, and I have to say, Virgin and BA are far from the worst offenders. Let's just say: if you pay budget prices, you get a budget service...

To some extent (having previously worked for two of the companies concerned) I do understand the situation, as the airlines have hundreds of passengers all assuming they have the right to the next flight, when in reality the flights have been booked up a year in advance because it's Christmas. Virgin were telling people they had no seats to anywhere in the Caribbean until after the New Year, which sucked a bit for those who live out there and just wanted to get home to their families for the festive period. But I think the communication with passengers hasn't been good enough, and the messages confused, leading to passengers hanging around unnecessarily because they think there's a chance they'll miss out on something if they go home. The companies needed to tell people what was going on, and to be unequivocal about it, whereas by telling people nothing, they just leave them with hope where there is none.

And then ranting at the police because there's nobody else to shout at

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

A classic example of rumour over reality I've been at Gatwick all week and I've dealt with more problems at the Virgin desks than I have at BA, and that's bearing in mind BA have significantly more flights due to depart than their competitors.

Whilst I cannot speak for the present situation I can speak for all my personal experiences with BA and Virgin. In my own experience BA seem to collapse or blame others. Virgin have always been overly helpful and clear when dealing with difficulties. Virgin have been brilliant with me when dealing with delays, missed flights and especially when I was enroute to NYC 3 days after 7/11.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

A classic example of rumour over reality I've been at Gatwick all week and I've dealt with more problems at the Virgin desks than I have at BA, and that's bearing in mind BA have significantly more flights due to depart than their competitors.

BA passengers have probably lost the will by now.

 

[Fungus]

They would have had c300 people with a product sold to them and, in all likelihood, c10 replacement seats on the other plane. Why would our chap have got some of those seats over all the other similarly affected poor feckers?

And we do not know that some people didn't get swapped to that flight. The fact that...

a) Bloke hears his flight has been cancelled.
b) Bloke immediately checks BA.com, or elsewhere, to see if anything else is available, and there is.
c) Bloke checks again later and nothing else is available.

...doesn't mean that BA merely sold those seats on to those with deep pockets.

It could mean that BA were taking their time sorting out who from the cancelled flight to allocate those seats to.

Or maybe they did sell them to the highest bidder as they know that c300 into c10 doesn't go so the fairest way is not to pick and choose the lucky few.

I'm not saying our chap should get priority, but even on a first-come, first-served basis, tickets were available - at a hugely inflated price.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Unfortunately, customer service has been sacrificed to save money. This applies to all industries not just travel. Just enough is spent on customer service to meet the average demand - and when there is any sort of crisis it gets swamped and stops working. This is the deliberate policy.