Numerous British Airways cancellations at Gatwick for Summer 2016

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• James67 says:

  25 Sep25 September 03:40

  They not only take a few weeks to inform you, you then discover that calling pretravel or EC as appropriate is not as helpful as you think it should be. You then resort to contacting pretravel in writing, your message goes to the wrong department but you only find out a few weeks or months later when you receive an unhelpful reply from the wrong person. You reply asking them who to write to and you are advised you should call pretravel or EC. You ask to make a formal complaint and they are at a total loss to explain how this can be done. Welcome to BA 2015, little wonder they are no longer the worlds favourite airline I’m sure their customer service will be making an appearance on watchdog sometime soon.

  • JAXBA says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:21

    Don’t write pretravel, just call the appropriate reservations number. If the call doesn’t go as planned, leave the booking as is and hang up and call again later.

    If you want a semi-quick response, try Twitter, but generally, only write in for something after travel is complete and a response isn’t needed so urgently.

    • James67 says:

      25 Sep25 September 11:02

      Thx Jaxba, I will try calling again on my return from my current trip. I remain unimpressed that they have no formal complaints procedures.

• Stu R says:

  25 Sep25 September 04:54

  “Glasgow – no great loss!” …. maybe not to you Rob ….

  I was hit with this.

  The ‘my flights’ app informed me of the change way quicker than BA did.

  We were booked GLA-LHR-LCA-LGW-GLA. BA have cancelled Larnaca out of Gatwick too. We have been offered the alternative of returning via LHR, an option we’d previously dismissed as it involves an overnight stop in LHR. Unfortunately, as we’d already commited to hotels etc, we’ve run with it but taken the opportunity to see / stay with our friends in West London for a couple of days on the way back, albeit we’ll still need a Heathrow hotel for the first night as the flight gets in at 22:25 and I wouldn’t want (or even ask) to turn up at theirs at midnight.

  I guess this was the ‘price we paid’ for trying to blag one last free connecting flight. The trip cost us 20,000 Avios, a 2-4-1 (we had 4 to use), and £70. I think now, it would been 29,000 + 2-4-1 + £140. Booking with cash was a ridiculous £1,200 at the time of booking!

  • Stu R says:

    25 Sep25 September 04:56

    PS: BA we’re happy to change our final leg back to GLA to a couple of days later!

  • Rob says:

    25 Sep25 September 08:52

    The My Flights app is fantastic for this sort of thing as you can rebook before the crowd. You also get immediate warning of equipment changes which is handy when flying Qatar or Etihad!

• Tim Millea says:

  25 Sep25 September 05:24

  Is this the dubious practice of anouncing routes in advance, seeing how sales go then cancelling down accordingly, circumventing EU regulations which allow an alternative to be offered sufficiently far in advance? Willie Walsh, little by little, has trashed BA’s reputation.

  I was unfortunate enough to experience sister IAG airlines Air Nostrum and Iberia Express last week. I had major schedule changes just before the EU compensation cut-off deadline, paid-for extra legroom seat reservations lost and allocated to other people, no reply from customer services or Iberia Plus, eventual legroom really not fit for humans and delays on top. Did I want to pay €5 for a glass of poor wine? No, it really should have been on the house.

  The Manchester to Gatwick link was cancelled a couple of years ago effectivelt cutting the North of England off from a huge number of BA routes. A few trims at Gatwick now make zero difference.

• Jason says:

  25 Sep25 September 06:27

  Possibly Barcelona also. My booking on BA2710 on 14 June and BA2709 on 20 June was cancelled.

• Will says:

  25 Sep25 September 06:27

  Rob I think it’s only one a320 that won’t be joining the fleet. This is due to ‘structural defects’ with the aircraft. i could well be wrong though.

  • Will says:

    25 Sep25 September 06:40

    Indeed having checked numerous fleet listings it’s only one a320 that has been cancelled.

    • Rob says:

      25 Sep25 September 08:51

      Thanks. Weird they can’t find another to charter and refit by March.

      • Mark says:

        25 Sep25 September 16:16

        Is that really the issue? The Aer Lingus aircraft wet leased to Virgin Little Red will become available for redeployment within IAG. Unless Aer Lingus has a need for those aircraft operating routes out of Dublin (which presumably wasn’t the case previously) one of those could be repainted in BA colours….

        Is it perhaps that IAG is losing slots at Gatwick as a condition of the Aer Lingus acquisition? If so that’s a slightly one since there are unused slots available at Gatwick, albeit not a peak times.

        • Mark says:

          25 Sep25 September 16:18

          …odd one….

        • Rich says:

          25 Sep25 September 23:50

          And are they not keeping the odd ball G-MEDK??

• Dean says:

  25 Sep25 September 06:54

  Alicante seems to have been badly hit as well. My flights for April and June (daytime flights) have been cancelled and I have been moved to an 11pm flight (which is no good when I am travelling with 2 young kids). Seems that the daytime flight is cancelled at the weekends but runs weekdays only.

• Neil says:

  25 Sep25 September 07:28

  There’s also frequency increases at Gatwick over Summer. These are :

  Venice (VCE) – 5 additional flights per week
  Turin (TRN)- 2 additional flights per week
  Naples (NAP)- 1 additional flight per week
  Pisa (PSA)- 2 additional flights per week
  Heraklion (HER)- 2 additional flights per week
  Faro (FAO)- 1 additional flight per week
  Thessaloniki (SKG)- 1 additional flight per week
  Seville (SVQ)- 1 additional flight per week
  Tenerife (TFS)- 1 additional flight per week

  Gatwick frequency increases for part of the summer season:

  Salzburg (SZG)- 1 extra weekly service 13JUL16- 07SEP16
  Bodrum (BJV)- 1 additional weekly service 13JUL16- 07SEP16
  Naples (NAP)- 1 additional weekly service 15JUL16- 09SEP16
  Tirana (TIA)- 1 additional weekly service between 14JUL16- 09SEP16
  Lanzarote (ACE)- 1 additional weekly service between 02APR16-16APR16 and 17SEP16-29OCT16
  Cagliari (CAG)- 2 additional weekly services between 10JUL16- 11SEP16
  Faro (FAO)- 1 additional weekly service between 11JUL16- 12SEP16

  • Rob says:

    25 Sep25 September 08:42

    BA didn’t send me that one!

• Oli says:

  25 Sep25 September 07:42

  Our Rome flight was cancelled by BA from Gatwick for next April. It was the 8.30 flight, so only option from LGW was to re book on the 4.30. Do you know if they are dropping down to 1 a day on this route?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.