Share your BA shut-down experiences …. and BA adds £16 to Expedia etc bookings

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• David says:

  28 May28 May 17:16

  Was caught up in the shambles that was T5 airside yesterday. Worst part was crazy queueing for hours to get to the gate where they were processing people to allow you to exit via Border Force. That was, to me, no reason at all to have a queue there – just let people through, if they wanted, down to passport control. Feel bad for poor BA staff who were trying their best, clearly no contingency plan for such an event – thats is just sheer bad management. Ended up booking new Avios seats very early this morning (when there were still plenty available for Monday) for our trip to Italy – will worry about cancelling and getting refunds for our original cash bookings later – dont fancy waiting on the phone for hours, and suspect Christmas will arrive before BA reaches out to me about rebooking options !

• Cheshire Pete says:

  28 May28 May 17:22

  Well, here’s our story so far!

  Itinerary:

  Friday AMS to LHR, LHR to MAN.
  Sunday MAN to LCY
  Monday LHR to AMS

  Obviously Friday was the day before the ‘outage’ but actually something was ‘fishy’ about the IT system which leads me to believe a sudden PSU failure was ‘unlikely’ the cause.

  Friday 14:55 from Amsterdam ended up leaving an hour late due to Schipol ‘runway’ congestion. Where due to arrive 1520 But our separately booked PNR to Manchester was leaving 18:20. We also forced to collect baggage so we tried to enact the Same day Free change for our CE flights. But on final confirmation ‘system error’

  Anyhow arrived at LHR, partner waited for bags and I went upstairs to speak to CS to move Manchester to 20:30. Showed him screenshot error, he clearly said the IT system, remember 16:30 on the Friday was misbehaving so running slower and slower. But he happily rebooked us free waiting a good 5 minutes for the system to respond.

  Move forward Saturday got Emili yesterday evening our LCY flight cancelled from MAN 13:10. Not able to call or rebook online. Anyhow woke at 3.30am this morning called CS answered in 10 minutes odd pre recorded message about delay due to poor weather in the U.K. Lol. Anyhow another 15 minutes later got on the 06:50 to LHR. But never left till 9:15. Ended up landing 14 minutes at gate before 3 hour Comp window, however already covered with that from Initial cancellation. Should say plane dirty as never cleaned. No service in any cabin. No food or anything other than water even in CE.

  Was already staying overnight in Sofitel for flight back to AMS tomorrow, Monday. Checked in early at 11. Heard story of sleeping bags used in their conference rooms. Popped into Departures. Complete chaos, can’t understand why the queue to even enter the departures is the same no matter if you have a valid boarding pass or just trying to rebook. Anyhow had a planned day in London, found out Heathrow Express was FREE.

  So still in London hoping to get my 0640 flight to AMS tomorrow as need to start work there at 10am!

  • Q says:

    28 May28 May 19:22

    An odd itinerary, no?

• Q says:

  28 May28 May 19:16

  anyone who genuinely believes the power outage excuse is gullible/naive

  • TripRep says:

    28 May28 May 20:41

    Failed software/infrastructure upgrade?

    • David says:

      28 May28 May 23:27

      I don’t seen anything specific (hallmarks, etc) suggesting it was upgrade related.

      However, regardless of the trigger, the problem is bad design to let it take down – or lock people out of – so much.

      Then after that, you get the lack of backup/contingency plans, and the comms failure.

• Anon says:

  28 May28 May 19:59

  Any betting fans out there wish to guess when the next BA sale will commence? 😉

  • TripRep says:

    28 May28 May 20:37

    Any betting fans…

    1) wondering what price IAG & Capita shares will be at COB on Monday?

    2) Wondering if Alex will still be CEO by Xmas?

    This is apparently an internal memo from the man himself, have to say I do agree with the theme of let’s fix this as a team, we’ll deal with the how & why later…..

    “Guys, either you are part of the team working to fix this or you aren’t. We are not in the mode of “debriefing on what happened” but rather “let’s fix this” mode.

    I have been answering some emails from colleagues (thank you for the support) and I just finished a video for media and another one for all of us. I suppose you will have seen our Twitter account and BA.com.

    Now, your interest on today’s events is well noted. I am wondering if you would like to help out? Either LHR or LGW or anyone of our stations could use you, now. If you indeed can, drop me a message and I will connect you or go straight to the airport and make yourself available. I am sure they will appreciate your involvement.

    In the meantime, if you don’t want to get involved or you cannot get involved, I would kindly ask you to refrain from live commentary, unless it is a message of support to the thousands of colleagues that love BA as much as you do. Thanks.”

    • Genghis says:

      28 May28 May 21:05

      Talking to yourself there? I thought Anon = Triprep?

      • TripRep says:

        28 May28 May 21:22

        I’ve moved on, that must be my previous roles successor, good to see it in use…

      • Nate1309 says:

        28 May28 May 23:23

        Me too

• Karen Patterson says:

  28 May28 May 20:34

  Something Rupert said reminded me of a problem we had on Tuesday May 23 with online check-in. We were flying Madrid-LHR-San Diego.
  Website let me check-in but it would not let my husband check-in online (same booking) for the LHR to San Diego leg of our flight. He is a USA citizen, but it said he needed a visa or green card to enter the USA. We checked his passport number and other info on the booking and all was correct.
  Call center said “something about his booking had changed” but it would not tell us what. So we got to the airport earlier than usual to make sure he could check in once they saw his passport.
  Maybe this is a common problem but it has never happen to us before.

  • TripRep says:

    28 May28 May 20:44

    Common problem, understandable to be suspicious tho.

    I had similar on my rtn leg from the Maldives (that I wasn’t downgraded on)

• Vicki says:

  28 May28 May 21:12

  I was caught up in the carnage in T5 yesterday. Communication was basically zero which was incredibly frustrating.

  The terminal was baking hot and staff (rudely) refused to give out water to delayed passengers, telling people to go and pay for it themselves. When I politely pointed out that they are obliged to provide refreshments they made an excuse about computers. Because that obviously stops them finding bottles or turning on a tap!

  I was in the lounge where screens weren’t working and was told by lounge staff to walk to the gate every half hour for an update. Staff at the gate were rude and told me I should have stayed in the lounge – but couldn’t tell me how they’d update customers in the lounge on any changes.

  Obviously, the lack of communication and conflicting information combined with the current security situation, caused needless worry for many.

  I queued for well over an hour to leave the Terminal. No idea why – no explanation was given.

  This morning I was put on hold for 3 hours to reach the Silver Exec club number where I was told no seats were available for me to reschedule, but was given an assurance of a full refund and pointed in the direction of a form to fill in to claim out of pocket expenses.

  In a nutshell, BA handled yesterday appallingly and we’re a total embarrassment as a national carrier. Front line staff were rude when they should have been helpful and are obviously poorly trained and equipped for situations like this.

  I’m not sure BA’s once great brand will recover from this in a hurry. I’m a long-standing silver customer and will think twice before booking with them again. Alex Cruz is clearly a disaster as CEO and, if I were a shareholder, I’d want him gone asap.

  • Mac says:

    29 May29 May 11:19

    BA are not a national carrier. BA is owned by the Spanish company IAG and theoretically should no longer be called “British” Airways. Spanish Consortium Airways would be a more accurate name

• Mary Morwood says:

  28 May28 May 21:12

  Yesterday I was caught up in the BA computer shutdown. I’d flown overnight from Calgary, Canada, a duration of over eight hours. The plane landed, taxied towards the terminal, but then was told to stop ,engines shut down except for the auxilliary which ran the aircon. We all waited, the crew keeping us informed with what they knew. They also furnished us with water and what nibbles and biscuits were left after the overnight flight. The plane had to start up and move at one point to allow another plane to get to the gate. While we waited we were entertained by watching planes being tugged, others with stairways attached, some under power but not a lot happened otherwise. Finally after FOUR hours, we got a gate and the door was opened, but we weren’t allowed off for another ten or so minutes as the “terminal was too crowded”. I’m sure those trying to fly out had a worse time. I think we were fortunate and at least we didn’t have to overnight at Calgary Airport. I just hope BA will pay out compensation.

  • TripRep says:

    28 May28 May 21:27

    Be sure to give notice to immediatelky commence legal action if they dare to suggest otherwise.

    See the Guardian article I linked further down this page.

    “James Walker (Resolver CEO) said there was no question that BA would have to pay out compensation under the EU scheme which demands payments for flights delayed by at least three hours as a result of reasons within the airline’s control. “

    • Fenny says:

      28 May28 May 23:38

      Lack of decent IT backup systems is within the airline’s control!

  • Nony says:

    29 May29 May 00:28

    What was the mood on board…especially as each HOUR ticked past?

    Presumably passengers were hooked up to their mobiles etc and getting all the news?

• ankomonkey says:

  28 May28 May 21:16

  Checked in yesterday at 8.10am for 10.20am flight to IST (with wife and 2 kids under 8). We got as far as the front of the queue for boarding and then everyone was sent back because they couldn’t print out the list of expected passengers (a legal requirement it seems) because systems were down. Then the flights start getting cancelled. They couldn’t offer refreshment vouchers because the system couldn’t print them. After 80 minutes to call centre in evening got rebooked on 7.00am flight today. After over 13 hours airside yesterday we were allowed out of LHR for the luxury of the Sofitel conference room floor. The Sofitel guys actually did a fantastic job. The BA staff airside were not being communicated to, so really struggled with the hordes of pasengers demanding answers. We got to IST this morning, but without checked luggage. I think we were relatively lucky compared to many. We had an onwards flight from IST this afternoon. IST domestic has no clothes-buying facilities, so all I have to wear is 1 t-shirt, 1 pair of shorts and 1 set of undercrackers what have all been on this I left home yesterday morning at 7am. The bit that riled me the most was that all the BA documentation and staff carefully state that they will “consider” reimbursement for all the out-of-pockets, and recommend travel insurance for ruined plans, etc.

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