EXCLUSIVE: British Airways cancels return to Kuala Lumpur with four weeks notice

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• Anna L says:

  12 Oct12 October 10:15

  original flight scheduled for 24th Dec. will wait for the rebooking guidelines to be made available and hopefully they can get an agreement with MH. A bit nervous as we are flying peak period over Xmas

• Claire says:

  12 Oct12 October 10:18

  Supposed to be flying to Malaysia in January. Phoned up silver executive club yesterday and the agent I spoke to re-booked me on the LHR – SIN flight and then also SIN – KUL. Same for return journey. I have email confirmation of the booking but reading the comments on this post makes me worried my connecting flights aren’t valid.

• Paul says:

  12 Oct12 October 10:25

  Folks, you all need to calm down!
  BA must re route you – fact
  It must be in same class – fact
  It must be at your convenience – fact
  Avios booking do not need reward availability – fact
  It might take several days to put arrangements in place – fact
  Enjoy the weekend give it a week or so. Life’s too short to spend hours on the phone with poorly trained, ill informed call centre staff who have no discretion at this stage!

  • Bervios says:

    12 Oct12 October 10:46

    They have been no specific guidelines posted yet , anyone calling now will be subject to the standard customer guidelines for cancellations. You can read them here :
    https://www.britishairways.com/travel-partner-connect/policies/self-service/standard-customer-guidelines/flight-cancellations

    The KUL guidelines should appear on that site once released.

  • SB says:

    12 Oct12 October 11:42

    Great post

  • Steve Cuthbertson says:

    12 Oct12 October 13:15

    However if you’re in Premium economy be aware that Malaysian Airlines do not have that class.

• Graham says:

  12 Oct12 October 11:12

  I thought I had cracked this, phoned on silver line and had my KL Heathrow flight (open jaw 241 voucher) replaced by Qatar flight via Doha. Then 30 minutes later agent called back and said they had made a mistake and my only option was a refund. I refused refund and asked to speak to Supervisor (twice) but Supervisor wouldn’t take call and just got agent to reiterate that only option was a refund. I asked them to not cancel flight and I would deal with UK next week (was India call centre). They agreed and then when I ended call found the cancelled flight has disappeared from my booking all together. You couldn’t make up how bad they are at this stuff!

  • Lady London says:

    12 Oct12 October 11:55

    Please, everyone, record all such calls where after their route cancellations in particular, as in that case there’s no wiggle room at all for them to deny your rights legally.

    This is absolitely outrageous deliberate systematically arramged refusal of your rights by British Airways. cf @Paul’s post above.

    I am wondering if, if we all got together and presented a file of, say, between 500 and 2000 of such conversations where British Airways is refusing reroutes, or making them subject to illegal conditions such as the availability of award seats or their own flights, if we presented that to the CAA would that be enough to finally make them take action?

    I’d seriously consider cordinating such but I just wonder if in the lawless UK we do have any way of stopping these abuses by giant companies with well-fed shareholders that the UK seems to indulge.

    • Yorkshire rich says:

      12 Oct12 October 12:00

      Lady London, just quickly as I know you will know off top of your head.
      So I’ve booked BA companion voucher from Kul to MAN via LHR. I used the first part of it to fly Man to LHR to SIN in September in J.
      They found me a PE ticket on Singapore, im assuming to LHR as PE is not available to Manchester. Is it correct that they expect me to pay my own travel from KL to SIN?

      TIA

      • Lady London says:

        12 Oct12 October 12:11

        not clear but if they canceled the route then if they only offer you to chance to replace the joirney starting at another airport then they’d be resonsible for transport feom original airporrt. You might have to fight that and prove that was the specific extra travel exact route that you did (and wouldn’t always be practical for you to do exactly that) so personally if I agreed to start at another airport then I’d want to keep proof of their agreement to pay your reasonable extra costs of reaching that other airport.

        I’d make it very clear in all conversations that going from another airport was not at my reqyes4 but at theirs to accommodate their flight cancellation too.

        • BJ says:

          12 Oct12 October 12:31

          It fall ubder the 300 mile rule so should not be acceoted unconditionally, BA will argue SIN=KUL in any subsequent claim for additional costs.

      • BJ says:

        12 Oct12 October 12:25

        Yes they do. I suggest you call back and ask them to add the MH connecting flight. If they refuse tell them you are only accrpging the reroute dibject to a clsim vir connection from KUL you will subssqently reclaim. Record the call. Tiy gace to be careful as exSIN is a valjd reroute for exKUL so you do not wang to acceot it unconditionally. Try asking for KUL-HKG-MAN on CX PY.

    • Aston100 says:

      12 Oct12 October 12:10

      I would support this.

• Lady London says:

  12 Oct12 October 12:03

  And if your flight’s at Christmas or other peak time, personslly I’d advise you to contact BA immediately to get a replacement flight that works for you. Rather than sit around another week whole flights are selling and BA works out its own preferred suboptimal limited optuoms for you that will be most beneficial to them.

  There are only so many flights on any airline available at the times you may need to travel if you’re currently booked at highly desirable times and need to stsy there.

  UK / EC 261- subject airlines like BA, do have the responsibility to reroute you as reasonably close as possible to your original flight timimg, on any other airline as well as their own flights, but airlines can’t perform miracles if every seat you need has been sold.

  • meta says:

    12 Oct12 October 12:53

    That’s what I have been saying the last couple of pages, but there is an equal number of people saying that one should wait for official guidelines. Many people will be disappointed…

    • BJ says:

      12 Oct12 October 13:43

      Waiting just limits choice as seats disappear so best to get it sorted asap unless very flexible and not too bothered.

    • Paul says:

      12 Oct12 October 14:20

      No one is going to be disappointed! Peak pre Christmas travel day is 20/12/24 and peak return day is 2/3 Jan.
      Google flights showing
      267 options on those days in Y
      241 options on those days in J
      102 options on those days in F

      Waiting a week for BA to line up a full package without the need to argue U.K. 261 isn’t going to impact availability that much

      • Darren says:

        12 Oct12 October 15:08

        It’s frustrating that the package wasn’t in place prior to or aligning with the route cancellation, which throws up all of the issues quoted here.

        It’s not new, it’s a business decision chucked out on a Friday evening.

        • meta says:

          12 Oct12 October 18:10

          Just because there are options available, does not mean people or BA will be able to rebook on them. Any airlines can refuse to re-accommodate BA passengers. I wouldn’t be surprised that some of QR and MH tickets are subsequently cancelled…

      • Bervios says:

        12 Oct12 October 15:37

        Exactly the only people who will be disappointed are those panicking and calling BA before guidelines have been sent to agents.

        • JDB says:

          12 Oct12 October 16:41

          There are existing guidelines with rebooking options that are working well for many. The suggestion of @Paul of so many seats being available are just so unfairly misleading to affected HfPers as there may be seats available but not all are available to BA. Such a misunderstanding of the rules and practicalities.

• Mark Fordham says:

  12 Oct12 October 12:19

  Flying LHR to KL 11/11 on a 2for 1 voucher. Called BA and after waiting around 45 minutes on the line got an agent who knew what was going on and asked for us to be rerouted to Singapore which she did and that actually suits us better as we are looking to end up there anyway. Only took 10 minutes chatting on the phone including security checks etc.

• NL says:

  12 Oct12 October 12:22

  Had an Avios redemption flt from KUL in CW for mid-Jan.
  Called the contact centre and got through to NCL. Received the usual BA responses with limited options, but with each limitation I reiterated my statutory rights (the CAA), each time the agent sought advice for clarification.
  End result, re-booked more than 14-days later (for my convenience) on MH in BUS.
  Observation, it appears to depend on the individual you speak with – and keep them onside by not getting too ‘stroppy’.

  • LittleNick says:

    12 Oct12 October 15:46

    That’s a good result, you seem to be one of the first to get booked onto MH

• Darren says:

  12 Oct12 October 12:26

  My other half has had her KUL flights cancelled too, rebooking failed with an error and phone calls are being cut off.
  She is visiting family in KL so has no hotel bookings or onwards flights etc and can be slightly flexible with her dates.
  Is there any reason why she shouldn’t just get a refund and rebook? Assuming the prices for going via DOH are more or less the same.
  I’m just worried about any issues doing it this way.
  Thanks!

  • LittleNick says:

    12 Oct12 October 15:48

    The refund may not cover the cost of a new booking, do not assume it will. BA have an obligation to get your OH to their booked destination, you do not need to accept a refund. Best to look at available alternatives options either via QR/MH and quote these to an agent to see if they can rebook you directly.

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