British Airways will now rebook Kuala Lumpur passengers on Malaysia Airlines

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• Phil G says:

  17 Oct17 October 13:55

  I called the minute hfp reported cancellation of KUL flights. They refused to put us on Qatar saying there was no reward seats available. Had to accept a Singapore flight. This is after talking to 3 people

• Waistman says:

  17 Oct17 October 14:03

  Also rebooked via chat on MH, initially they tried to do LHR-SIN-KUL and didn’t know about the rebooking guidelines (ha!), I actually copy pasted them the link and that unlocked them allowing direct MH flights. Glad I waited! BA are chaotic sometimes

• John says:

  17 Oct17 October 14:03

  As I mentioned on the other post, BA can only reach out to other airlines once they have announced the route cancellation. Qatar is an exception because they have a joint business so can co-ordinate and share information beforehand. It would be illegal for BA to give MH the heads up and they take these things seriously. Not perfect for customers but patience pays off.

  • Dubious says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:52

    It does seem like the communication process could be improved though. For instance, instead of the call centre agents giving people a default ‘can’t be done’…’take a refund’…response, they could make the default response ‘ please wait x days whilst we work up the alternatives and we will have more options available.

    Alternatively, what’s to stop BA negotiating potential re-routing options with other airlines when the route is first launched?

  • Mark says:

    17 Oct17 October 15:05

    Which is why I’m surprised that no rebooking policy has been announced for QR. Guess we’ll see if anything else turns up.

    • JDB says:

      18 Oct18 October 00:18

      @Mark – it was mentioned last week that the QR might not last! Not sure QR wants so many more rebookings.

• john says:

  17 Oct17 October 14:14

  It’s often recommended on here to wait when cancellations occur if the flight is suitably far in advance as the rebooking options take a while to get sorted, so this new option shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

• Ryan says:

  17 Oct17 October 14:27

  Excellent, I’m very happy that this has finally been arranged; about time.

• Aston100 says:

  17 Oct17 October 14:38

  Shitty behaviour by BA which will not get addressed.

  • Richie says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:40

    Do you think UK261 should be replaced with effective legislation?

    • NorthernLass says:

      17 Oct17 October 14:48

      There’s not really anything wrong with the legislation, the issue is the absence of effective enforcement and sanctions for non-compliance.

    • JDB says:

      17 Oct17 October 23:32

      @Richie – you raise this question on a very regular basis, but never say what you mean by “effective legislation”. The 261 legislation is deemed “effective” by some 30 countries and the institutions of the EU, plus in the UK we have probably the best recourses for dissatisfied passengers. What change(s) do you actually want and have you considered the ramifications. Do you not perceive that change might make the rules overall less favourable?

      Legislators in the UK and across the EU are very sympathetic to three key industry concerns a) that compensation levels are in many cases too high, b) that in view of airport and routing congestion in Europe, the delay threshold should be increased and c) that airlines shouldn’t have to pay Article 9 costs for matters clearly outside their control and that these should be paid by the consumer or their insurers.

      There is concern in the UK and EU of the risk of overburdening UK/EU airlines vs their competitors and the additional cost that is inevitably passed on to consumer in ticket prices.

      Consumer groups aren’t entirely unsympathetic to these issues that might be traded for some automaticity which would inevitably come with much reduced compensation.

      So what is it you are wanting to happen and are you suggesting the UK should go it alone? In the UK higher taxes on air transport and a differentiation on passenger fees by travel class are probably the most immediate changes we can expect.

  • Nick says:

    17 Oct17 October 15:07

    A reminder that it’s actually illegal for airlines to discuss reprotection with competitors before announcing a route closure. However much people think they should have, there’s no way they could have set something up in advance even if they wanted to.

    If people panicked and took something substandard prematurely rather than being patient and waiting for this to be set up, they only have themselves to blame. It’s not as if some of us weren’t here warning and advising accordingly.

    • tony says:

      17 Oct17 October 15:26

      This is 100% true. I was one proponent of the “wait” camp. But where BA have wholly dropped the ball is by not having any guidance in place. A clear statement as to what was available from the get-go, plus a timeline of what would happen next, would have saved an awful lot of mess. I can already see the story in the Sunday Times in early 2026 “British Airways still owe me £300 for SIN-KL tickets…” This has a long tail…

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      17 Oct17 October 15:33

      It may surprise you but not everyone is aware of sites like this and flyer talk so your advice was not available to the vast, vast majority of passengers!

      • Nick says:

        17 Oct17 October 15:45

        Call centres didn’t force people to accept an option immediately, they offered what was available and if people weren’t happy they were advised to wait and call back in a few days. If they insisted on taking something there and then, that’s on them. The briefing note to call centre staff very clearly said it wasn’t a final version.

        I agree that communications could have been better though. I wouldn’t have announced it on a Friday afternoon, for example, and I’d have specified clearly in the email blaming RR that discussions were also happening with partner airlines.

        • Mark says:

          17 Oct17 October 16:16

          No, they didn’t advise to wait and call back in a few days – certainly not in all (including my personal experience), and probably not in many cases.

      • tony says:

        17 Oct17 October 16:38

        But the vast majority of passengers will be completely oblivious to the entire situation anyway. HfP/the interweb has actually been the problem not the solution here, but the hissy-fits being seen as people felt they were bidding for the last helicopter seat out of Saigon and had to have this resolved in seconds not days has been telling.

        Perhaps the basis for some great content for the slower news days over Christmas?

        • Mark says:

          17 Oct17 October 16:58

          Not when they’ve had an email from BA or travel agent saying that their flights have been cancelled and they need to do something to get an alternative in place. Many of those travelling for leisure or personal reasons, particularly in the near future or over the busy Christmas period, are likely to have felt some pressure to do so quickly, even if the panic was unwarranted in practice.

    • Numpty says:

      17 Oct17 October 15:39

      Harsh. People phoned up BA and were offered a refund or booking to SIN and told by BA customer service that was their only options.

      Shockingly not everyone booked on a BA flight to KL reads HfP. For a lot of people it will be normal behaviour that when a product they have paid for is no longer available they will take a refund asap to then allow them to get the cash back and look to rebook themselves something suitable.

      Where on the BA cancellation email did it say to people to wait a few days whilst they set up a rebooking policy? It didn’t. Neither did a lot of the BA customer service advisors tell people to wait.

      Also, people have commented that BA have no commercial agreement with MH, hence the delay. Yet they do have a commercial agreement with QR, and so could have issued a QR rebooking policy on the same day as the cancellation. BA managed to do this when they cancelled Beijing, that agreement also included China Airlines.

      • JDB says:

        18 Oct18 October 00:21

        @Numpty – BA didn’t need to publish a QR rebooking policy on the day as it already forms part of its standard rebooking guidelines which is why so many people were able to be rebooked on that basis prior to today’s route specific guidelines.

        • Numpty says:

          18 Oct18 October 13:20

          My experience of BA CS; 1st attempt at a rebook for a KUL to EDI i was offered SIN to LHR! I tried not to laugh and said would call another time.
          2nd attempt (online chat) – i was told there was no availability 1 week either side of my original dates. I queried if they were still searching for the direct BA KL route, then never had any more response on the online chat, they stopped responding.
          3rd attempt – immediate success.

          There are plenty of examples of people not being offered anything. There are also reports on FT of people being rebooked on QR, and then BA calling them back up and withdrawing the rebook and stating they had done so in error.

          In terms of any standard rebooking procedures the BA staff don’t seem to know them, and where did this initial response of SIN being only the destination for a rebook come from?

        • Numpty says:

          18 Oct18 October 13:27

          **correction, just in case** there are plenty examples of people not being offered anything to KL.

    • Rich says:

      17 Oct17 October 18:16

      Thing is, if you’re travelling in 4 weeks and a whole BA flight has been cancelled, who’s to say there will be availability for everyone on board to be moved to another direct flight same day if they sit back and wait?

    • Cicero says:

      17 Oct17 October 20:44

      Can you point us to the legislation that says this is illegal, please?

      • Numpty says:

        18 Oct18 October 13:51

        There’s not many of us who would want to read through actual legislation, or understand it, instead I prefer to find some follow on guidance which does the interpretation.

        The document below is an ‘interesting’ read, even goes to the trouble to state that offering a private jet would be unreasonable (which i had tried that with the online chat). Caveat: I don’t know if the below document is the most up to date version:

        https://www.caa.co.uk/publication/download/18744

• M says:

  17 Oct17 October 16:04

  I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who advised to sit tight and wait. I was able to get rebooked for Malaysia Airlines direct. If it wasn’t for the articles and comments here, I would have probably panicked and taken some worse option.

  Thanks!

  • D says:

    17 Oct17 October 17:14

    I have a BA Voucher 2 for 1 Business booking and have just tried to rebook direct but being told they still do not have authorisation for direct flights. Only options Qatar or via Singapore with a connecting Malaysian airway flight to KL. Very frustrating – would prefer Malaysian direct but we travel in 4 weeks so would prefer to get everything locked in

    • Alesa says:

      18 Oct18 October 08:09

      Try again! The first agent I spike to yesterday said I had to wait until this morning but them I called back and was put on the direct MH1 flight on the same say in Busiiness

      • Alesa says:

        18 Oct18 October 10:00

        ‘spoke to’. I wish there was a possibility to edit these posts in the ‘waiting’ stage if you notice a mistake/typo

• Confun says:

  17 Oct17 October 16:23

  Overall a very poor show from BA. No evidence that being a Gold member matters also.
  I can accept that flights get cancelled – lots of issues in the ‘equipment’ sector right now that improve at the pace of an oil tanker turning.
  What is very poor however:
  – Using Chat & Phone about 8 times over the past few days (before official policy) and getting 8 completely different answers from the BA contact centres
  – Seeing the threads and how others were getting even more different responses as well as other routings (for non-cash bookings)
  – BA ‘encouraging’ people to cancel their plans (less hassle for them)
  – Treating redemptions different to paid (aka commercial) tickets in these circumstances. Avios & vouchers have a commercial value and are already reflected as part of the commercial models in the BA world
  – Not being able to rebook anything online
  – A lack of communication
  – Poor communication.

  I wonder if the head of customer experience at BA actually understands customer experience. I would be embarrassed to tell people what I did if I was him or admit that in reality I had zero influence on the different operational areas of the business.

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