BA ‘all systems down’ again (apparently) at T5

[Amy C]

Just heard from my man at T5. Apparently all BA flights have stopped boarding and departing flights are facing delays and possible cancellations. ‘Problems’ is the reason. Doesn’t seem reflected on the online departure boards yet. Surely not another IT issue? 🤦‍♀️

[GillyDee]

Apparently. I’m waiting to board for Denver at C54. 90 minutes ago we were advised there was T5 wide IT issue – not a squeak since. But the Qatar crew seem to be on the move at C64…..

[Amy C]

You couldn’t make it up. BA are absolutely hopeless. Their poor staff having to deal with this on a weekly basis (and passengers of course). Hope you get away soon.

[Mouse]

I wonder whether there’s more to it than they are letting on, given the current geopolitical situation.

[Cranzle]

Last time all BA flights were cancelled a few weeks ago, BA said absolutely nothing and HfP didn’t report it as there was nothing they could add that wasn’t covered by other media outlets. It seems fine for BA to do as they wish, not communicate with customers, and in typical British fashion we carry on with a stiff upper lip.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[yorkshireRich]

Mouse wrote:

I wonder whether there’s more to it than they are letting on, given the current geopolitical situation.

so it isn’t just me then?

[Cranzle]

Personally, I think disruption would be wider spread across other industries too, if that was the case.

I think BA are suffering as a result of financial decisions. It’s also notable that other than BA (and Barclays!), people don’t seem to be complaining about other companies such as EasyJet and RyanAir. I understand that’s likely to be a market size thing, but still….

[GillyDee]

Funnily enough we were just talking about hacking.

It seems that the systems are slowly coming back; we’re waiting for a gate crew….

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[GillyDee]

Boarded at last, 3 hrs late, but no indication when we’ll be pushing off…

Hope Niall’s parents have taken off by now.

[Dace]

Shocking they’ve had another IT issue again.

[Super Secret Stuff]

Outsourced IT is never a good idea to save money in the long run. Hacking is a possibility although I’d expect it to last lpnger

More likely just bad IT management

[NorthernLass]

Yikes, look like we just missed this having travelled yesterday with no issues!

[tazzy]

Sitting on a runway in jo’burg unable to take off as we can’t get go ahead from Heathrow due to BA’s IT issues

[yonasl]

tazzy wrote:

Sitting on a runway in jo’burg unable to take off as we can’t get go ahead from Heathrow due to BA’s IT issues

Crazy to learn this … 12hr flight so you would expect they would think it is enough to have the system ready by the time they land. Must mean they cannot even confirm your flight is properly boarded so cannot allow it to take off.

[Amy C]

All short haul cancelled after 1800 I hear.

[masaccio]

That’s another few thousand people needing to phone the call centre meaning even the Gold line is next-to-impossible to get through to.

[marks7389]

Cranzle wrote:

Personally, I think disruption would be wider spread across other industries too, if that was the case.

I think BA are suffering as a result of financial decisions. It’s also notable that other than BA (and Barclays!), people don’t seem to be complaining about other companies such as EasyJet and RyanAir. I understand that’s likely to be a market size thing, but still….

To be fair, BA isn’t the only airline with crap IT.. almost every airline I deal with seems to have some kind of problem in it’s customer facing systems at least. My latest battle is Aegean seat selection which appears to be impossible if booked as a Star Alliance partner redemption, which I assume is an IT challenge rather than their deliberately disadvantaging customers of their airline partners. I also have an ongoing challenge with Alaska Airlines refusing to recognise my wife’s BA silver status because she has a hyphenated surname and it insists on an exact match against the booking record which, of course, cannot by hyphenated. And that, of course, is one example of the same issue that is preventing many people linking BA and Qatar accounts. I could go on…..

Still, it takes some special kind of crap to regularly impact your flight operations.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Cranzle]

Still no comment on BA’s website. It certainly seems as though truly do not wish to communicate with customers at all.

[Supergers49]

Super Secret Stuff wrote:

Outsourced IT is never a good idea to save money in the long run. Hacking is a possibility although I’d expect it to last lpnger

More likely just bad IT management

Outsourcing IT is not the issue. Most organisations lack the competence to build world class IT from a legacy start.

Outsourcing IT badly IS the issue. Outsourcing a problem, expecting the Vendor to fix it and invest in the future, all while continuing to “penny pinch” and micro-manage… That’s the recipe for a generation of IT failures and loss of service.

[NHS_Slave]

Cranzle wrote:

Still no comment on BA’s website. It certainly seems as though truly do not wish to communicate with customers at all.

Nothing on Twitter either (except generic replies to p*ssed off passengers).

This is an absolute basic. What people hate more than anything in these situations is a lack of information.

Your IT can be as bad as it likes but by posting a tweet every now and then will take 2 minutes and relieve a bit of anger and pressure on the phone lines.

Absolute shambles.

[GillyDee]

Arrived in Denver 170 minutes late. Fulsome apologies from the flight deck but no explanation other than “IT”. At least the twice postponed Colorado birding trip can now commence….

[greggrant]

Chaos at T5 right now – huge queues for bag drop – even the First Wing is rammed.

[modestpointscollector]

Too soon to get cold feet about my flights in Mid-July and rebook to Virgin? Possibly not…

[dougzz99]

It seems BA have decided to reduce the schedule to try and better manage the endless issues. So I think in the next couple of weeks you can expect full flights, with 3-3 in CE on short haul. Doubtless they’ll be no proactive compensation for this.
I genuinely wonder whether BA can really recover long term, the years of cuts and the use of C19 to slash staff are now really starting to bite. They were offering double pay + £25/hour to staff to stay on after their shifts completed yesterday.
I don’t expect this to be a hack, just more problems they’re experiencing with ever increasing frequency having gutted their IT services. You can rid yourself of cost by dumping managers and IT support and experience no falloff in service, until you do. It’s then catastrophic as you have no in house skills to resolve anything.

[dougzz99]

modestpointscollector wrote:

Too soon to get cold feet about my flights in Mid-July and rebook to Virgin? Possibly not…

Because status with BAEC has value, I’ve continued to book with BA for flights west. Just always book AA metal. Despite what I’ve read my own experience with AA is fine. Better food and service than BA, and far more consistent. Sure there are some surly staff, but I’m not needy and can happily get by. I feel for the BA CC continually apologising for the food, and other issues, but BA are now really reaping the years of Walsh and Cruz. AA have better cleaners too.