T-355 online bookings failed with ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT – seats now gone

[jonnyfly]

Hi. Tried to book one-way at midnight once 31 Dec appeared, using new-style Amex 2-for-1 voucher. Completed booking all the way to payment and post Amex verification. Then browser error ERR_SSL_BAD_RECORD_MAC_ALERT appeared instead of ticket issue.

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/payment/execclub/_gf/en_gb?eld=119061 might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

Immediately tried to rebook (00:04) – no seats so tried the later flight (Amex voucher unused). This failed but with a BA-branded “sorry, we’ve been unable to complete your transaction at this time”. Suspect this second error is someone snagged the remaining Avios seats while I was mid-transaction.

But the first one looked like an IT error. Using Chrome on Windows with adblocker switched off.

Tried a third time (now 00:07) and all seats gone. I’ll call BA – who I presume won’t be interested in the IT issue or the fact that I have failed to obtain the seats.

Any suggestions? Has anyone had an BA booking IT issue, especially at 00:00/T-355? Thanks

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I tried snagging 31 Dec seats last night and booking would not complete with a similar error message. I wasn’t in a position to be able to ring up so gone now.

[jonnyfly]

I’ve just phoned BA. Predictably the Avios agent was not interested in reporting the IT error or providing any help. Also confirmed Customer Relations (Gold) won’t speak to customers – have to fill out a form on BA.com!

[jonnyfly]

Is there a reliable phone number accessible from the UK at midnight to do this by phone?

I’ll have to do phone (not web) to do the return leg add-on anyway at some point as clearly flights are being snaffled up within 5 minutes of going on sale – so waiting for the morning UK phone lines to open won’t be viable.

[Skywalker]

Other people’s solutions to the same problem. One might work for you.

[jonnyfly]

Thanks for the link: @skywalker. I will review carefully but I don’t have the Alienware/Killer Control Centre that seems to be the common issue in that article. I’ve never seen this error before and interesting that @Blair Waldorf Salad seemingly had the same issue at the same time making a similar transaction.

[kcg]

I had some issues too – not this error code, but on the first attempt, it kept saying “please check first passenger’s information” or something similar. There was nothing wrong as the first passenger was me and was auto-populated which could not even be modified (household account in place). I had to restart the booking, and it went through eventually, and thankfully there were still seats left.

[Seagull]

jonnyfly wrote:

Is there a reliable phone number accessible from the UK at midnight to do this by phone?

I’ll have to do phone (not web) to do the return leg add-on anyway at some point as clearly flights are being snaffled up within 5 minutes of going on sale – so waiting for the morning UK phone lines to open won’t be viable.

I called 1-800 452 1201 (free via Skype) which I believe is the BAEC number. Always got through within 5 mins so would call about 23:50 to get everything lined up and ready to go at 1 second past midnight.

[jonnyfly]

Thanks @Seagull. Logging into BAEC I see a different number ending 4504 (gold).

It says the line closes at 2000 Eastern which is 0100 GMT. So that’s ok.

Thanks for estimating the wait time to answer.

I might need this for outbound too if I hit another BA IT glitch!