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I had a recent bad experience with BA cancelling my outbound from Las Vegas with two days notice. They couldn’t find anything else on that day or the day before or the day after, so rebooked me out of SFO, but I had to get their at my own expense. They have refused to cover the cost of my flight to get there. So I researched it and find l found out that they’re routinely cancelling flights, on some routes it’s 13% cancellation rate. When they do run flights, they’re often very late, on some routes it’s as high as 88% are delayed. I did a full analysis on my blog here, for a recent two month period, and also looked at other Europe airlines flying to LAS. Virgin and others have much lower cancellation rates and much more likely to run flights on time.
What’s going on? Are BA just consolidating flights to maximize profit?
I had a recent bad experience with BA cancelling my outbound from Las Vegas with two days notice. They couldn’t find anything else on that day or the day before or the day after, so rebooked me out of SFO, but I had to get their at my own expense. They have refused to cover the cost of my flight to get there. So I researched it and find l found out that they’re routinely cancelling flights, on some routes it’s 13% cancellation rate. When they do run flights, they’re often very late, on some routes it’s as high as 88% are delayed. I did a full analysis on my blog here, for a recent two month period, and also looked at other Europe airlines flying to LAS. Virgin and others have much lower cancellation rates and much more likely to run flights on time.
What’s going on? Are BA just consolidating flights to maximize profit?
Are the cited delay times you cite on departure or arrival?
BA routinely denies claims relating to expenses of departing from (or arriving at) another airport following a cancellation. EC261 is very woolly on that issue so BA regularly relies on a case from 1854 – Hadley v Baxendale so right at the cutting edge of aviation law! The CAA guidance is actually very clear, but as it doesn’t suit BA, they ignore it. If you take the case to MCOL, you have a high prospect of winning, perhaps less so at CEDR because they suck up a lot more of BA’s bad arguments than a judge will.
What’s going on? Are BA just consolidating flights to maximize profit?
Absolutely not.
These short notice cancellations cause them a lot of grief with rebooking etc not only for outbound but also the return flight and duty of care and rebooking costs.
And then there is cargo to take into account.
BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment.
If there is any sort of lack of sales consolidation going on it would have been done months ago when it would have been much easier to handle.
On reading the article in regards to the percentage of flights that are delayed I can’t see what constitutes a delay- 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours?
…BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment…
Reduce the schedule to appropriate reliability levels then.
The only encouraging piece of news here is that the US Department of Transportation is closely watching BA for any missteps. They just announced they are imposing a fine on British Airways of $1.1 million. This is due to them being slow to provide refunds to passengers during the COVID. They commented that the penalty “establishes a strong deterrent to future similar unlawful practices by British Airways and other carriers.” This isn’t the first time the US Government has penalized BA for sketchy behavior and it surely won’t be the last.Hello Wirefree. Just read your blog re BA and west coast performance, interesting. You might want to update the final paragraph (above) by way of balance to mention that BA in fact received a reduced net fine for making refunds when not obliged to. See Sky and other news reports.
On reading the article in regards to the percentage of flights that are delayed I can’t see what constitutes a delay- 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours?
Flights.com definitions are as follows:
If Delay >= 15 minutes = Late
If Delay >= 30 minutes = Very Late
If Delay >= 45 minutes = ExcessiveYou can see these in the 2 screenshots I include in the blog
Hello Wirefree. Just read your blog re BA and west coast performance, interesting. You might want to update the final paragraph (above) by way of balance to mention that BA in fact received a reduced net fine for making refunds when not obliged to. See Sky and other news reports.
I did read that in the DOT consent order, which also explains in some detail about BA’s deceptive and unfair practices, so I’m good with my blog as it stands. The fact they were fined a little bit less doesn’t really matter. They still broke the law and were fined.
This wasn’t the first time BA violated US laws and it surely won’t be the last.
> Are the cited delay times you cite on departure or arrival?
Flightstats uses arrival times. Either way, I was still well over the 4 hour threshold.
> BA regularly relies on a case from 1854 – Hadley v Baxendale so right at the cutting edge of aviation law!
Wow! That’s crazy
…BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment…
Reduce the schedule to appropriate reliability levels then.
Quite. Or, take out short term aircraft leases so you can get through this rough patch without screwing over your customers
You were protected by UK/EU law here – BA should have offered you a reroute, on another carrier if they couldn’t find you a seat on one of their own flights. Unfortunately they tend not to inform people of this right (another breach of legislation) so it’s up to passengers to insist on this or make their own arrangements and claim against BA later.
…BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment…
Reduce the schedule to appropriate reliability levels then.
Quite. Or, take out short term aircraft leases so you can get through this rough patch without screwing over your customers
You think that any airline can just rustle up spare aircraft and flight and cabin crew at the drop of a hat?
Because they can’t.
You were protected by UK/EU law here – BA should have offered you a reroute, on another carrier if they couldn’t find you a seat on one of their own flights. Unfortunately they tend not to inform people of this right (another breach of legislation) so it’s up to passengers to insist on this or make their own arrangements and claim against BA later.
This is what the OP says he has done, but BA won’t pay for the LAS-SFO flight. UK261 doesn’t really provide the help you suggest for people to make their own arrangements to travel to a different point of departure and recover the money, so BA systematically denies this specific category of claim.
In respect of not informing passengers of their rights, BA will say that the link in cancellation emails constitutes notice and, in any event, there is no sanction for not doing so; I’m not sure if there is in any EU country.
It was a general pointer towards the legislation, I wasn’t referring to changing departure airports. OP shouldn’t have had to travel to SFO in the first place if there had been a seat available on any airline out of LAS on the day he needed to travel, which is the issue here. It reads as though he was unaware of re-routing rights.
It was a general pointer towards the legislation, I wasn’t referring to changing departure airports. OP shouldn’t have had to travel to SFO in the first place if there had been a seat available on any airline out of LAS on the day he needed to travel, which is the issue here. It reads as though he was unaware of re-routing rights.
Yes, I was unaware, and trying to finish up my last day of work before going on the trip, so I didn’t have time to look into it all then. Thanks to everyone here for your guidance. I will pursue this.
…BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment…
Reduce the schedule to appropriate reliability levels then.
Quite. Or, take out short term aircraft leases so you can get through this rough patch without screwing over your customers
You think that any airline can just rustle up spare aircraft and flight and cabin crew at the drop of a hat?
Because they can’t.
I understand that, but this isn’t a one off situation. BA seems to be having systemic issues. So it would seem reasonable that they have an increase in the number of planes in reserve until they’re over this hump.
…BA are having a number of issues with planes going tech at the moment…
Reduce the schedule to appropriate reliability levels then.
Quite. Or, take out short term aircraft leases so you can get through this rough patch without screwing over your customers
You think that any airline can just rustle up spare aircraft and flight and cabin crew at the drop of a hat?
Because they can’t.
I understand that, but this isn’t a one off situation. BA seems to be having systemic issues. So it would seem reasonable that they have an increase in the number of planes in reserve until they’re over this hump.
BA care about £££ not someone’s definition of reasonable. They’ll run a timetable to max profit, knowing they’ll have x failure rate. While the consequential loss of x is manageable it’s all good as they see it. They’re both protecting slots and hoping for the best in regard aircraft and crew availability.
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