Share your BA shut-down experiences …. and BA adds £16 to Expedia etc bookings

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• Paul Hampton says:

  29 May29 May 06:46

  And so it continues… after a weekend of spending all day at the airport on Saturday and all day yesterday getting rebooked for today, we have woken up to a text from BA cancelling the rebooked connecting flight from MAN > LHR today.

  Words fail me and I am unable to get hold of BA to try to salvage anything.

  Options right now as I see them, after screaming loudly and tearing out my hair are….

  1. Train to Euston, then taxi to Paddington and take Heathrow Express – no guarantee the LHR > NCE leg won’t cancelled

  2. Hire car to LHR – as above and cutting it fine now to arrange and navigate motorways on a Bank Holiday

  3. Rebook for tomorrow and make it a 4 day break instead of 7 – hardly seems worth it

  4. Accept it’s game over

  Any other advice guys?

  • Phil says:

    29 May29 May 07:21

    Taxi to Wilmslow then train to London- apparently this is much quicker

  • Genghis says:

    29 May29 May 07:40

    I wouldn’t rely on BA at the moment. Any LCC options direct to Nice at a price point you’re happy with? If not, I’d look into abandoning your trip (read travel insurance policy then call them up). What a shambles

  • CV3V says:

    29 May29 May 08:24

    Go check out Easyjet, ryanair etc flights from MAN and all other nearish airports, and fly direct. Later, tell BA what you are forced to do, and make sure your inbound flight doesnt get cancelled as a result.

• Paul Hampton says:

  29 May29 May 07:22

  Does anyone know if EU261 still applies, in addition to accepting a full refund if one abandons their trip due to flight being (repeatedly) cancelled?

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    29 May29 May 13:00

    Yes, Refund or Rebook, are totally separate from the compensation aspect which is +3 hours -1 hour reference to your original arrival time.

• Daffy says:

  29 May29 May 07:53

  We booked a ba holiday. (2 seperate holidaymbookings as my daughter and I were flying the day prior to my husband nad son0
  27/5 lhr T5. Taxi to lhr (£50). We were checked onto flight after queueing for 2 hrs. Left luggage in middle of t5 landslide as advised. Through security. Ran to boarding gate and were told we would be delayed by 15 mins. Then 1 hr, then another hour. We sat and waited…after 3+hrs, no one came back. There was a queue snaking round T5 from end to end, we found out that this queue was for everyone that had their flights cancelled and was to exit or rebook. Our flight still showed as delayed boarding. Well, to cut a long story short…iwe were stranded and abandoned. In the 12 hours we were stuck in T5 airside, for 8hrs we only found 5 ba staff…they were checking boarding passes to let people out.
  Not even water was given. We eventually unceremoniously exited onto the street, unable to get our luggage..or any shred of advice. Queued 45mins for a taxi home £50
  Husband was booked to fly ba ex lhr yesterday. Went to airport (taxi £50)to find flight cancelled. Got taxi home.£50.
  Yesterday booked on to Monarch for today. Shopped for replacement holiday items as everything is in cases in T5. All hopefully flying out today for,the remaining 3nights of,our hols!

• Tony says:

  29 May29 May 09:02

  Finally got to BKK today on rebooked Sunday flight. Our luggage was shipped off to external storage facility on Saturday so couldn’t reclaim it from T5 on Sunday morning. Waited at the luggage carousel at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the vague hope that it might have shipped on our flight but no such luck. Went to BA lost luggage and immediately received 2 x £100 prepaid Mastercards under EU compensation rules and informed that we should receive our luggage in next few days. The compo Is most welcome as my wife only has what she’s wearing so she’s off out shopping this evening for enough clothes to last her a couple of days. I got nervous before checking in at T5 on Saturday as matters were obviously heading south and shifted a few changes of clothes into my cabin case. A good lesson for me for the future.

  • Tony says:

    29 May29 May 09:26

    I should also add some of the outlay incurred since Saturday’s flight cancellation. £185 hotel bill for Saturday night, £6 tube fare, £44 dinner, £10 toiletries and £88 taxi fare for return trip to T5 on Sunday morning. Lost over £100 for one night stay at BKK hotel and had to fork out over £80 today for replacement AirAsia flight. Will claim for most of it from BA and the BKK hotel and replacement AirAsia flight from travel insurance. Still a mighty pain having to claim, though.

• Ben says:

  29 May29 May 09:48

  Does anyone know what will happen with a 2-4-1 after flights are cancelled? I would hope for a new one, with the full 2 years, as they’re not easy to use when limited to school holidays.

  • BA2 says:

    29 May29 May 10:04

    You can change flights you don’t want for any time up until the end of November rather than cancel them – this includes cases where 2-4-1 vouchers were used. There doesn’t need to be redemption availability so that’s not a concern. There may be some flexibility over destination (within the same zone) but I don’t know this particular bit for sure. Given the above, you won’t get a new 2-year voucher.

    • Anna says:

      29 May29 May 10:11

      A lot of people won’t be able to do that – if you have to book your leave 12 months in advance and/or can only travel in the school holidays you are pretty much scuppered.

      • Ben says:

        29 May29 May 10:23

        Exactly. We need to stick to school holidays, my wife and I need to book leave well in advance, and we have some other commitments. Takes some planning!

    • Ben says:

      29 May29 May 10:18

      Thanks. The reason I was asking is that while we’d love to simply rebook and go another time, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be able to do it between now and November.

• Rich84 says:

  29 May29 May 11:38

  We flew back from Santiago with BA on Wednesday so fortunately didn’t get caught up in the carnage. We hadn’t flown with BA for quite a long time so wanted to see how flying with them is these days, especially on the 787 Dreamliner. Sorry to say that it wasn’t good, very unfriendly staff and not at all impressed with the seating or space in WT+. So with this current fiasco it will be the last time we ever fly with them, they really need a good shake up, and a CEO who is capable of doing it.

  • Tony says:

    29 May29 May 14:14

    Different strokes for different folks.

    My wife and I flew our first BA long-haul on Sunday, landing today, to BKK, and have to say that I couldn’t find fault. Excellent service, food and, as much maligned as the CW seating arrangement is, I thought it was fine. We were seated in the middle ‘honeymoon’ cubicle and the lie flat bed was comfortable and spacious and the cubicle felt cosy.

    Obviously, we weren’t impressed with the T5 fiasco on Saturday which has left us without our luggage and a missed day of holiday. But we’ve already received 200 quid compo for the luggage debacle, so that’s a start, to be followed by a further compo claim on our return.

    Unfortunately, my wife is threatening never to fly BA long-haul ever again. I’ll let the dust settle on that one particularly as I have quite a pot of Avios to spend.

    • Nony says:

      29 May29 May 14:40

      Thats because she was left with no smalls. No lady generally accepts such a circumstance gracefully. Well, none that I know of unfortunately!

      • Tony says:

        29 May29 May 15:54

        True, Nony, but a little bit more to it than just a lack of undercrackers. Two hours queuing up to check in only to sit in the lounge for an hour and then have to leave the terminal, which was no easy feat. Then to find an available hotel and subsequent hour long trek into London and then up at 4am on Sunday for return trip to T5.

        I know what most upset my wife and that was the uncertainty of the if and when we would of got to BKK. Fortunately my perseverance saved the day and we only lost a day.

        Our twice annual holidays are months in the planning and my wife reasonably expects a seamless trip to see her mum and I don’t really blame her subsequent reaction to BA. Like I said, I’ll let the dust settle and reckon she’ll soften her stance in the coming months.

• Optimus Prime says:

  29 May29 May 16:05

  Fying to LHR with Iberia tomorrow. Should I bring only carry-on?

  Are people landing at LHR having problems to recover their bags or only those flying out of there?

• Tom says:

  29 May29 May 16:25

  O/T but BA related…

  We booked LHR to JFK return in WT+, and were upgraded to Club on the outbound flight. Are we entitled to Avios & Tier Points at Club rate, rather than WT+? I feel I’ve read on here previously that you should get points for the cabin you actually fly in. Have only been awarded the points at WT+ rate at this stage; is it worth contacting BA (whether I’ll get anywhere in the current climate is a different point)

  • Genghis says:

    29 May29 May 16:39

    You get the avios and TPs you paid cash for. If upgrade was free then you get WT+ TPs. If UuA you get WT+ TPs. If POUG or AUP you get CW TPs.

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