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EXCLUSIVE: British Airways cancels return to Kuala Lumpur with four weeks notice

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British Airways was due to restart two routes to Asia this winter – Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Bangkok is going ahead, with flights starting on 28th October.

Kuala Lumpur, which was due to launch on 10th November, seems to have hit the buffers.

EDIT: Whilst a few days old, we are keeping this article pinned to the top of the home page because of the amount of discussion in the comments about BA’s ‘issues’ over rerouting passengers.

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

Earlier this afternoon the flights were showing as bookable:

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

…. but five minutes ago it changed to this:

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

No flights are available until 1st April 2025.

Cancelling a route with less than a months notice is clearly not great news for anyone. However, with oneworld partner Malaysia Airlines offering double-daily flights from Heathrow, it should be possible to get most people on a same-day alternative.

Our 2022 review of the Malaysia Airlines service in business class is here.

Qatar Airways is also likely to be an option due to BA’s joint venture agreement. In fact, it is possible that BA tries to push Qatar Airways as its preferred alternative.

Note that it will take BA a few days to hammer out a formal rebooking arrangement with Malaysian. If you call today you will be offered an indirect alternative.

Why have the flights been pulled?

British Airways told us:

We’re disappointed that we’ve had such to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce – particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft.

We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve for their travel plans. We’ve apologised to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines. 

We continue to work closely with Rolls-Royce to ensure the company is aware of the impact its issues are having on our schedule and customers, and seek reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.

In terms of ‘why KL?’, competition is probably part of it. Malaysia Airlines offers a decent product on the route which also allows flyers to earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points.

BA’s shortage of A380 aircraft is also likely to be a factor. As we have covered, the fleet is proving very unreliable.

Kuala Lumpur was scheduled as a daily service on a Boeing 787-9, which was a heavy commitment in terms of aircraft. Pulling what was always going to be a low yield route is a relatively low cost way of building some resilience in the schedule.

Let’s hope the 1st April 2025 date is firm.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (644)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Darren says:
    12 Oct12 October 15:19

    (Not the same Darren)

    If you accept a refund, that’s obviously it. Reroute can work in your favour, maybe a better product with no increase in price.

  • Charlie says:
    12 Oct12 October 15:36

    Was booked on a 241 going out 25th November from EDI. Took about 40 mins this morning to get through on the silver number and agent dealt with in 10 mins – booked onto Qatar flight EDI-DOH-KUL in business with shorter flight time than original bookings both ways. So a good result with similar timings and minimal disruption! I had done the research on google flights for availability first though and knew what to ask for which maybe helped…?!

    • Numpty says:
      12 Oct12 October 16:00

      That’s funny. Instead of KUL to EDI I was offered SIN to LHR! I said I’d leave it a few days.

      • pauline says:
        12 Oct12 October 16:21

        me too – I specifically asked to be routed via doha and was refused this morning

    • JDB says:
      12 Oct12 October 16:51

      Well done! It really helps that you had done the research and fell upon a sensible agent. Some of the more negative posts don’t surprise me for not having got a plan in place.

    • Dana says:
      12 Oct12 October 17:32

      Yesterday when I phoned BA I was told Qatar and Malaysian were options. I phoned just now to change to Qatar and was informed that I was told the wrong thing yesterday and the only options are BA to SIN or full refund. (Mine was a 2-4-1 voucher Club World booking to KL). The agent also said that they are waiting for BA to bring out an official policy, but she didn’t know when this would be. Not sure whether to switch to SIN or wait a few days.

    • BJ says:
      12 Oct12 October 19:59

      And the DOH tramsfers are far simpler and pleasanter than the LHR T5 transfers.

  • cercwc76 says:
    12 Oct12 October 16:16

    Any other phone No. can get through with BA as phone call stop half way due to the high volume of call / busy??

  • Dan says:
    12 Oct12 October 17:15

    After seeing some of the latest posts on here regarding successful rebooking of cancelled KL flights on QR, I tried my luck calling BA.

    My initial booking was using a 2-4-1 voucher in business class.
    British Airways happily offered me QR, but only in economy because “there’s no reward availability in business”. I advised the method of payment is irrelevant and asked her to check with a colleague. I also quoted EU261.

    Advisor came back and said that when I bought my ticket, I agreed to the British Airways conditions of carriage and those trumps any EU regulation. They can get me to Singapore but don’t have a responsibility to get me to KL “as they don’t fly there anymore”
    Silly.

    Will try again tomorrow…

    • Anna L says:
      12 Oct12 October 17:22

      Thanks for this. I’m in the same boat, 241 business class to KUL. Will call them next week helpfully they can get their rebooking guidelines communicated consistently with their staff. Right now it’s like Russian roulette.

    • meta says:
      12 Oct12 October 18:01

      You should have quoted UK regulations and not EU regulations.

    • Richie says:
      12 Oct12 October 18:05

      @Dan BTW this “…Advisor came back and said that when I bought my ticket, I agreed to the British Airways conditions of carriage and those trumps any EU regulation…”
      is absolutely wrong. UK261 is English Law and no Ts & Cs trump it.

    • Jenny says:
      12 Oct12 October 21:58

      Hi Dan, did you try ‘live chat’, I was successful on that service rebooking on QR earlier this evening. Ours was a cash booking in J but you’re right, payment method not relevant.

      • Kai says:
        13 Oct13 October 11:48

        Same as Jenny, I was successful doing it through live chat. Booked on QR on both legs on Qsuite

  • Spencer says:
    12 Oct12 October 18:40

    Can anyone help with this please? If I’m booked on premium economy (via a companion voucher) but am offered a re-routing via Qatar Airlines (or hopefully direct via Malaysian Airlines when BA sorts a deal out), given those airlines don’t have premium economy cabin classes, I guess the best I can hope for is for BA to rebook me on economy on those airlines? In that case, should I expect/ be able to ask BA to refund me the difference between an economy and premium economy fare (the avios and taxes given it was a rewards companion voucher booking)?

    • LittleNick says:
      12 Oct12 October 22:27

      No, the way I see it panning out are: a) BA re-route you to SIN on BA so you get premium economy to SIN and then SIN-KUL on MH economy, so you lose premium economy for a very small portion of the journey and I’m not sure if this would qualify for some sort of compensation but may not be worth the hassle
      b) You are downgraded to economy either on MH or QR, in which case downgrade compensation should apply, this would 75% of what you paid (including whatever points the voucher saved) less actual airport fees and government taxes from the cash element. This is usually more than the difference in avios. So could work out well, someone with more expertise will tell you how you go about claiming this.

      • Spencer says:
        12 Oct12 October 23:38

        Interesting. Are you saying that for the b) option, downgrade compensation is 75% of the TOTAL avios and cash value (not just what I paid but also the 50% avios saved from the companion voucher) but NOT including the fees and taxes of the cash element? Would this compensation be in the form of cash or Avios points? Thank you

        • LittleNick says:
          13 Oct13 October 00:50

          Assuming it’s a companion voucher for just you and you’re travelling solo, and you’ve been downgraded on outbound and return then it would be 75% of the total Avios including the Avios that the voucher saved and whatever the RFS amount is you’ve paid less actual tax/airport charges (so non-BA charges) , 75% of what’s remaining. Often BA will play very hard ball on the Avios for the companion voucher as they say it has no value and you will have a fight on your hands and I’m not best placed to tell you how to go about that, there’s plenty in the forums on people with experience who can offer advice on this

  • C says:
    12 Oct12 October 18:55

    If routed through Doha with two 7 hours journeys, what are people’s sleep pattern like during the journey. Are you more jet lagged because of the transit?

    Would be ideal if routed through with MH direct as it’s just one long nights sleep on the flight.

  • PM says:
    12 Oct12 October 19:04

    It is extremely naive to believe that waiting is the right strategy as BA has legal obligation to do this or that.

    This is an airline that would come up with any excuse under the sun not to process valid claims, would make it very difficult to communicate with and unbearably slow to respond. Even if you take them to court, they will only settle the day of the case.

    It is also naive to believe that while other people are rebooking, snatching last remaining seats, new bookings are coming in, there will suddenly and magically be extra availability later on especially around Xmas/NYE.

  • Kai says:
    12 Oct12 October 19:13

    Just rang up and they lady said the only option is to rebook to Singapore and find my own way to Kuala Lumpur. She added that they are currently in talks with other airlines but given how many people here in the comments section have been successfully booked to QR it just doesn’t seem consistent!

    • Jenny says:
      12 Oct12 October 21:54

      Hi Kai, I used the ‘live chat’ option, prefer to have a transcript of any dealings with BA…rebooked via Doha with QR in J and confirmation came through whilst I was still in the ‘chat’, also checked Executive Club site and all updated there. I did have all the flight numbers/ times that I would be prepared to accept, to hand before I called. The agent also initiated the paid seat selection and knew how much we had paid for this.
      Just to confirm, I clicked on the link provided in the cancellation email from BA, selected the QR flights and when the message came up ‘ ‘we’re sorry but something went wrong’ I then clicked onto ‘agent online’.
      I would have not accepted via Singapore and the agent didn’t offer it!
      Good luck, hope you can get it sorted.

      • Kai says:
        13 Oct13 October 11:52

        Hi Jenny, I did eventually use the live chat option and was successfully booked on QR! My original itinerary was MAN-LHR (BA) then LHR-KUL(BA); they then suggested MAN-LHR (BA), LHR-DOH (BA 777 Club suite), then DOH-KUL (QR). I said I didn’t want to have 2 layovers and the agent then suggested MAN-DOH (QR) and DOH-KUL (QR).

        I agree that we do need to have a preferred itinerary in mind before you speak to them!

        • Kai says:
          13 Oct13 October 11:55

          Just to add – I made sure they didn’t book me on the Business Lite fare. The agent confirmed that I was booked on R class (business classic on QR) and I was able to select Qsuite seats on Qatar Airways website.

      • Jonathan says:
        13 Oct13 October 22:16

        Hi Jenny, I have gone through every option on the cancellation email and I can;t get to an option that either gives me and any alternative options or speak to an agent online. Did everyone get the same email? Thanks in advance

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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