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

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• PhilM says:

  14 Oct14 October 14:39

  On chat, just been told that Qatar don’t have Business class *facepalm* I was just chancing my luck saying that as Qatar don’t have PE I’d take it if they upgrade me…
  And they’re not currently wanting to reroute me via SIN either *shrug*
  Still, no rush, I’ll wait a few more days and try again.

  • Numpty says:

    14 Oct14 October 14:52

    yes, there are different levels of trained staff (being polite – ‘its a training issue’). First online chat, the advisor said there was no availability 1 week either side of my original date, i then pointed out the route was cancelled and they never responded again!

    I went straight back online and the next advisor was straight on the ball, I gave them the BA codeshare flight numbers for the QR flights and they booked straight away.

    For those of you rebooked on QR to LHR enjoy the caviar service (!), not available on the EDI route (yet).

    If anyone wants seat selection you will likely need to do it via the QR website.

    • Dana says:

      14 Oct14 October 15:28

      I am still being told I cannot rebook on QR. And that the long-awaited policy is not available yet. Confused as to why some people have been able to booked on QR.

      • Numpty says:

        14 Oct14 October 16:52

        Sorry to hear that, my first attempt got the ‘fly from Singapore’ response but the advisor suggested i hold off for a few days until the rebooking policy was sorted. They wouldn’t even offer SIN to EDI, only SIN to LHR (!).

        I did online chat today whilst back at work and let it run in the background (it was slow). I pushed it today rather than wait – as a just in case – as i prefer to use QR and transfer in Doha as opposed to using Malaysian (when policy is sorted) and transferring in LHR.

• Helena says:

  14 Oct14 October 15:32

  Also coming up against “you were booked as a redemption ticket, so your rebooking options are limited”. Does anyone have any ammunition to refute this given the experiences of others in the comments?

  • marks7389 says:

    14 Oct14 October 17:06

    The relevant line in UK261 is “re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to (my) final destination at the earliest opportunity”, i.e. same booking class and, given the wide range of options available, without delaying your arrival or at least no more than is necessary given any constraints you may have around an earlier departure. The method of payment is irrelevant to that obligation.

    • JDB says:

      15 Oct15 October 00:35

      @marks7839 – there is actually an element of truth in what BA says. While the regulations don’t allow any distinction between revenue and reward tickets, that applies to the original airline, but the airline potentially accepting the rerouted passenger can lawfully distinguish between the two, so may not make space available to non-revenue passengers without a special arrangement being in place. There is so much more to the rules than what is simply written in the twenty year old legislation.

      • meta says:

        15 Oct15 October 10:55

        Yes, other airlines don’t have to make any tickets available to BA if they do not wish to. BA is also welcome to purchase tickets at full price on the market to meet their legal obligation. They did this for me on more than one occasion on short-haul a decade or so ago.

• Andy says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:00

  will leave my 2 cents here:

  We had 241 tickets as well LHR to KL with Gold status. Lady was very helpful but I did have to tell her exactly what I wanted. Like other mentioned here she initially said there was only 1 flight available to which I pressed and she “magically” found 3 more options.

  We ended up with a sweet deal as we were able to tag another connecting flight we had, which we can now cancel and get our avios/money back.

  Overall satisfied as we will be able to fly a superior product and cabin with Qatars Q-suite.

  • marks7389 says:

    14 Oct14 October 16:57

    Out of interest where was the tag to?

    • Andy says:

      14 Oct14 October 21:42

      We originally had a AGP to LHR then the 241 voucher to KL. I asked if we could start from AGP and the lady said yes, worked out well as I can now save those avios and a few quid.

      Will most likely hold on to the AGP/LHR for a while until the dust settles.

      • Lady London says:

        14 Oct14 October 23:22

        Good one Andy. Though not sure how you did it as isn’t AGP quite a bit more than 300 miles away?

• Phloxy55 says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:29

  Posting my experience, as having other peoples accounts was incredibly useful for me persevering!

  I’d been planning on waiting to rebook my 241 business LHR-KUL in March direct with Malaysia, but seeing the number of people reporting successful rebooking via Qatar, decided to try my luck. First attempt was via the web chat, told that there was “only 1 reward seat available”. On pressing further, offered the option of being downgraded to economy or flown to SIN instead.

  Called up and explained “I’m trying to rebook with Qatar, tried via the web chat with no luck, but from reports online BA are definitely offering Qatar rebookings”. Initial reaction was that it would definitely not be possible, but they could double check. The agent put me on hold for 5 minutes and came back saying they’d confirmed rebooking was possible, and offering me a choice of all 3 QR flights out of Heathrow and Gatwick that morning. Now booked Q-suite both legs, with an extra day in KL as we’ll arrive in the morning. Pretty happy with that as a result, but don’t think I’d have kept trying without the experience of everyone else backing me up.

• tomahawk says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:39

  Another point for those who may be in the same position – we were booked on 2for1 business class in January. On Friday as soon as I saw this article I called and got rebooked to Singapore with BA before they were prepared to offer Qatar to KL (or at least they didn’t offer it to me). I called back today and explained that I have seen extensive media coverage of customers being offered Qatar to KL and they have now rebooked me again onto the Qatar KL flights. This was remarkably easy with no argument etc. So it would appear that the “once you are rebooked thats it” comments are not necessarily true.

  • Muskysman says:

    14 Oct14 October 17:30

    Funny I have tried the same thing this afternoon and BA flatly refuse even to reconsider

    • tomahawk says:

      14 Oct14 October 18:38

      Seems like the luck of the draw as to who you speak to. For the record I called the silver line on 08004080009, then option 3 “anything else”, then option 3 “any other queries” then just say “complaint” and it goes through to “customer service” who were able to do it straight away really

      • tm033 says:

        14 Oct14 October 22:32

        Just wanted to comment to say thank you for this advice @tomahawk!

        We had our return leg KUL – LHR in February cancelled (outbound is to SIN so was unaffected) using an Amex 241 in CW. Rang the Silver line this evening and used the options above, after 15mins on hold was put through to a super helpful agent who switched us to QR in Business with no problems at all. I did research and give him the exact BA codeshare flight numbers that we wanted, but he seemed like he had access to all QR options.

        Worth noting he did say that we were allowed 1 free change because of the cancellation, but if we wanted to change it again it would cost us a change fee.

• Sam says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:48

  After 1 hour and 40 minutes I’ve resolved the problem and am flying business to Singapore with BA – we were just looking for a hub in SE Asia to use for onward travel to Thailand or Malaysia so Singapore works just fine for us. The crucial step is whether the agent has a code to access “commercial availability” otherwise you get stuck with no availability for reward flights ….. a computer says no scenario.
  The agent I spoke to was doing her best but eventually I had to insist that she escalate my concerns and I stuck to my position that I knew BA had a legal responsibility to get me to KL in business class but that I would be happy with Singapore or a BKK.
  Access to commercial availability is the key.

• Wis says:

  14 Oct14 October 18:00

  Curious if anyone else is holding out for the policy to save the aggro with the contact centre & see more options. What’s the rush for others – is it (a) a worry about availability, (b) a genuine preference to go for QR regardless of what other options emerge, or (c) a feeling the eventual policy will be worse than what’s being sourced over the phone (in some cases at least)? Perhaps I’m being too relaxed!

  • Phloxy55 says:

    14 Oct14 October 18:09

    Think for me it’s mostly B and C. I think that Qsuite with a short layover in Qatar represents a genuine upgrade on BA old-style seat, and realising it was up for grabs thought I’d try. In terms of policy firming up, I was worried about the possibility of them saying you have to do BA-SIN or BA-DOH then transfer to MH, as timings of those would have been bad on the date I’m flying.

  • Numpty says:

    14 Oct14 October 18:13

    I expect when a policy is published it will include MAS and QR. For me, flying to EDI, i was keen to get a Doha connection rather than via LHR.

    Also, the flight times are actually better on QR, with an early evening departure (departs KLIA at 1955 versus the MAS flight at 2330) and i get home a good few hours earlier than on original BA booking or what MAS could have been.

• Jenny says:

  14 Oct14 October 18:15

  @Wis – a & b…can I add a (d) too impatient for my own good 😊

  Just as an aside, we had an Air Asia flight booked independently, onward to Langkawi, I logged on to change to an earlier flight and AA had changed our booking ( coincidentally) to aforementioned flight……without advising us!! Ok as it happens, otherwise the last flight of the day which we had originally booked was scrapped completely.
  Every year we do 2 long haul flights, the last 3 have had issues…..we’re getting a caravan!

  • Numpty says:

    14 Oct14 October 18:22

    I seem to have had issues with every legacy carrier booking since covid (BA, TAP, Lufthansa, SIngapore Airlines). Budget carriers have all been ok.

    The ‘best’ one was TAP, outbound flight cancelled and moved a day, the return flight was lined up on the runway for take off, at Lisbon, and then went back to the gate; turns out they had loaded the cargo wrong and the flight was out of trim – i dont dwell on how that take off could have gone!

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