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

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• Wade says:

  14 Oct14 October 18:15

  Thanks to everyone who’s commented their experiences above, unfortunately mine has been on the unsuccessful side this evening.

  Booked Premium Economy through a BAH booking for 16th – 24th November.

  Spent an hour between Silver BAEC line and BAH line. Spoke to a very kind advisor who initially offered me routing through Singapore before swiftly correcting the record and saying I’d have to fund my own onward travel and claim back from customer services from SIN – KUL as there is still “no agreement in place with Malaysia Airlines.”

  Then spoke with a supervisor who was considerably less helpful and more on the side of “I’ve had enough and computer says no”. Despite repeatedly stating UK261 regarding comparable travel class and getting me to my desired destination, the answer was still the same: accept a downgrade on QR or don’t go, that’s all we can offer.

  Have kept things as is at the moment given no suitable (and legal) solution. We try again tomorrow!

• Numpty says:

  14 Oct14 October 18:29

  Some advice for the KL business passengers based on recent flights. The KLIA train between terminals is out of service as at end of life (but allegedly its a contract dispute), and it’s a bus service from the satellite terminal to the main terminal. For business pax it’s a bus with some funky recliner seats, but it leaves from a specific gate so watch out for the signs and dont follow the masses. On departure the check in agent should tell you the specific gate to go, they’ve even made an attempt at making it look like a mini lounge should you need to wait for the bus.

  Also as long as you register in advance you get to use the egates on arrivals and departure. On arrival they are to the far right, and easy to miss. If you use the egate on arrival then you need to use it on departure.

  • NL says:

    14 Oct14 October 21:38

    Just to clarify, “The KLIA train between terminals” is the ‘Aerotrain’ transit to/from the ‘C Gates’ – not to be confused with the (KLIA Transit) operating between KLIA 1 and KLIA 2 (LCC Terminal) costing MYR2 – there’s also a 24/7 free bus transfer.
    The First and Business Class aerotrain replacement bus transfer bus operates from Gate G1 with a ‘mini-lounge’ waiting area for the dedicated low density coach complete with reclining seats to make your 5 min ride that bit more comfortable.

  • David Hughes says:

    15 Oct15 October 09:37

    If your lucky and there,s only a few of you they may take you in private transfer cars (brand new BMW i7s) between the terminals, was a great little bonus on a RJ ex CAI ticket we had this year!

    • Numpty says:

      15 Oct15 October 10:03

      I saw those BMWs a few months ago and wondered who they were for, i was guessing it was for First class pax, VIPs or datuks similar to what LH do for First pax. Not a bad way to get to the aircraft!

      • Rob says:

        15 Oct15 October 10:11

        I had a car in Vienna the other week when my inbound flight was running late. Because I was heading back to London we had to divert via a private passport control channel before I was bundled back in the car and we continued to my flight.

• sloth says:

  14 Oct14 October 18:34

  Adding my experience in case it helps…my gf was flying MNL to LHR via KUL in Jan so with the KUL to LHR obviously canx, I managed to get them to re route her on Qatar MNL to LHR via DOH. which was better for her. This was on chat which took an age and as others have mentioned I was very specific with what I wanted, dates/times/carrier etc and despite the guy initially saying he couldn’t find the specific flights we wanted, he magically found them when I complained about the length of the the whole thing was taking…(I was on chat for over an hour and he was clearly operating several chats once as twice he put comments in my chat which weren’t meant for me)

  when we phoned yesterday asking the same route the guy was not helpful hence chatting today. Plsd with the eventual outcome but they make it way harder than it should be

  *rerouted in ticket class K

• Ron says:

  14 Oct14 October 19:10

  Booked EDI – KUL in business class using Barclays upgrade voucher. This morning phoned the number at the bottom of the cancellation email. Got through in 5 mins and offered QR straight away via Doha. So getting a better airline and arrive in KL 8 hours earlier than originally so couldn’t be happier with the service.

• Just Nick says:

  14 Oct14 October 19:48

  Hi all. Just an update. I was originally told I could only be flown to Singapore and would have to pay for onward transport to KL and try to claim in back ( the agent said this may not be guaranteed though). I then booked economy flights which were a total of £425. The challenge was I would have to enter Singapore and then check in for the onward flight. This would be quite painful. Following people’s stories here, I rang BA tonight and I have now been booked all the way to KL in business class via Singapore. It is on one ticket so bags are checked through and I can stay airside (I hope). The only kicker is that I can only get a refund of £124 on the economy tickets so the whole debacle has cost me £300. Bit of a pain but at least our holiday is still on. It does look like BA agents are hit and miss on what they will do but if you keep trying, eventually they will get the result you are legally entitled too.

  • Wis says:

    14 Oct14 October 19:52

    Thanks @JustNick is the connection on MH or SQ?

    • Just Nick says:

      14 Oct14 October 19:54

      The KL/singapore flights are with Malaysian.

      • Wade says:

        14 Oct14 October 19:58

        This is a great result but it’s so frustrating! I’ve just been trying on chat to get this outcome and they came right back with “you’ve already called today there’s no change in what we’ve told you”

        • Wis says:

          14 Oct14 October 20:08

          Judging by some of the responses being given, BA is giving a masterclass on poor customer service. Worse it would appear than Virgin’s cancellation of PVG.

  • meta says:

    14 Oct14 October 21:47

    It’s bad advice and customer service by BA, but you shouldn’t have forked out for tickets. Could you not cancel them under 24 hours rule?

    In any case, I’d try and claim what you can’t recover from BA anyway. Just make sure you have the details of the bad CS advice.

  • Paul says:

    14 Oct14 October 22:34

    I simply can’t understand why you paid for flights when BA are legally required to get you to you final destination. The near 500 comments on this thread are full of advice to sit it out, HUACA if necessary but it will be a week before the policy is agreed, rolled and understood by minimum wage agents scattered across the globe.
    I have personal experience of BA lying and refusing to full-fill their EU 261 obligations on numerous calls but in the end they know they must and I got the result I needed in the end.
    It’s a mess because BA internal comms are as bad as their IT.

  • Lady London says:

    14 Oct14 October 23:04

    ” I was told I could only be flown to Singapore and would have to pay for onward transport to KL ”

    For this, alone, that we’re hearing again and again is BA’s refusal to transport passengers to Kuala Lumput after BA made a commercial decision to csncel the booked passengers’ flights, which is a flagrant routine dwnial of passengers’ statutory rights…

    For this alone BA should be punished.

    And for all we know, the CAA sits idly by and apparently does nothing.

    Are people recording these calls or keeping Chat screenshots or transcripts? Could we interest the Competition and Markets Authority in disciplining BA and making it cost BA enough to do this, for them to stop?

    • Paul says:

      14 Oct14 October 23:06

      Absolutely!

  • Lady London says:

    14 Oct14 October 23:17

    I think @JDB would say you would be basing a claim against BA for your loss on the tickets you purchased, on something called estoppel about which he’s usually quite wary but hopefully he might give a view.

    I’d also think about calling it misrepresentation and failure tpninform you of your rights (also required under the statute), although actively misinforming you of your rights sounds more to be what BA is doing in so many of these reports.

    If you’ve got recordings or even timed and dated notes that yoi made during or immediately after the call, I’d definitely clsim off BA though – and you could always calll them asap, give date and approximste time of the call and simply request a copy of the recording of the call under your Data Subject Access Rights.

    However if ypu’re still witjin 24 hrs yoi should be ablevto cancel and avoid all this if your other ticket was bought via BA – should work online you may not need to call

    • JDB says:

      15 Oct15 October 00:50

      @Lady London – BA is allowed to fly a passenger just to Singapore with their agreement per Article 8.3. My experience of reading transcripts of these sorts of calls shows a world of difference between the actuality vs what the passenger said they said and what the passenger says the BA agent said. Passengers unwittingly/intentionally agree to all sorts of things, probably because they are flustered and stressed by the whole thing.

      Personally I think people’s time is better spent resolving their individual travel plans rather than ranting about BA which gets nobody anywhere.

      • JDB says:

        15 Oct15 October 01:05

        @Lady London – in the OP’s case above, it would be quite difficult to pin the loss of £125 on BA because someone jumped the gun and unnecessarily booked some tickets in a panic. After thinking about it, they then got rebooked all the way to KL so I think BA’s apparent initial refusal isn’t going to count for much.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Oct15 October 09:45

          I’d be pursuing BA for the £300 loss JDB! I take your point about potential inaccuracies but that’s why keeping immediate notes and ideallybtryi g to exercisevrights to get the recording are important.

        • meta says:

          15 Oct15 October 10:45

          CAA hasn’t got the power to look at individual cases. CMA might have some power, but again there is no penalty under UK261. The only thing they can do is force BA to look at previous cases and act as per UK261 on them, but no extra penalty or compensation.

          The problem with BA is that they take old colonial approach of divide and rule. They have found a really good balance between following the law and not following the law. This is clearly evident from the comments and cases here. Keep just enough customers happy so that CAA/CMA can’t look into it.

• Jonathan says:

  14 Oct14 October 22:21

  I have 241 bookings on a flight that I am currently trying to get rebooked. My sister has a paid for flight through a 3rd party online only travel company on the same flight that she booked seperately. would she be able to contact BA direct to get on our flights or is there a different process?

  • Paul says:

    14 Oct14 October 22:28

    No, must be via the agent. My advice is give it till next week by which time BA should have a consistent policy and communicated that to the market/agents. Another example of why you should only book direct with the airline.

    • Jonathan says:

      14 Oct14 October 22:35

      Completely agree, she probably saved a few pounds and now is very anxious about what she will get from BA having booked 3rd party

      I have been offered a QR alternative but really want Malaysian. But Im travelling with a 2 and 1 year old so also feel like accepting QR just so I have something. Do you think they will allow me to change once I’ve chosen?

      • Lady London says:

        14 Oct14 October 23:05

        No. one time only.

        • tomahawk says:

          15 Oct15 October 09:26

          Not strictly true Lady London (see my post yesterday afternoon), but appreciate all this is highly dependent on who you manage to speak to.

      • Numpty says:

        15 Oct15 October 10:31

        I think the booking rules only allow for one reroute. Anything more than that would be at the discretion of the advisor.

        • meta says:

          15 Oct15 October 10:50

          Legally, you are only allowed one change. What they did for you @tomahawk was their goodwill. You stumbled upon a good agent. Don’t count on it in the future.

• Yorkshire rich says:

  14 Oct14 October 23:31

  Tonight, I got straight through so thought I”d give it a go. The agent gave me a reason why it was cancelled and explained after the maintenance of the aircraft it was to do with low volume of passengers in the all route. I’d not heard that one before.

  He told me I can only go on Qatar if there was availability. I told him I had found some from penang but then he said “oh it has to be like for like and from KL”. I did tell him I found that the like for like comment amusing as he kept telling on more than one occasion that it was 300 mile as this was condition of carriage.

  What I found interesting was that he disputed my claim that the previous 2 agents had offered me singapore airlines in premium economy from Singapore to Heathrow. He tried to tell me that I had made a mistake as it would have been BA as Singapore Airlines is not part of one world.

  Anyway I thanked him for his time and gave up for another night. I only wasted 8 minutes so wasn’t too fussed.

  • JDB says:

    15 Oct15 October 01:09

    When referring to the issues with the aircraft / low passenger volumes, I think that what the agent meant was that it was the 787 routes with the least demand BA chose to suspend to reflect the shortage of available aircraft.

• 787driver says:

  15 Oct15 October 08:46

  Been on an online chat and offered Qatar but not Malaysian.
  The agent stated there was no policy in place to put me on Malaysian.
  Have said I will wait a few more days.

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