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Morning all. My in-laws are due to fly MAN-LHR-BDA today but have just found out all MAN flights are cancelled. They have opted not to present themselves at MAN but just get a taxi directly to LHR. I have told them to contact BA by any means possible (though apparently phone lines seem to have crashed just now!) and make sure they are re-ticketed from LHR-BDA. Hopefully BA staff can assist with this at LHR if they can’t sort it out en route? Is there anything else they need to do? They’re aware there are also issues with strikes at LHR. MIL has mobility issues and this will be causing them a lot of stress. Flight is 1550 so hopefully they will make it, but if not I’ve told them just to book into the Sofitel and try to get BA to move them to tomorrow’s flight.
TIA!Should be fine but they need to speak to BA to get it reticketed of course. The phones will be busy , get ready for a 7:59am call and keep trying.
Heathrow busy this morning as you would expect
Do they have the BA app? Can they log into MMB and see if they’ve been automatically on any other flight from MAN?
I definitely agree calling BA is a priority as unfortunately that is what they will be doing at LHR since there are no ticketing staff at LHR. The risk is that they might be marked as a no show on the MAN-LHR flight (if they’ve been rebooked) which might result in the entire booking being cancelled.
The reason for the flight cancellation is more than likely down to the IT meltdown at BA yesterday which resulted in a lot of flights were cancelled.
As others have said, getting hold of BA is a priority and, if it’s a cash ticket, can be done before 8am or probably better trying another office. The issue is that with on the day auto rebookings, they are usually ‘hard’ changes rather than the ones offered weeks or months ahead, so if they have moved to tomorrow, needs action. Hope they make it today!
Their course of action in just getting to LHR is right IMI, no point trying to go to MAN or sort out before departure what they can do at LHR. I don’t see a problem with them re-issuing tickets there if need be but agree they should still keep trying BA on the way. Also drop emails, messages etc in the meantime so there’s a ‘paper’ trail if required later. Why all the cancellations, IT again?
Thanks – all MAN flights are cancelled until much later today which would be too late for their connection. Yes, the IT issue seems to be spilling over into today and as usual it’s the domestic connections which are taking the brunt of the cancellations.
They are not very tech-savvy and probably don’t know how to navigate their way around MMB! Unfortunately they had already ordered a taxi by the time we spoke to them and not wanting to follow my suggestion of going to MAN and asking the ground staff there to help them.
Not the best week to travel anyway given it’s the start of half term and a bank holiday weekend. Just hope the traffic isn’t too bad getting to LHR 😬@NorthernLass somebody has just posted on FT about this same issue (they’re travelling MAN-LHR-LAS) and they phoned BA who happily confirmed their onward flight from LHR is OK and that they were OK to miss the MAN-LHR segment.
So definitely get your in-laws to call BA on their way to LHR to tell BA what they’re doing.
By the way BA can also simply rebook them on to LNER or services from ABZ, EDI, NCL.
Also remind them to get a receipt from the taxi Co and claim afterwards for the cost.
Good luck to them.
Thanks, yes, told them to keep all receipts – in the event they don’t make the connection for whatever reason they’ll need a hotel and food.
That’s good about the onward flight but I wouldn’t rely 100% on BA to be correct on this – the same thing happened to us a few years ago, BA told us we were fine for our connection and sent us to LHR in a taxi. When we got to LHR we had been flagged as no-show and nearly missed our connection getting reticketed.
They (or you if you’ve time, don’t mention you aren’t the passenger and have their email, passport numbers, last 4 digits of payment card etc so you can pass security) should keep trying the phones so it can be reticketed before they get to the airport . Ticketing support at LHR is limited so may end up in a big queue!
I have seen Menzies check in agents at MAN get on looooong phone calls with BA Central Command on behalf of specific passengers requiring re-ticketing. (Very noticeable as the other agents are terrible at evening out queue flow when one desk agent is out of action on the phone)
However presumably if all flights cancelled till later then Menzies won’t even be present at the BA desks in T3.
Hopefully they get to LHR without much drama and are sorted suitably.
Thanks @SamG, hopefully they will be arriving at LHR very shortly so we’ll be getting an update about the situation!
Hopefully the in-laws are ok at LHR now Anna, but was thinking the
reconfirmation could be done on the chat line as no cash involved¿
Sending +ve vibes!Thanks all – crisis over for now! They are at LHR and going to make the flight – although there was a 2 hour queue for bag drop and when they got to the desk they were told their LHR-BDA flight had been cancelled and they had been rebooked tomorrow MAN-INV-LHR-BDA (you couldn’t make this up). Fortunately, they were rebooked onto their original flight although they lost the seats they had pre-booked. Another thing to claim back!
@BWS – MAN ground staff have always been brilliant with us when we’ve had BA problems, I would always go there first to try and resolve any issues!
Resurrecting this as in-laws returned this morning at 8am and missed their MAN connection due to their BDA-LHR being delayed by about 2 hours. They were told that this was because the inbound flight was affected by bad weather at LHR. I seem to recall that unless the weather affected the airport they were actually flying from (i.e. BDA), they would still be eligible for delay compo? I think in this case they would really deserve it – they are not up to getting a train to MAN so their only option has been to accept seats on the next available flight which is at 2105, no doubt at least partly due to BA cutting so many regional services.
They’ve been given access to the North lounge as well so they can at least freshen up, though this may be because BA thought it was a cheaper option than refunding 10 hours’ worth of restaurant bills!
They also said transfer time from T3 to T5 is about 3 hours at the moment! I don’t know where they would stand if they had had missed the MAN connection due to this? It was all on one booking so presumably BA thought their original transfer time was sufficient?
Resurrecting this as in-laws returned this morning at 8am and missed their MAN connection due to their BDA-LHR being delayed by about 2 hours. They were told that this was because the inbound flight was affected by bad weather at LHR. I seem to recall that unless the weather affected the airport they were actually flying from (i.e. BDA), they would still be eligible for delay compo? I think in this case they would really deserve it – they are not up to getting a train to MAN so their only option has been to accept seats on the next available flight which is at 2105, no doubt at least partly due to BA cutting so many regional services.
They also said transfer time from T3 to T5 is about 3 hours at the moment! I don’t know where they would stand if they had had missed the MAN connection due to this? It was all on one booking so presumably BA thought their original transfer time was sufficient?
Gosh! They’re probably better off getting the HEx or Elizabeth line from T3 to T5?
They said it was mostly due to passport and security queues – presume they meant that from arriving into T3 to getting through security at T5 was 3 hours, I should have been clearer!
Ah I see, still painful!
I’d put a claim in for compo, but suspect it’ll be a fight. But you never know with BA, sometimes the most obvious claims are a fight and viceversa…
@NorthernLass I hope they get back ok; not ideal after an overnight flight to spend a day at LHR.
The issue re weather is rather case specific. In theory, an airline can claim ‘extraordinary circumstances’ three rotations back (WZ v Austrian Airlines (the fifth question)), so the weather could be anywhere. That’s the principle established by the CJEU, but it’s subject to interpretation by local courts, considering exactly why the aircraft suffered earlier delays.
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