Computer outage causing delays for BA worldwide
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We get away with problems in the metals industry by declaring "force majeure", but this would not go down well with thousands of angry passengers......
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Surely it was the Russians!.
TheRealTMA
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BA @ LHR is a total disaster...
On arrival at 0600 it looked like a disaster relief centre with thin foam mats on the floor and people sleeping everywhere.
Attempting to check in was a farce: flight cancelled just before I went to drop by bags. Told to join a massive queue to get reticketed as check could not do this at 1st check in. No special queue for premium pax or FF.
After 2 1/2 hours we had the first PA announcement: 'passengers checking in should go to zone G. Passengers rebooking should queue in zone C'. at 0600 there was a massive queue in zone D and a large overflow filling half of zone C. By 0900 there was overflow beyond zone C opp QF first check in. No information whatsoever about why or what or how long or alternative means to cancel or rebook.
After 2+ hours a man came by with a dozen small water bottles: good luck to those who got them. A bit more water appeared later. No food in sight (despite EU regs) for hours. After midday some soggy Pret a Manger sandwiches appeared in a corner but not handed out: if you did not know they were there and could not tackle to scrum in the queues to get there then bad luck: no food. The BBC reports were wrong. A slab of water bottles was literally chucked on the floor in the 1st waiting area.
6 1/2 hours after joining the queue we had the 2nd PA announcement: 'due to the IT issues yesterday we are closing rebooking for the rest of the day and no more flights will be rebooked. You will be given a piece of paper with information as to what to do. You must then leave the airport immediately'. The previously resigned but reasonably cheerful crowds became very angry and it felt like a riot might erupt. In the end police turned up such was the tension and anger. Would-be pax were rightly furious at the way we were treated with contempt and arrogance by BA. One pax whose flight was cancelled on Saturday found out when the pilot walked past from the aircraft and said 'I don't know why you are standing here, you're not going anywhere today'... Others missed weddings, being with very ill family members etc.
Most people were not given any bits of paper and no instructions as to what to do. The rebooking staff picked up their stuff and left. There were 9 rebooking desks but only 3-4 were staffed. Some flights (about half) were leaving and with empty seats as the rebooking queue moved slower than a sick snail.
No managers in sight: and when asking staff who were there they just shrugged. Many were unhelpful and some just did not seem to care: not sure if this was lack of knowledge, fatigue or something else. A small number were really helpful and caring but unable to do anything constructive. One lovely Heathrow employee was very patient and just so embarrassed by the situation.
There was absolutely no help for pax in terms of booking hotels or transport, not even a number to phone or a list of hotels nearby. No information on our rights was handed out either...
The phone number for rebooking was answered (surprisingly) reasonably quickly but bad luck if your ticket was not issued by BA as the BA policy is to tell those pax to call the issuing agent. Likewise BA were rebooking onto BA only and not other carriers.
Yes, this was a major incident but BA clearly had no plan to handle this. LHR was an omnishambles. Management were not keeping pax informed and not supporting staff. If it really was a power outage then where was the back up power or computers? The rumour here is that this is a deception and the BA IT has been hacked but who knows as the only thing we do really know is that BA are not keeping pax informed or providing any assistance. This is a disgraceful way to treat customers and BA have failed utterly and completely. How a once great airline has crumbled.
On arrival at 0600 it looked like a disaster relief centre with thin foam mats on the floor and people sleeping everywhere.
Attempting to check in was a farce: flight cancelled just before I went to drop by bags. Told to join a massive queue to get reticketed as check could not do this at 1st check in. No special queue for premium pax or FF.
After 2 1/2 hours we had the first PA announcement: 'passengers checking in should go to zone G. Passengers rebooking should queue in zone C'. at 0600 there was a massive queue in zone D and a large overflow filling half of zone C. By 0900 there was overflow beyond zone C opp QF first check in. No information whatsoever about why or what or how long or alternative means to cancel or rebook.
After 2+ hours a man came by with a dozen small water bottles: good luck to those who got them. A bit more water appeared later. No food in sight (despite EU regs) for hours. After midday some soggy Pret a Manger sandwiches appeared in a corner but not handed out: if you did not know they were there and could not tackle to scrum in the queues to get there then bad luck: no food. The BBC reports were wrong. A slab of water bottles was literally chucked on the floor in the 1st waiting area.
6 1/2 hours after joining the queue we had the 2nd PA announcement: 'due to the IT issues yesterday we are closing rebooking for the rest of the day and no more flights will be rebooked. You will be given a piece of paper with information as to what to do. You must then leave the airport immediately'. The previously resigned but reasonably cheerful crowds became very angry and it felt like a riot might erupt. In the end police turned up such was the tension and anger. Would-be pax were rightly furious at the way we were treated with contempt and arrogance by BA. One pax whose flight was cancelled on Saturday found out when the pilot walked past from the aircraft and said 'I don't know why you are standing here, you're not going anywhere today'... Others missed weddings, being with very ill family members etc.
Most people were not given any bits of paper and no instructions as to what to do. The rebooking staff picked up their stuff and left. There were 9 rebooking desks but only 3-4 were staffed. Some flights (about half) were leaving and with empty seats as the rebooking queue moved slower than a sick snail.
No managers in sight: and when asking staff who were there they just shrugged. Many were unhelpful and some just did not seem to care: not sure if this was lack of knowledge, fatigue or something else. A small number were really helpful and caring but unable to do anything constructive. One lovely Heathrow employee was very patient and just so embarrassed by the situation.
There was absolutely no help for pax in terms of booking hotels or transport, not even a number to phone or a list of hotels nearby. No information on our rights was handed out either...
The phone number for rebooking was answered (surprisingly) reasonably quickly but bad luck if your ticket was not issued by BA as the BA policy is to tell those pax to call the issuing agent. Likewise BA were rebooking onto BA only and not other carriers.
Yes, this was a major incident but BA clearly had no plan to handle this. LHR was an omnishambles. Management were not keeping pax informed and not supporting staff. If it really was a power outage then where was the back up power or computers? The rumour here is that this is a deception and the BA IT has been hacked but who knows as the only thing we do really know is that BA are not keeping pax informed or providing any assistance. This is a disgraceful way to treat customers and BA have failed utterly and completely. How a once great airline has crumbled.
BA's CEO's 'apology' is pathetic and totally inadequate...
Absolutely NO assistance given and tough luck if you did not book with BA directly: BA staff tell you that you have to rebook via your travel agent/other airline with whom you booked and, of course, this incurs a rebooking fee... My, and my colleagues/friends' experience with QF-booked other airline flights is one of complete lack of help and obstructiveness.
The total lack of customer support just adds insult to injury.
Absolutely NO assistance given and tough luck if you did not book with BA directly: BA staff tell you that you have to rebook via your travel agent/other airline with whom you booked and, of course, this incurs a rebooking fee... My, and my colleagues/friends' experience with QF-booked other airline flights is one of complete lack of help and obstructiveness.
The total lack of customer support just adds insult to injury.
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Can't believe BA would be stupid enough to claim or admit that "a power supply" was the cause. Must be very poor IT system where in today's world a single power supply could take it all down. We used to pull a power supply out of live servers in the '90s as a party trick to show how resilient they were.
oz_mark
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- Jun 30, 2002
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I imagine that BA support folk are a bit overwhelmed at the moment
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I'm very surprised (staggered) with the lack of communication from BA, even their website is poor on information. After the UA debacle I thought that the airlines would have their PR firms all ready to act in case of problems. But maybe this problem is bigger than they could ever plan for.
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I was on hold for almost an hour yesterday, and then it took another 30 mins to get confirmation that the Dry Vermouth would be loaded for my HKG-LHR flight later this week.
I should never have given Griselda the day off. My experience with BA is the worst I have had in terms of trying to look after customers, meet their legal and contractual obligations (they did not) and trying to put things right. The only thing BA seemed to be doing was media spin.
Heathrow were much better (eg free internet access was not limited to the usual hour and bandwidth was great).
It was risible to read on the BBC that we were being given water and food when we were not.
From the BA website:
We're sorry for the inconvenience caused by your delayed or cancelled flight. We understand how stressful this can be and we will always do our best to prevent this. If we have to make any changes, we'll carefully consider all possible options to minimise the impact to your journey and will only cancel a flight if we absolutely have to.
[h=3]What we'll do to help[/h]
- We'll notify you about any changes to your flight and keep you updated. Please provide us with your contact details so we're able to do this. If you're an Executive Club Member or a registered customer, you can store them for future journeys. We will not use this information for anything else or pass it on to third parties. Not done
- We'll automatically rebook you to the next available British Airways flight. No nothing automatic and not rebooked, even when I called the call centre they told me they could not rebook me and I had to call the ticket issuer
- If the new booking isn't suitable, please see your options for changing your booking. What new booking???
- Depending on the flight distance and the length of the delay*, we will provide refreshments and meals (usually through vouchers) and refund relevant expenses.No... 3 q/2 hours until some water arrived (longer for others) and then about 10% of what was needed. No food until 6+ hours and then a trolley dumped in a corner and no one told. It was awful soggy sandwiches.
- Depending on the length of the delay, we will pay relevant compensation for your delayed or cancelled flight.
*As determined by EU regulations:
- delays of two hours or more for flights of up to 1,500 km
- delays of three hours or more for flights within the EU of more than 1,500 km, and all other flights between 1,500km and 3,500km
- delays of four hours or more for all other flights
pax who were stuck on aircraft had to buy food and water... There has been absolutely no good will extended towards pax. We lost our business class seats and ended up in economy. We were not given a meal and when we and other pax complained we were given a cup of coffee. And yes I am pleased to get to my destination but it realy did not have to be this hard. BA clearly did not have contingency plans to cope with large scale flight cancellations or even adequate IT plans. It makes me wonder about the rest of the airline ops.
Most staff at the coal face were equally in the dark and doing their best. But management just hid.
There is no longer an advantage in flying BA: no food, no water, pay to select seats, minimal seat pitch (29") no care when things go wrong, pax left to fend for themselves. These are all issues we complain about with LCC but then that is what we expect.
I received this "personal" email apology addressing me as customer and sorted to spam as it is a bulk mailout. Spam is where it clearly belongs. Too little too late
Dear Customer,
I know that you were affected by the IT system failure over the weekend and I wanted to contact you personally to apologise.
I am extremely sorry for the significant levels of disruption and inability to communicate quickly; I understand how frustrating this was for you. I assure you we don't underestimate how inconvenient this was and particularly for those customers who missed holidays, special occasions or could not be reunited with their bags.
We have operated a near-normal schedule today but we know we have more work to do and our teams are working hard to support you. We want to offer practical help if you are still experiencing issues caused at the weekend:
Flights – re-booking or cancellation
If you are travelling in the next few days you can check the status of your flight here. If your flight was cancelled as a result of the IT issues you can claim a full refund via our website, call centre or rebook for travel up to the end of November. If you need to rebook your flight please visit ba.com.
Delayed baggage
If you have not received your luggage please do not come to the airport to collect it as we are currently in the process of sorting through the backlog so we can deliver it to you via courier. If you have your baggage file reference you can check the status here. If you need to purchase essential items while you wait on your luggage please do so, keeping any receipts and we will try to reimburse you as quickly as possible. You can make your claim here.
If you are having any problems at all about your delayed luggage please contact our contact centre team
General advice and claims for expenses
Please keep any food, transport and accommodation receipts and you can make a claim for reimbursement through our customer relations teams here.
If you would like additional information about your customer rights and what you can submit a claim for under EU compensation regulation, please click here.
While our teams worked very hard to resolve the issue, the problem continued longer than we expected. The uncertainty that these issues caused and the impact to your travel plans cannot be repeated and we are doing everything we can to put measures in place to avoid this happening again.
I sincerely hope that you will accept my apology.
Kind regards
Alex Cruz
Chairman and CEO
Dear Customer,
I know that you were affected by the IT system failure over the weekend and I wanted to contact you personally to apologise.
I am extremely sorry for the significant levels of disruption and inability to communicate quickly; I understand how frustrating this was for you. I assure you we don't underestimate how inconvenient this was and particularly for those customers who missed holidays, special occasions or could not be reunited with their bags.
We have operated a near-normal schedule today but we know we have more work to do and our teams are working hard to support you. We want to offer practical help if you are still experiencing issues caused at the weekend:
Flights – re-booking or cancellation
If you are travelling in the next few days you can check the status of your flight here. If your flight was cancelled as a result of the IT issues you can claim a full refund via our website, call centre or rebook for travel up to the end of November. If you need to rebook your flight please visit ba.com.
Delayed baggage
If you have not received your luggage please do not come to the airport to collect it as we are currently in the process of sorting through the backlog so we can deliver it to you via courier. If you have your baggage file reference you can check the status here. If you need to purchase essential items while you wait on your luggage please do so, keeping any receipts and we will try to reimburse you as quickly as possible. You can make your claim here.
If you are having any problems at all about your delayed luggage please contact our contact centre team
General advice and claims for expenses
Please keep any food, transport and accommodation receipts and you can make a claim for reimbursement through our customer relations teams here.
If you would like additional information about your customer rights and what you can submit a claim for under EU compensation regulation, please click here.
While our teams worked very hard to resolve the issue, the problem continued longer than we expected. The uncertainty that these issues caused and the impact to your travel plans cannot be repeated and we are doing everything we can to put measures in place to avoid this happening again.
I sincerely hope that you will accept my apology.
Kind regards
Alex Cruz
Chairman and CEO
drron
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No it was obviously that horrible Assange fellow getting back at the Brits for keeping him in the Ecuadorian embassy.
Denali
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Maybe its my inexperience but if this was me, I would just go to the nearest airport hotel available, look after myself and not expect the powers to be to step up.
Sort my own accommodation and food, confirm with insurer if I will be reimbursed with another airline and if the airline tried to downgrade me, wait until a flight with correct cabin is available. Fortunately, I can work anywhere as long as I have wifi but understand this isnt the case for all and/or have kids waiting for them at home.
I think its a situation like this, mass confusion and dis-information, do not expect "someone" to resolve/take care of you in the immediate short term.
Im sorry you got mixed up in this fiasco, sounds incredibly frustrating and upsetting and I hopoe BA/all the airlines learned from it.
docjames
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- Jul 10, 2007
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They wanted to "personally" apologise and then address it to "Dear Customer"?
Epic fail.
Epic fail.
I received this "personal" email apology addressing me as customer and sorted to spam as it is a bulk mailout. Spam is where it clearly belongs. Too little too late
Dear Customer,
I know that you were affected by the IT system failure over the weekend and I wanted to contact you personally to apologise.
I am extremely sorry for the significant levels of disruption and inability to communicate quickly; I understand how frustrating this was for you. I assure you we don't underestimate how inconvenient this was and particularly for those customers who missed holidays, special occasions or could not be reunited with their bags.
We have operated a near-normal schedule today but we know we have more work to do and our teams are working hard to support you. We want to offer practical help if you are still experiencing issues caused at the weekend:
Flights – re-booking or cancellation
If you are travelling in the next few days you can check the status of your flight here. If your flight was cancelled as a result of the IT issues you can claim a full refund via our website, call centre or rebook for travel up to the end of November. If you need to rebook your flight please visit ba.com.
Delayed baggage
If you have not received your luggage please do not come to the airport to collect it as we are currently in the process of sorting through the backlog so we can deliver it to you via courier. If you have your baggage file reference you can check the status here. If you need to purchase essential items while you wait on your luggage please do so, keeping any receipts and we will try to reimburse you as quickly as possible. You can make your claim here.
If you are having any problems at all about your delayed luggage please contact our contact centre team
General advice and claims for expenses
Please keep any food, transport and accommodation receipts and you can make a claim for reimbursement through our customer relations teams here.
If you would like additional information about your customer rights and what you can submit a claim for under EU compensation regulation, please click here.
While our teams worked very hard to resolve the issue, the problem continued longer than we expected. The uncertainty that these issues caused and the impact to your travel plans cannot be repeated and we are doing everything we can to put measures in place to avoid this happening again.
I sincerely hope that you will accept my apology.
Kind regards
Alex Cruz
Chairman and CEO
mrs.dr.ron
Established Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2010
- Posts
- 2,176
IT meltdown that grounded British Airways flights is now a lost luggage crisis
Thousands who checked in bags before flights were cancelled can't find them
And customers have found it impossible to get through to the BA’s call centres
Customers have found it impossible to get through to the BA’s call centres, which are based in Madrid and India.
Thousands missing luggage after computer meltdown at BA | Daily Mail Online
Last edited:
coyote25
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This is when the true culture of an airline gets shown when everything goes wrong.
No one expects responses to be awesome but recovery needs to be quick and hopefully no further issues in the next few years to rebuild trust.
No one expects responses to be awesome but recovery needs to be quick and hopefully no further issues in the next few years to rebuild trust.
docjames
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yeah, problem is BA have been slowly trying to turn themselves into Ryanair......
coyote25
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Good story on the compensation situation backing some most of the comments here:
https://www.ausbt.com.au/how-to-claim-compensation-for-delayed-or-cancelled-ba-flights
https://www.ausbt.com.au/how-to-claim-compensation-for-delayed-or-cancelled-ba-flights
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