Originally Posted by
old,not bold
Much against my better judgement, I booked a BA flight to an EU city 2 years ago, and foolishly accepted a voucher instead of a refund when Covid prevented it.
So, stuck with the voucher, I had to use it to book a flight to the same city next Monday 4th April.. So far, so good.
Or rather, so bad. Going to Manage my Booking I find a message saying;
"Potential service disruption may affect your journey. Please review your options below."
The options are (A) cancel and get a refund. (B) do nothing and just turn up as planned, hoping that it's OK, or (C) rebook on to another flight.
(A) is out of the question; for various reasons we have to go. It's most definitely not a holiday. Other paid-for reservations would be lost, with no refund, ie hotac, transport to the air etc.
(B the information provided is useless; What the hell does "may affect your journey" mean? Will it, or won't it? What's the cause of the "potential" disruption? BA's IT? Massive fleet breakdowns? Strike? Why can't the stupid sods in BA give us the information we need to make a judgement call? What's the risk of not getting a flight if we do just turn up?
(C) Rebook when? Tuesday? Wednesday? When? How do we know? How long will the "potential disruption" last" Who will refund all the money already shelled out irretrievably for transport and hotac? BA? In your dreams.
Does anyone have any insight into why BA is predicting disruption next Monday? Is it severe? unlikely/likely/very likely?
I did call the appropriate number to get the full story and advice from a friendly customer service agent. Ho, ho, ho. Guess what? They're rather busy at the moment, so the final recording on any menu option is "Sorry, we're very busy, Please call again later. bleep, bleep. bleep."
Why does anyone book BA, I wonder. I know, that's what I did. Well, I hope others will benefit from my experience.
Meanwhile, can an insider offer any information as to what the real situation is? Please?
You must not have had a look at the news. Almost all the major airports in the UK are suffering the same. 5-6 just to get through security. At manchester airport on Friday people were jumping the barriers at x-ray to get to their flights. It is absolute chaos right now. No sign of immediate improvement over the next few weeks either.
So I would say a good airline would allow you to cancel for a full refund (for a problem not of their making) or if feasible to rebook for a later date or like they said show up and take your chances.
Also for a sense of balance, on Friday EasyJet cancelled 100 flights due to staff shortages. At the last minute. Would you not prefer an airline to give you some heads up that things aren’t running smoothly and allow you to decide how urgent your trip is?