British Airways has blamed a “technical issue” for disruption to its flights around the world, but said it expected to operate virtually a full schedule on Thursday.
Some long-haul flights into the UK’s two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, were cancelled or severely delayed overnight and the airline said there would be knock-on effects, including further delays.
About 45 flights due to land at Heathrow were delayed by more than 45 minutes by 9am. The longest delay was flight BA170 from Pittsburgh, US, which was expected to arrive more than 12 hours late. Passengers on some cancelled flights, including from Mexico and Japan, were set to arrive more than 24 hours behind schedule.
BA said it was working hard to resolve an unspecified “technical issue” affecting inbound long-haul flights and that it had rebooked customers on alternative flights with hotel accommodation for those unable to continue their journeys
A BA spokesman said later on Thursday morning: “We plan to operate a full flight schedule today.
My flight to Europe is cancelled. All I’m being offered is an alternative flight or vouchers. Is this legal?
No. But that hasn’t stopped a number of airlines doing exactly that. All flights on EU carriers within, or into the EU, and all flights leaving from an EU airport, are protected by the EU’s “denied boarding” rules, which require a full refund in seven days when flights are cancelled.
The problem for consumers is that enforcing these rights is proving very difficult. After initially promising to refund passengers within 20 working days, Ryanair has now said passengers should accept vouchers valid for 12 months, or wait until the Covid-19 pandemic is over for a refund.
Refunds at British Airways are only being processed by customer services which, of course, is impossible to contact. easyJet, initially only offered refunds through customer services but now has a web portal to request refunds.
Note: the EU cancellation rules do not apply to non-EU carriers where the flight started outside the EU – for example, a Korean Air flight from Seoul to London.
In the face of a no-refund policy, what should I do?
Taking the offer of replacement vouchers in the current climate is highly risky given the airline may not be around in six months. While some will be happy to accept vouchers, many will not.
Coby Benson of the specialist flight compensation lawyers, Bott and Co, advises passengers to submit their refund request in writing, using the following text:
I understand that my flight [fight number] on [flight date] has been cancelled and I therefore request a full refund pursuant to articles 5(1)(a) and 8(1)(a) of EC Regulation No.261/2004. You are reminded that the refund must be made within seven days. For the avoidance of doubt, I do not accept a travel voucher.
If the airline does not respond or does not agree then the passenger can either issue court proceedings or use Alternative Dispute Resolution.
If your flight cost more than £100 and was booked using a credit card, you can hold the card provider jointly liable. When things calm down we suspect many passengers will be forced down this route.
My flight operated as scheduled but I was unable to go on it. What then?
The fact that the government advised against all but essential travel means travel insurance policies should pay foreign trip cancellation claims provided you bought your policy before the pandemic was declared on 11 March.
Miles Brignall
“There may be some knock-on delays to flights and we are advising customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information.
“We are sorry for the disruption to customers who have been affected.”
It is the latest in a series of systems failures to hit the airline in recent months. In August, an IT glitch led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights and disrupted the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers.
BA’s system resilience has been the focus of particular scrutiny since a major incident in May 2017, in which all flights from its major London airports were cancelled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers. A power outage caused by an engineer overriding the electrical failsafe was blamed by executives.
