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Original poster

British Airways

14 replies

CossyBunt · 27/03/2023 13:50

Oh my goodness, I'm so frustrated. I cannot get through to them on the phone or even to log into manage my booking online; all day it's been saying they are experiencing technical difficulties.

Does anyone on here work for them? When will the issues be resolved? Time is of the essence.

OP posts:
Muchtoomuchtodo · 27/03/2023 13:54

Try DM them on Twitter

Original poster
CossyBunt · 27/03/2023 14:07

We've got an urgent situation and we need to either move or cancel our flights. Flights cost over £1000 for the 4 of us, just managed to log in to cancel our flights ( as to move them to another date, will cost us an additional £1500) and they have offered us a £150 refund.

Oh my goodness, I feel like my head will explode. We now can't travel on those dates due to long awaited medical appointment for my child. I feel sick

OP posts:
Original poster
CossyBunt · 27/03/2023 14:07

Not due to fly until July, they will sell those seats easily.

OP posts:

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Flying Holidays
OneHundredOtters · 27/03/2023 14:16

Do you have travel insurance?

PoBaFla · 27/03/2023 14:22

Depends how long awaited the appointment is. Travel insurance won't cover if child already had symptoms, will be classed as pre-existing condition.
Can you change the medical appointment OP? If it's just come in then they'll be booking for that month now so you may be able to move it a couple of weeks after holiday

Whiskers4 · 27/03/2023 15:20

Probably lucky, but I needed to phone them a few months ago, and got through straight away around 4pm. When I got through, the lady I spoke to was so helpful - I phoned a few days before travel and at that point didn't care if we weren't sat together, but she found some more expensive seats and let us have those together for same cost as before.

Original poster
CossyBunt · 27/03/2023 15:44

Whiskers4 · 27/03/2023 15:20

Probably lucky, but I needed to phone them a few months ago, and got through straight away around 4pm. When I got through, the lady I spoke to was so helpful - I phoned a few days before travel and at that point didn't care if we weren't sat together, but she found some more expensive seats and let us have those together for same cost as before.

Can you recall what phone number you rang them on please?

OP posts:
YaWeeFurryBastard · 27/03/2023 15:47

Flights are usually non refundable so unfortunately I doubt speaking to someone on the phone will alter the situation. Does your travel insurance cover you?

bumblefeline · 27/03/2023 15:50

Hope you manage to get through, it took multiple attempts for us to get through last week and we were on hold for ages.

We had to change our return flight home for a day earlier and was pleasantly surprised it was only £100 for the four us. They could not have been more helpful.

Knullrufs · 27/03/2023 15:54

I can't add anything helpful but you have my sympathy OP.

I love flying with BA and their flight/cabin crews are among the best in the world. The actual flight experience is almost always fantastic and they have a tremendous safety record.

However, the back-end/digital part of the business is total crap. They have made it harder and harder to get in touch with them since covid and they have tweaked various Ts & Cs meaning it's a lot harder to get refunds or make changes.

At the sort of prices BA charge (or indeed the amount of Avios you have to spend) they should make contacting them a seamless experience. It is not that and it isn't good enough.

Deathbyfluffy · 27/03/2023 15:56

CossyBunt · 27/03/2023 14:07

Not due to fly until July, they will sell those seats easily.

Unfortunately that doesn’t come into it - what matters is the type of ticket you booked as different fare classes have different rules about refunds or date changes.

These are absolutely rigid, so if new dates are £££ (as July is peak season) then a refund of the taxes may be your only option.
That’s why the refund is £150 - you’ll likely have booked a non refundable ticket, but they will still refund the taxes.

Unfortunately you’ll probably end up out of pocket in this situation - but it’s not BA’s fault the appointment clashes, so you’re at their mercy.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 27/03/2023 15:56

It doesn’t matter if they’ll resell the seats easily or not, it’s your t&cs that are important here.

I assume the long awaited medical appointment is for a pre existing condition so that your travel insurance won’t cover you either? It may well be easier to get the medical appointment pushed back a week or two.

crispinglovershighkick · 27/03/2023 16:03

OP have you tried ringing 0800 123 1111?
I had an urgent medical referral the week I was due to fly and BA allowed me to change both flights without a penalty. I had to email them the referral details and pay the difference in cost.
Good luck with it all, hope it works out ok.

NeverApologiseNeverExplain · 27/03/2023 16:05

The people in the call centre won’t have discretion to change the Ts and Ca that you agreed to when you bought the tickets. That’s why they are not keen to facilitate direct contact, it’s stressful for their staff when people ask them personally to make exceptions that they can’t make.

The system is almost certainly correctly applying the rules you agreed to. I know it’s annoying but the conditions would have been made clear at time of booking.

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