Guidance for passengers due to travel from Monday 29 May 2017
Following the crash to BA’s computer systems worldwide on Saturday 27 May 2017, BA has issued the following guidance to affected passengers and passengers due to travel from Monday 29 May 2017.
This guidance is as of 09:30 BST Monday 29 May 2017 and may change overnight/early morning as the situation remains fluid.
Continue reading “BA Computer System Crash: Heathrow & Gatwick Flights Monday 29 May 2017”
Following the crash to BA’s computer systems worldwide on Saturday 27 May 2017, BA has issued the following guidance to affected passengers and passengers due to travel from Sunday 28 May 2017.
This guidance is as of midnight Sunday 28 May 2017 and may change overnight/early morning as the situation remains fluid.
Continue reading “BA Computer System Crash: Heathrow & Gatwick Flights Sunday 28 May 2017”
As has been widely reported all over the world today, BA has experienced what must be the biggest IT disruption in its history as almost all of its IT systems failed today, Saturday 27 May 2017.
This has led to the cancellation of all flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick for the remainder of Saturday with reports of very long queues to exit Terminal 5 from the post-security airside area and passengers being separated from their luggage.
As has been widely reported all over the world today, BA has experienced what must be the biggest IT disruption in its history as almost all of its IT systems failed today, Saturday 27 May 2017.
This has led to the cancellation of all flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick for the remainder of Saturday with reports of very long queues to exit Terminal 5 from the post-security airside area and passengers being separated from their luggage. (Here is guidance for passengers due to fly from Sunday 28 May 2017.)
This is the first time in several years BA has been forced to cancel its entire flying programme, and the timing on a bank holiday weekend clearly could not be worse.
It is understood that the scale of the disruption was extremely severe with almost all IT systems out of operation, bar its internal e-mail. The airline has cited a power failure as its cause, and has denied claims of a possible cyber attack.
BA is by no means the only airline in the world to face significant disruption due to IT. Both United Airlines and Delta have experienced network-wide disruption due to system failures.
However, this is not first time in the past 12 months BA has faced IT disruption. Its website ba.com crashed for nearly a day last month. Last year, BA implemented a new check-in system which continues to crash repeatedly.
Continue reading “BA Computer System Crash: What is going on with BA and IT?”
Air Traffic Controllers in Italy are due to take industrial action on Sunday 28 May 2017, which is likely to cause disruption to flights.
Air Traffic Controllers in some regions of Italy are due to take industrial action on the afternoon of Sunday 28 May 2017, the weekend of the late May bank holiday in the UK.
The strike will take place between 1pm and 5pm local time. This is likely to cause disruption with delays and cancellations, albeit on a smaller scale than originally thought. As a consequence the following airlines have issued guidance for affected passengers.
Please note that this page does not provide live flight information so any cancellations that will be listed are proactive cancellations made in advance, and do not necessarily include any delays/cancellations made on the day.
You can check live flight information on the websites of Gatwick, Heathrow and London City airports.
Continue reading “Disruption due to Air Traffic Controllers’ strike in Italy on Sunday 28 May 2017”
Here are few changes to both British Airways and LATAM flights between London and Brazil that have emerged recently.
BA appears to have taken First Class off sale for flights between London Heathrow and Rio de Janeiro from Monday 30 October 2017.
This suggests that the route has been downgraded from a four class Boeing 777 to a three class Boeing 777. It was upgraded to first class in 2013. The route continues to operate five times weekly.
BA is now codesharing with LATAM on a number of domestic routes from Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport.
These include routes operated by BA’s fellow Oneworld alliance partner between Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Curitiba, Foz do Iguaçu, Goiana, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador da Bahia and Vitoria.
Note that these can only be booked as part of a connecting international itinerary. BA and LATAM are currently securing regulatory approval for a joint-venture between Latin America and Europe so expect further co-operation in the coming years.
Finally, as first reported by Routes Online LATAM is to increase its London Heathrow – Sao Paulo service from daily to 9 times weekly for a little over a month from Sunday 9 July 2017 to Friday 18 August 2017.
The additional flight operates from London on Monday and Friday and from Sao Paulo on Sunday and Thursday.
Your children can fly for free on selected BA flights between London & Belfast, Edinburgh, Inverness, Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle and Billund this summer.
Your children can fly for free on BA between select short-haul destinations and London Heathrow this summer
BA first ran this promotion last year and it has relaunched it for summer 2017. Up to two children to the age of twelve can fly for free with an adult on flights between London Heathrow and Belfast, Edinburgh, Inverness, Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle in the UK and Billund in mainland Europe.
The promotion only applies to flights to/from London Heathrow and bookings in EuroTraveller economy. It does not apply to flights to/from London Gatwick or London City.
The offer is valid for travel from Thursday 1 June 2017 to Tuesday 31 October 2017 and flights must be booked by Saturday 30 September 2017.
There are no particular downsides or catches to this promotion. Other than that availability is restricted and some destinations, notably Edinburgh, have significantly more flights a day to choose from than others.
Note this offer is only open to residents of the UK, the Republic Of Ireland and Denmark. Full terms and conditions and more information is available on ba.com
Bronze, Silver and Gold members of the Executive Club can now select a seat for free when buying its “basic” short-haul fares.
A little over two years ago BA removed the right of its Bronze, Silver and Gold Executive Club cardholders to select a seat for free when booking its “basic” (formerly known as “Hand Baggage Only”) short-haul economy fares.
“Basic” is one of two types of short-haul economy fares on BA. The other is known as “Plus” which includes the option to check-in a bag for free.
The only option to select a seat at the time of booking was to pay for a seat assignment, as all other passengers are required to do, thus removing a valuable benefit of the Executive Club.
No doubt this was also to encourage Executive Club members to buy more expensive “Plus” short-haul economy fares. However, there was considerable criticism that many travellers are bound by their corporate travel policy to book the cheapest available fare. Therefore they had no option to buy “basic” fares and were not able to utilise all of the benefits of their Executive Club membership.
This benefit will be reinstated for all basic fares on short-haul flights from Wednesday 14 June 2017.
Clearly, this is good news. It at least, in part, reverses the trend of cuts by BA to its short-haul economy product. It also suggests that BA will not be following the trend of US airlines of stripping more benefits from its cheapest short-haul economy fares, such as lounge access or the ability to earn miles.
There’s more detail on the changes on ba.com
BA has introduced a new policy allowing Executive Club members taking parental leave to “freeze” their current status.
British Airways announced two major changes to its Executive Club frequent flyer programme today.
The first is the introduction of the option for members to put their account “on hold” for up to a year if they take maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
What this means is that if a member has Bronze, Silver or Gold status they do not need to earn the requisite number of tier points (eg 300, 600, or 1,500 tier points) in their membership year in order to renew their status for another year. However, tier points and Avios will still be earned if flights are taken whilst the account is on hold.
Continue reading “BA “status hold” for Executive Club members taking parental leave”
Alitalia has entered into administration, leading to uncertainty over its future at London Heathrow as its slots are owned by Etihad.
As has been widely reported, today (Tuesday 2 May 2017) the shareholders of Alitalia (one of whom is Etihad) decided to put the airline into a formal administration process with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.
This follows a decision by members of Alitalia’s trade unions not to accept a restructuring proposal which would have involved, inter alia, cuts to jobs and staff salaries and a restructuring of its short-haul operations. Had the restructuring plan been approved the shareholders would have provided new finance to the airline.
Under the administration process, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development will appoint a Commissioner which will manage the airline whilst it is in administration.
The Italian Government has approved the provision of a bridge loan which will allow Alitalia to continue operations for the foreseeable future.
If a buyer for Alitalia is found then Alitalia could continue in some form. However, a question will remain over its London Heathrow slots.
When Etihad acquired a stake in Alitalia in 2014, it bought all of its London Heathrow slots. These were valued at €60m. These are currently leased to Alitalia which uses them to operate five flights from London Heathrow to Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino. (By comparison BA flies to Milan and Rome up to 10 and 6 times a day.) Whilst the precise terms are obviously commercially confidential it seems likely that these will revert back to Etihad at some point after Alitalia enters into administration.
Given that Scandinavian Airlines recently sold two London Heathrow slot pairs to American Airlines for $75million, Etihad could recoup some of its losses by selling them to other airlines or to expand its own network from London to Abu Dhabi. Either way, it is unlikely they will remain with Alitalia.
For further news on Alitalia’s situation we recommend checking Alitalia’s corporate website and the English language website of Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
One of the many perennial criticisms of British Airways is its handling of disruption at its hub at London Heathrow. The airport is full, so when there is severe weather, the airline is forced to cancel flights, with short-haul flights always bearing the brunt. What usually follows is long queues at ticketing desks to be rebooked.
BA announced at the annual Capital Markets Day of its parent company International Airlines Group last year that it was working on automatic rebooking tools during disruption.
BA has today released an update for its smartphone app which includes the option to rebook on to alternative flights during disruption. However, this will initially only be for selected customers. We presume this is for testing purposes.
In addition, most if not all customers should now have a “timeline” feature for each booking on the app which provides a countdown for future bookings and services that are available in connection with that booking.
If you haven’t already done so, we do recommend that all travelers (whether a frequent or once a year BA flyer) download the BA smartphone app. It is the easiest way to keep track of flights both before the day of travel and at the airport. From experience we find it is often ahead of other sources for learning of delays.
It is also an easy way to keep on track of fixed price upgrade offers for existing bookings and being able to book flights without tripping over adverts for hotels and car hire as you do on ba.com!
We also recommend that for security reasons software updates for apps are downloaded as soon as they become available.