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If you are travelling today or tomorrow with British Airways then you should be aware of the current global IT system outage that is ongoing. All flights are cancelled until at least 18:00
It all started earlier today where all websites were down.
The same was the case on the British Airways mobile app:
Then soon after it was reported on several news sites, that check in counters could not operate and flights could not depart out of Heathrow and Gatwick airport.
The situation is not that all flights are cancelled until earliest 18:00 local UK time.
You can follow the situation on BBC or British Airways own website or Twitter account. In all cases please be very aware of this situation on a very busy travel day due to the national holiday Monday.
The current situation in Heathrows Terminal 5 is that there is filled with people and the message is that baggage is not properly taken care for. So InsideFlyer recommends that you should only travel with carry-on this weekend. Otherwise there is a high risk for your baggage is lost.
Cover picture is from Metro UK (PA)
This whole situation is extraordinary. What a mess.
More to it than meets the eye.
And very costly.
Wow. To cancel flights like that- i mean most cost a fortune. If that’s not meltdown i dont know what is. Dont they have contingency planning? Is this cyber attack? either way , management have questions to answer!
Has anyone blamed the Russians yet?
Who would have thought that sacking all your UK in-house IT staff and then outsourcing your global IT infrastructure on the cheap to India would result in any problems?
Obviously this outage (outrage?) has nothing to do with it.
News coverage recently for BA has not been so good recently for the world’s favourite airline! Lol..?
Anyone who has had to call BA on their premium rate 0844 number to enquire about an existing booking, re-arrange travel, track baggage, enquire about a refund, or any other such after-sales issue has the right to a refund of call costs incurred.
Consumer protection regulations in place since 13 June 2014 require inclusive 01, 02 or 03 numbers or free-to-caller 080 numbers to be used for after-sales enquiries and issues, and ban the use of premium rate 084, 087 and 09 numbers.
While BA does now advertise an 0344 number for some enquiries, the old premium rate 0844 number still works, offers the same menu options and fails to inform callers to hang up and re-dial the new 0344 number. It would be easy for callers to be caught out by this.
Eerrjjj
The Sun reports on BA’s errant usage of a premium rate 0844 number for after-sales enquiries… https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3677218/british-airways-faces-fresh-fury-over-travel-chaos-for-telling-customers-to-ring-premium-rate-helpline/
Less than 24 hours later, BA has seen the light and scrapped their premium rate 0844 telephone number.
Upon calling the old premium rate 0844 number you are now directed to hang up and re-dial either a free-to-caller 0800 number if your call is about the ongoing recent incident or an inclusive or geographic rate 0344 number for all other enquiries.
BA’s website has also been updated with the new details.
BA has also said they will refund call costs for those who called the chargeable number.