Your views: British Airways’ response to its IT failure

When an incident – for any cause – results in long delays for passengers, the airlines need to be far more pro-active in dealing with the situation. This isn’t rocket science – delays happen frequently for various reasons and the ensuing bad feeling could easily be avoided if airlines had in place an emergency procedure which clicks into place – to have plenty of well-briefed staff visible, to keep people informed, to provide alternative flights, to provide refreshment, to book accommodation and transport to that accommodation and finally, to automatically provide compensation.

I was once stranded at a foreign airport in the middle of the night due to a cancelled flight by a foreign airline. I was a teenage girl & didn’t speak the language of the country in which I was stranded. Nobody from the airline checked I was alright, safe or had accommodation, I didn’t. But I did attract frightening amounts of male attention from the men milling around the airport and did spend the night trying to stay safe as I tried to find a train to take me to my destination, the train was empty except for six male passengers, who all showed leering interest in me, I locked myself in a loo at one stage, scared. So I hope the vulnerable, the very young, elderly etc are given help and support in such situations & help to find safe accommodation. I couldn’t find anyone of the staff of the foreign airline to help me that night. I had to take risks with my safety, I didn’t know what else to do.

I don’t agree with universal “automatic compensation”. In effect all it does is to put a mark-up on the ticket price. While this may suit many travellers it will not suit all; I don’t see why those who are happy to take their chances should not be allowed to do so. What the airlines should do is to offer insurance against these risks and people can pick and choose which risks they are willing to take. Now I would agree that carriers should be required to offer this sort of insurance and there should be a regulatory body ensuring that premiums are not a rip-off.

BA has enjoyed a good reputation: it is now in decline. Unless BA directors act to improve customer service generally and to improve their reaction to disaster scenarios, the future of BA is certain: a declining share of air traffic.

I support all those claiming justice for poor management.

They shouldn’t just offer automatic compensation after the event, they need to offer immediate assistance to passengers who are stranded eg who’s home is more than eg100 miles from the airport. the stories of people falling victim to local hotels who were taking advantage by ramping up the prices that day are shocking. BA should have relationships with hotels and they should be making the calls and busing passengers to hotels that night – all at their cost. unless we make these sorts of event prohibitively expensive for airlines, they will always please their shareholders by taking unacceptable risks to save money. Currently, BA has relatively little downside from this fiasco. if the financial cost to them was 5x what it is today and automatic, not something they can spend months dragging out, you can bet they would have spent the money beforehand to prevent this sort of scenario.

Another possible improvement occurs to me. The Tory manifesto floats the idea of worker representation on company boards, a very good idea which Germany has had for years, though knowing the Tories I’m not holding my breath. I bet BA hasn’t got a consumer/passenger rep on its board. Something to campaign for?

Those responsible accept and go, SACK, take responsibility for actions, or lack off.

Fortunately air ticket prices have plummeted in the last 20 years but as far as service is concerned it has been a race to the bottom because certain destinations are only serviced by a small number of airlines and the need to provide a decent service is not important to them. That prices have come down is great but we cannot rely on airlines to provide a decent service when that happens. The only thing to work is compensation provided for in legislation for example: keeping customers informed, re-routing or an accommodation promise within 4 hours, cooperation with other airlines to fill any gaps, delays over 12 hours compensated at 50% above the fare paid PLUS the next fright free. Etc Etc. This might uplift costs a bit but the service will get better and I don’t mind that.

We have suffered previously from B.A’s appalling ‘service’. It took 3 months of my constant nagging/time/phone bill to extract a refund for the cost of a seat upgrade we had bought. On departure the aircraft was changed so the seats disappeared – along with out money! They offer a dreadful service, they are rude & arrogant and they just won’t learn, they can’t even do a decent sincere apology.
They need to pay up and start taking their paying customers seriously.