Carl England

Hello all.
I have been in Brisbane for three weeks and absolutly LOVING it it is fantastic
I came out first to find a home and a job as we have four kids ranging from 11 months to 12 years. My wife, kids and mother in law are due to leave the uk on sunday and arrive in Brisbane airport on Tuesday, there flight has been cancelled due to a strike and she has been told to make alternative arrangments and if she wants a refund then she has to complain in writting
Can not believe it she missed the ash cloud and still cant get out of the country so if anyone is flying BA just beware.
Carl

bcworld

Surprised at that as the vast majority of their long haul flights are going.

Did they have a connection down to London?

Pollyana

Doesn't sound quite right. They should be able to reschedule the flght booking, even if they put her on a codeshare such as Qantas, surely. The BA website currently says "Rebook onto a BA flight to the same destination for up to 355 days from the date you change your booking at no additional cost, subject to availability." for any flight up to 9th June. Might depend on when the ticket was booked, and the fare class it was booked in.

Current link is http://www.britishairways.com/travel...trike_ballot_4

BA are shite and I would never fly with them, but even I am surprised at this.....

POW148

If you booked your flights on your credit card, You should be covered by your credit card insurance. You have paid for goods/services that have not been delivered therefore your credit card must refund you your money.

Many years ago when Ansett Airways went bust, my wife and I had flights booked and paid for by Visa. When Ansett went under, I enquired into getting a refund from my credit card company. After a bit of running around, visa recredited my account in full for the cost of the flights but only after the due date for the flight had been and gone(which was 3 months later). In the mean time, I was not charged interest on the cost of the flights.

I certainly learned a lesson there. I would never pay for flights in cash because if I had, I would not have been elligable for a refund.

Barney

Bermudashorts

Carl, I believe your information is incorrect. I was afefcted by the ash cloud in April so was keeping a close eye on the regulations. The European laws provide the consumer with a lot of protection. BA HAVE to provide the alternative or a refund and she certainly does not need to write a letter of complaint to get the refund, it should be a slam dunk.

bcworld

I think there might be a long wait for refunds to be processed however - perhaps 'putting it in writing' is more advice on how to (try and) get a quicker refund rather than waiting in a very long queue.

Still surprised at this one though as I had looked on a few of the previous strike dates and SIN & BKK flights were never cancelled.

And both BA flights to SIN are flying this Sunday.

BAY

Why would anyone fly with British Airways ? ! They are always going on strike. They can't be trusted. PLUS other airlines are so much better. We flew with BA the 1st time we went on holiday to Australia, because we knew no better. The 2nd time we flew with Singapore Airways. Now we fly with Singapore Airways all the time. I will never fly with BA. Yes I know the cancellationn was due to the Ash but they are still going on strike.

Wol

It *doesn't* sound right. BA are operating the majority of longhaul flights: many of the cabin crews are working (more by the day) and there are hundreds of volunteers (other rapidly trained staff) filling in - more than are needed, apparently.

It could be that they are booked on a connecting flight to Heathrow - internal flights are for obvious reasons a low priority when allocating resources. Check on the exact nature of the "cancellation" would be my advice.

Carl England

hi everyone and thanks for the comments.
they are booked on an internal flight from newcastle to heathrow, then they are flying with quantas from heathrow to australia via singapore, it is the internal flight which has been cancelled.
a letter of complaint is being drafted as we speak.

bcworld

I really wouldn't waste your time if I was you!

sa2uk2oz

we had a similar drama when we were leaving the UK to move over here, however, we only got notification the night before the flight was cancelled, by text..
We had to make alternative arrangements to hire a car. We were also due to fly from Newcastle to Heathrow.. so instead of a 1 hr flight at 1pmthe next day, we were forced to drive down in a hire car (one way) and left at 6am - before getting on the flight to Brisbane via Japan at 5pm..
we did get a refund a few weeks later... but as you can imagine were even more exhausted as our travel to Aus began about 7hours before it should have.

MrCro

we plan to fly them sept ish so hope this is sorted out!

I agree singapore and malaysian eat them for breakfast (plus we can frly SIA direct from Man)

BUT...............BA let you take up to 10 suitcases per person for around £30 per case and that is a massive incentive!

One way tix price around £600 each at the mo! Some other airlines were silly price for one way.

Carl England

yes thats what i thought but when i looked into it it was going to cost me a fortune so just be aware.

bcworld

CarlE is right, the deal is the FIRST extra bag is £32...the next 9 are £72 each.

Virgin also used to offer 10 extra bags at £30ish each but that has also recently been stopped and the pricing is now the same as BA.

MrCro

thanks guys, we only planned 1 extra bag each anyway as we are allowed one for infant too so 5 suitcases will be more than enough to handle with pram etc as well!

Looked at extra bag from Man with Singapore and worked out about £300! Plus I don't think they let you take suitcase for infant.

So we'll endure transfer via heathrow especially as only cost extra £30 each with BA.