British airways flight cancellations.
 

Yesterday BA cancelled my outbound flight to LHR from Austin. I booked with avios and apparently the whole avios system is down. BA UK +USA phone lines not taking calls due to "volume of calls"
Return flight is still there - anyone else having issues?

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

try looking here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...end-avios.html

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

They did a major IT upgrade this past 5 days. The system was supposed to be up today but it did not go well. They are working on it. BA technology is dreadful, it will be up again when they have fixed the issues. Almost everyone is impacted, just keep trying it should be back soon. If you have an Avios booking even if you get through on the phone they won’t be able to do anything until the system is up. In any case the system should automatically rebook your with a connection for your outbound, and you will be able to cancel for free if it is not to your liking.

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

I got my flight rebooked...
the avios system was still down yesterday. I did not automatically get rebooked. I called the BA call center again ( not avios team) and thankfully spoke to someone there who knew how to do her job. She rebooked me on another flight and told me that if a flight is cancelled, then you do not need to go through to the avios team, the regular BA team can do it.
I realise that flights are going to be messed around for at least a bit longer while the airlines get their shit together again, but I will tell you that I sat and cried when I got that cancellation email for my flight home at Christmas. It's been 2 years and I'm longing to see my family and friends.

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

Glad to hear you got your flight rebooked. It is tough when you have so much invested in a flight. We are in the same position, trying to get to the UK to see family and friends and booked a flight on Delta a few months ago. It has now been changed 5 times (including one change that made it impossible to make a connection) and each time i have to sit on hold on the phone for a couple of hours to rebook. I still won't quite believe it until we are sat on that plane on the runway

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

Anyone here know why they would take a booking for a flight and then 3 days later cancel it? Are things really still that much in flux at BA?
This is the 2nd year in a row this exact thing has happened (my booking last year was changed 4 times). Last year was excusable -- not so much this year.
Thinking i'm gonna be giving United more of my business going forward.

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

Probably so they don’t loose their landing and take-off slots. They put them up, take bookings to “prove” they intended to fly the flight and once it gets closer look at loads and cancel the flights that are empty and rebook passengers on to others.

You can sometimes tell if they are blocking premium cabin bookings which flights are likely to be canceled.

I have been flying UA then CO and then UA again since it merged for almost 20 years now. I flew BA and BMI before and the lack or flexibility was always non existent. Even buying a non refundable UA ticket I have been able to change flights for a fee or same day for free with status. Not a big deal if you only fly 1-2 times a year but I was commuting over the pond 3-4 times a month for a few years so needed the flexibility. None of them even come close to flying SQ or the ME airlines, but I would take UA everyday over BA or SQ. For non frequent flyer I would look at Jet blue in “normal” times but with CV19 I would look for an airline with multiple a high frequency on a route, like 4+ a day to minimize the issue of it not flying the day I wanted.

Re: British airways flight cancellations.
 

Currently, all airlines are constantly reviewing their flight schedules and making last minute changes. It is not limited to BA. They have to guess at what the loads will be, and if they don't hold up they will cancel and reschedule so they can make money, stay in business and be there in the future so it is a necessary evil. It is a complex. business and travel for the foreseeable future is very unpredictable so expect the situation to continue for some time although it should get better over time. I have had several flights changed significantly, several times on AA and United sometimes by a day or more. Right now, you have to stay on top of your reservations, go with the flow and be thankful that there is at least the option to travel.