BA Christmas chaos rumbles on as travellers stranded and without bags
BA Christmas chaos rumbles on: Passenger ‘misses brother’s wedding’ and woman is stranded eight hours at Gatwick Airport with an £8 food voucher after technical glitch – while ex-footballer Alan Shearer is among thousands left without luggage
- BA passengers’ festive plans in tatters after IT glitch caused travel mayhem
- Some forced to wait eight hours at Gatwick and handed £8 food vouchers
- Passenger said her holiday was ruined while another missing brother’s wedding
British Airways Christmas chaos has continued for a second day with passengers’ festive plans in tatters after a technical glitch caused widespread disruption yesterday.
Passengers flying away for some winter sun, including families with young children, were forced to spend a gruelling eight hours in Gatwick Airport yesterday before being transferred to a hotel.
One woman told how passengers were given an £8 meal voucher during this time, with one traveller facing the prospect of missing his brother’s wedding due to the travel mayhem.
She said that when a group of passengers tried to ask for information, they were shocked when a British Airways worker threatened to ‘call the phone’ on them.
Meanwhile, former England captain Alan Shearer was among the thousands left without their luggage while a sea of suitcases has been seen piling up at airports.
Pictured: Stranded passengers at Gatwick Airport yesterday due to a technical glitch
Adriana Lyon-Shaw, from Norwood Junction, south London, waited more than eight hours at the busy London airport yesterday
Former England captain Alan Shearer is among the thousands left without their luggage while a sea of suitcases has been seen piling up at airports.
Alan Shearer is latest victim of British Airways’ baggage woes
Former England football captain Alan Shearer has become the latest victim of British Airways’ baggage woes.
The 52-year-old revealed on Wednesday he has still not received his luggage since flying home from Qatar where he was working as a BBC pundit covering the World Cup, which ended on Sunday.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘That’s two and a half days home now. Shame my bag didn’t make it. @British-Airways any danger?’
In its response, the airline apologised and insisted its staff are ‘doing their best to deliver all delayed baggage as soon as possible’.
Many British Airways passengers flying to or from Heathrow Airport in recent days have reported long delays in receiving their luggage, while some have reported their bags going missing
The problem has affected customers flying to destinations such as Delhi, Dubai, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Manchester and Porto.
Thousands were left stranded yesterday, with dozens of long-haul flights delayed and cancelled just days before Christmas because of a fault with the troubled airline’s ‘flight planning’ IT system.
BA told MailOnline this morning that despite ‘some knock-on delays yesterday’ the issue was resolved and today is ‘business as usual’.
But some passengers are still waiting in hotels to be rebooked onto new flights with their Christmas plans ruined due to flight delays and cancellations.
Among them is Adriana Lyon-Shaw, from Norwood Junction, south London, who waited more than eight hours at the busy London airport yesterday during which time she was given just an £8 meal voucher.
The 46-year-old was hoping to catch her flight to Mozambique via Doha for a Christmas holiday but is now waiting at Hilton London Gatwick Airport for a new flight.
Recounting the experience, she said: ‘We didn’t know what was going on. When we started asking questions to a member of staff, she said she was going to call the police on us.
‘The treatment has been horrible. They got extremely annoyed with us, they refused to speak to us and give us proper information.
‘Because we are all asking questions [BA staff] kept walking past us really quickly. We were like ‘excuse me, excuse me’, trying to speak to them.
‘Then she left the staff door to go to the check in desks open and someone stopped in front of her and said ‘can you speak to us?’.
‘She said ‘let me go’ and he said ‘I’m asking a question here, can you let us know what’s going on?’
‘She said ‘if you don’t let me go I’m going to call the police on you.’ Nobody was holding her. We were like, I think we should be calling the police on you.
Pictured: Stranded passengers at Gatwick Airport yesterday due to a technical glitch
‘We are being held hostage here, we can’t rebook, no one is telling us anything.’
She continued: ‘I don’t understand the problem with not sharing information. People would be a lot happier if they knew.
‘After about eight hours of waiting nobody could take anymore.’
When Ms Lyon-Shaw contacted BA about this on Twitter, they said that ‘people behave in different ways when they are under stress’.
Eventually the passengers on her flight were transferred to a nearby hotel were they are still waiting to hear when they will be booked on new flights, with one traveller going to miss a family member’s wedding due to the delay.
BA said: ‘We apologised to customers for the delay to their flight and provided them with vouchers while they waited. Customers were kept up to date and the aircraft departed yesterday evening.’
Those travelling on Friday and over the Christmas weekend are set to suffer more delays at UK airports as a result of strike action by Border Force staff.
Heathrow Terminal 2 was bustling with travellers today as people jetted off for the Christmas peak
People queuing at check-in at Heathrow Terminal 2 on Wednesday
Ms Lyon-Shaw is among the thousands of BA passengers around the world fearing their Christmas plans would be ruined after the beleaguered airline suffered a a failure of its ‘flight planning’ IT system.
Yesterday saw some travellers were stuck in terminals while others were inside planes on the tarmac, while a sea of baggage could be seen piling up at airports.
The problem hit long-haul flights on Monday night and yesterday morning, affecting dozens of flights in the US.
BA apologised for the ‘disruption’ but faced a furious backlash from those affected.
Video showed hundreds of bags piled up waiting to be returned to their owners at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 yesterday
Photos taken on one flight show people sleeping in the aisle during the long delay for take off
The knock-on effect of having planes stuck abroad caused further delays and cancellations throughout yesterday, exacerbating the problems suffered by passengers heading home or flying off on holiday for Christmas.
Many took to social media to blast the lack of information and being forced to fend for themselves and rebook.
American author Colin Dickey said on Twitter: ‘Captain of our British Airways flight just said that their flight computers have been down for two hours worldwide and no BA plane can file a flight plan? Seems not ideal. Anyway just chillin’ on the tarmac here at JFK, being cool.’
He later said that the airline had ‘borrowed’ a flight computer from Lufthansa, with his flight taking off more than four hours after it was scheduled to.
Separately, video footage from inside Terminal 5 at Heathrow showed a backlog of ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of suitcases, apparently waiting for staff to load them on to luggage conveyor belts for arriving passengers.
Actress Charlotte Kennedy said her bags had not arrived nearly a week after landing at Heathrow
Actress Charlotte Kennedy said she had been left waiting nearly a week for her luggage to arrive after her bag was lost at Heathrow.
She tweeted: ‘Hiya British Airways me again, I understand Heathrow is a shambles right now but my bag is still there. It’s been almost a week and there is no indication of when it will arrive in Edinburgh. Patience running thin and my clothes running out lol if you don’t laugh, you will cry.’
British Airways said it sends delayed bags directly to passengers using the address they provide.
The airline tells customers they can submit claims to be reimbursed for ‘essential items such as toiletries and basics when a bag is delayed, up to a reasonable value’.
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