Anybody stuck in the British Airways debacle?

[ralphc1]

It seems British Airways has shut down all flights because of computer system problems. Former BA IT employees say that IT services were farmed out and they are unable to solve the problem. There is no backup. Passengers are being told not to come to airports for BA flights.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40069865

It could get very costly.

If your flight departed the European Union or was with a European airline, you might have rights under EU law to claim if the delay or cancellation was within the airline's control

• Short-haul flights: 250 euros for delays of more than three hours
• Medium-haul flights: 400 euros for delays of more than three hours
• Long-haul flights: 300 euros for delays of between three and four hours; and 600 euros for delays of more than four hours
• If your flight's delayed for two or more hours the airline must offer food and drink, access to phone calls and emails, and accommodation if you're delayed overnight - including transfers between the airport and the hotel

Britain is still technically in the EU.

 

[Loiosh]

That's a hell of a lot of money.

 

[Loiosh]

It comes as hotels surrounding the airports charged extortionate prices to stranded holiday makers with some charging between £1,000 to £2,5000 a room for the night.

 

[mushishi]

That sucks. What caused the system failure?

 

[ralphc1]

That sucks. What caused the system failure?

They don't know. Their IT people can't figure it out. The normal response is to claim a power supply failure. It would be very stupid to have a system that important that could be shut down by a single power supply failure.

 

[mushishi]

Cyber warfare?

 

[ralphc1]

Cyber warfare?

They say no but they probably should have left that possibility open to save some money.

 

[surgeyou1]

Cyber warfare?

Someone call Barron Trump.

 

[loyalyolayal]

They probably outsourced their tech dept. to India.

Smh(side to side)

 

[Doughbelly]

They probably outsourced their tech dept. to India.

Smh(side to side)

Thread winner for side to side comment!

I'd say I'm glad I'm not there but I was flying through the week of the BA London Heathrow Terminal 5 opening debacle. They ended up putting me on an upgraded flight on Virgin Air flight to the same destination. VA flight attendants really are hotter.

It'd suck to be most people but if you are high on the list priority list, they just put you on partner airlines and/or straight up rival carriers. I forget what status o had with them but it wasn't the uber frequent flyer status but I still managed to make oitnpretty well.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

British Airways peaked in the 80s

This goes for most of their current cabin crew too