NEWS: Top tips for travelling now, BA and Easyjet cancel flights and a tale of last weeks IT meltdown

BA and Easyjet cancel flights and BA only selling crazy price tickets

It’s not just British Airways suffering, plenty of other airlines are having to cancel flights to cope with the lack of staff. It’s  it just that the airlines let staff go through Covid, they also are suffering from staff shortages due to the current high rates of Covid in the UK.

Information from aviation analytics firm Cirium, reveals that a total of 1,143 flights were cancelled to/from the UK last week. During the same period in 2019, only 197 flights were cancelled. Of these flights to/from the UK, a total of 382 flights were cancelled over the weekend (Apr 2-3).

• British Airways* cancelled 662 flights to/from the UK last week (Mar 28 – Apr 3 2022) – which is 2,548% more than the same period in 2019
• easyJet also cancelled a total of 357 flights last week
• Over the weekend alone (2 – 3 April), easyJet cancelled 192 flights to/from the UK.

Commenting on the Cirium data, Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said:

“This is a staggering level of flight cancellations caused by a cocktail of not having enough staff in place and Covid-induced staff shortages. Airlines are certainly seeing a high level of demand to fly, but are simply unable to cope with that demand due to a lack of resources. It’s a nightmare situation for airlines and airports at the moment.”

If we dig into the detail British Airways cancelled 386 flights between last Wednesday and Friday, due to Covid and IT issues. 713 flights were delayed over 60mins over the three days and virtually no flights actually left on time. British Airways has been cancelling flights pro-actively to try to reach a level where they have enough staff to cope with check-in, baggage, and cabin crew service. So far services as far ahead as the end of May have been cancelled. If this happens to you, you should be offered an alternative flight or refund. 

BA said that they were trying to”build more resilience into our operation to manage staff sickness and our remaining outstanding vacancies in order to provide a consistent service for customers’.

If you look at prices for economy short haul over the next two weeks, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d typed in New York instead of Newcastle! Prices on some short routes such as Manchester and Dublin are starting are over £400 one way! This is likely to be a deliberate plot to stop people booking seats so they can keep passenger numbers at a manageable level. 

easyJet is also in trouble and has cancelled around 350 flights in total with 62 flights from the UK cancelled today as it struggles to cope with staff shortages.

All in all, travelling is something of a nightmare at many airports. Glasgow and Gatwick seem to be ahead of the curve and coping well so far. Manchester and Edinburgh, not so much. Security queues were so long at Manchester Airport at the weekend that even passengers who arrived more than three hours before departure missed their flights! Quite unbelievable. Personally, I will not be setting foot in Manchester airport again unless their security gets to a level equivalent to Heathrow or Gatwick. 

A tale of last week’s IT meltdown

I thought it would be worth a look at how it actually felt for someone caught up in last week’s IT meltdown. My friend and sometime TLFL contributor Katie in London was sadly caught up on her first business trip since the pandemic. 

She arrived at T5 to be greeted by a large queue to enter the First Wing. Little did she know that moments before British Airways IT had suffered a major failure. Two hours later she finally made it through to the lounge with little information from staff in the meantime.

The majority of short haul flights were cancelled that afternoon as they normally try to protect the long haul destinations since that has a bigger knock-on effect after cancellation with crew out of place etc. It looked like although other Boston flights were cancelled hers was still going. 

Two hours after they were due to depart a gate was shown (A10 the bus gate just to add insult to injury!) and they all headed there. Only to be sent back shortly afterward. The flight continued to be pushed back 30 minutes at a time so rather than being able to relax in the lounge a bit, most people just sat near gate A10 waiting for news. 

Finally, boarding was started still with the bus gate but seemed to be taking forever with people having their extra security checks. At this point it was around 4 hours past departure time. Then as the first people started boarding the bus, they announced that they were cancelling the flight. 

Fortunately, Katie was quick off the mark to rebook herself onto the next day’s flight as there was only one seat left. There were virtually no hotels left at Heathrow at this point so she chose to go home instead. The passengers were effectively abandoned at the gate for quite a while. If you are unaware there is no way out at this point without a staff member opening a door for you as departures and arrivals are segregated. Katie decided to head off to find someone to let her out instead of waiting.  Staff did not want to give back luggage (this is normal) but Katie managed to persuade them to let her have hers. This is pretty unusual if you are due to travel again the next day.

Luckily she finally made it to Boston over 24 hours late but missed several client meetings sadly. She did have a really good flight at least when she finally made it onboard!

A few tips for travel at the moment

It’s not just BA and Heathrow that are experiencing problems. There are lots of cancellations and long queues at many airports and airlines. If you plan to travel in the next few weeks here are a few tips:

• If you can travel hand baggage only it will make life much much easier
• If you can’t make sure you take any essentials in your hand luggage including at least a day’s worth of clothes and underwear. I usually take a swimsuit, something to sleep in, a few pairs of underwear and a day and night outfit on outbound flights. 
• Get the airport far, far earlier than you would usually even if you are checked in with HBO. Security queues have been long in many airports. 
• Airport staff are understandably overwhelmed, exhausted and demoralised. The situation is horrible for everyone and it’s not the person working at the airport’s fault that it’s all going horribly wrong. Try to stay calm and polite as it usually gets you further than having a go at them. 
• Try to do all the uploading of documents first into ba.com, Verifly or whatever else the airline is using. Then check-in online. With crowded flights there are bound to be some offloads. If you have checked in online it signals to the airline you definitely want to travel so it’s less likely you will be offloaded or downgraded.
• Tripit is an app and website that holds all your travel plans in one place. If you pay for Tripit Pro it also monitors your flight and provided better information than the airline quite often with delays, gates and baggage belt numbers. 
• If there is a cancellation, immediately look online at whether you can rebook yourself rather than waiting at the airport for someone to do it or trying to call unless you are GGL. If you still have access to the lounge, that can be a useful option for assistance too.
• I would also be looking at booking myself a hotel if needed rather than waiting for BA to do it. You can spend up to £200 a night per room with BA.
• You can claim with BA delays and cancellations for:
  • Hotel accommodation (where necessary).
  • Transport between the hotel and the airport (where necessary).
  • Meals and refreshments.
  • Two telephone calls or internet-related costs to contact people outside the airport.
• Don’t be alarmed if you are offered alternative flights that mis-connect by email. This is a common IT issue so you may be able to choose other flights online or ring BA to get something else. Often they will pick up the mistake anyway and offer a better alternative.
• If you are flying with BA Holidays they will usually contact you after a cancellation, often by text. They will ask if you want a refund or to change flights. So if you are not in a hurry it can be easier to sit on it and wait for them to contact you.