The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

62 Saturday April 30 2022 | the times

Money

Our national airline

can’t cope and it is the

customers who are

paying the price, report

Katherine Denham

and David Byers

J

essica and Charlie booked a

holiday to Cyprus with their

son Max, then four, in June last

year. It was their first overseas

trip with Max, and they chose

British Airways because they trusted

the company and thought it was

worth paying more for its customer

service.

But in December Jessica, who lives in

Chichester, West Sussex, had a text

from BA Holidays saying that the

flights had been cancelled and advising

her to rebook.

The link that the company sent

should have allowed her to select new

flights online, but it did not.

This was the beginning of three

months of chasing the airline and

getting nowhere.

Jessica called British Airways 14

times and was either cut off or told to

send emails that no one replied to.

She said she spent about 15 hours on

the phone in total but only once got

through to a human, who told her to

send an email.

“It doesn’t matter when I call or what

number, I am on hold for absolutely

ages – often longer than an hour,” said

Jessica, who works in finance.

“Each time I got a recorded message

telling me that BA was too busy

and to call back at a later date and then

the line automatically cut out. It’s so

stressful not being able to get through

to anyone.”

Unable to rebook flights for their

holiday in June and conscious that

prices were increasing, she cancelled

the holiday this month.

BA has refunded her £200 deposit for

the packaged deal and she doesn’t want

to rebook because prices have gone up

so much. The original cost was £1,500

holidaymakers are venturing abroad

again. Since the start of the year it has

added 500 call handlers and employed

another 6,000 people for other roles as

part of the biggest recruitment drive in

the airline’s history.

Paul Charles from the travel consult-

ancy the PC Agency said that it used to

take about four weeks for airport staff

to get a security pass, but now takes

double that because government

departments have been so slow to carry

out security checks. Charles said that

civil servants working from home have

found it difficult to process applications

at speed.

“So while BA has found people

to hire, they have been held up from

being employed because they haven’t

got their security clearance through,”

he said.

IT failures in February and March

also caused a string of cancellations

and left passengers stranded at airports.

All of this has caused even the most

loyal BA customers to question their

choice of airline.

But BA is not the only company

amid complaints that it was refusing to

give refunds for flights and forcing

customers to accept vouchers for future

travel instead. Since the criticisms it has

extended the expiry date on many of

these vouchers to ensure that custom-

ers have a chance to use them.

As the world’s skies have reopened

though, passengers have been hit

with repeated flight cancellations

and delays.

Passengers have to be delayed by at

least two hours for short-haul flights,

three hours for medium-haul or four

hours for long-haul before airlines have

to provide food and drink.

When travellers have to wait over-

night for a replacement flight, airlines

should foot the hotel bill too.

This week MPs called for the indus-

try watchdog, the Civil Aviation

Authority, to be given stronger powers

to fine airlines for failing to refund

customers when they are required to by

law. MPs said passengers should be

granted automatic compensation.

David Josephs, 47, who works in

advertising, had been collecting Avios

Phones unanswered,

complaints ignored

and no refunds:

welcome to

BA customer

service

that is suffering. The dispute service

Resolver had 3,243 complaints about

airlines in April 2022, up from 819 in the

same month in 2021. The most

common complaints were in relation to

airline fees and cancellations.

There have been reports of airlines

removing their phone numbers from

the “contact us” page on their websites.

Airlines were among the worst-hit

businesses during the pandemic

because of the ban on international

travel. They have also had to help pas-

sengers stay up to date with constantly

changing rules about travel to different

countries, often at very short notice.

However, some airlines seem to have

fared much better than others.

British Airways ran into particular

criticism at the start of the pandemic

£2.9bn

Losses of International Airline Group

(the owner of BA) in 2021

‘I couldn’t find

any way to get

a refund’

J

ulie Rutland, 53,

her husband

Michael, 55, and

daughter Lily, 15,

were due to fly from

Heathrow to Geneva

with British Airways

on February 21 for a

five-day skiing

holiday (David Byers

writes).

The day before the

flight they were told

that it had been

cancelled and there

were no alternatives

for two days. In haste,

they booked a return

flight from Gatwick

with easyJet that left

on February 21 for

£1,000.

Because BA had

cancelled their

outbound flight, the

family should have

been able to claim a

refund, but Julie, a

businesswoman from

Torquay, could not

find any way to

request one online.

“I kept getting the

same message when I

pressed the tab:

‘Please contact BA

support centre,’” she

said.

While in Geneva,

Rutland was

surprised to find that

BA had kept her

booked on to her

return flight, even

though it had

cancelled her

outbound one.

She tried ringing

BA’s call centre.

“I either got an

automated message

at the beginning of

the call saying that

the contact centre

was too busy to take

calls, or I got through,

waited for an hour

and then was cut off.”

Rutland also

submitted a written

complaint, but had no

response.

Eventually she said

she felt she had no

other option than to

request vouchers for

the return flight.

BA eventually sent

Julie a written

response after she

had returned home to

say that it had issued

her with vouchers

worth £750 — the

cost of her return

trip.

“I immediately

wrote back saying

I wanted a full refund.

I had not requested

vouchers for the

outward part of the

flight and had only

requested a voucher

for the return flight in

desperation.”

After a call from

The Times, BA has

given Julie a full

refund.

and the huge increase in the price of

flights means that the same holiday

would cost close to £4,300 now, Jessica

said.

The airline continues to cancel

hundreds of flights because of Covid-

related staff shortages and problems

are expected to continue until Septem-

ber. It has removed many popular

routes to scale back its timetables and

this week said that another 100 daily

services would be cancelled because of

staff shortages.

BA has cut 10,000 jobs since the pan-

demic started and has struggled to re-

hire the staff needed to cope now that

It doesn’t matter what

time I call, I am on

hold for absolutely ages