MyLondon reporter Ayo was among the hundreds of thousands of passengers impacted by cancelled flights this week. He went against British Airways’ instructions while in New York and made it home earlier by doing so
I got caught up in the chaos when a National Air Traffic Services (Nats) technical issue caused more than 2,000 flights arriving or departing the UK to be cancelled on Tuesday (September 8). Hundreds of thousands of passengers were hit, including more than 85,000 British Airways (BA) travellers on almost 550 cancelled flights.
I was sadly one of those unlucky when my BA flight back home from New York to Heathrow Airport was cancelled on Tuesday. However, if I hadn’t checked my flight status myself, I never would have known.
As I was sitting in Chick-fil-A in New York, at around 2pm, enjoying one of my last meals before heading back to London, one of my friends sent a link to a group chat about the disruption at Heathrow. Did fear creep in that our flight would be affected? Yes. With no update, we kept waiting in hopes of leaving at the scheduled time of 7:10pm.
As more and more updates were posted on X about flights being delayed or cancelled, I was sure British Airways would send an email or text to update us. Obviously, the situation was chaotic, and I can imagine the stress involved, but in their own terms and conditions regarding flight delays and cancellations, they explicitly state that passengers will be contacted regarding options on new flights, overnight accommodation, or refunds.
I received nothing. I decided to check my flight status myself, and that is when I saw the dreaded ‘cancelled’ announcement as I took another bite of my spicy chicken sandwich. It immediately lost its appeal to me and my meal was ruined.
As we frantically searched for what to do, the ‘manage my booking’ page showed that a new, rearranged flight with American Airlines was scheduled for 9am the following day.
As I said earlier, British Airways states that if your new flight is for the following day, overnight accommodation will be offered. We were never contacted.
No emails were received, and the matter was left in limbo. I tried to use the ‘live chat’ function but was met with nothing from their AI agent, which couldn’t put me through to a real person.
They are also required to rebook you on the next available flight if your flight is cancelled or delayed by more than 5 hours (I’ll come back to this later).
British Airways then posted an update on X saying that if your flight has been cancelled, do not turn up at the airport. If I weren’t actively on X, then I would never have known about this update, which I think is farcical.
As we sat in a pub pondering our next moves, one of my friends decided he would ignore the update and go to the airport, demanding to be put on an earlier flight.
Even though BA said not to turn up at the airport if your flight was cancelled, he was able to snag a space on a flight leaving at midnight. He sent a smiling photo of himself into the group chat, and I couldn’t believe it. My other friend and I picked up our bags and made the journey to JFK Airport, expecting to have to share some angry words with the desk.
Yet, there was no need. By 9:30pm, as we approached the BA desks at Terminal 8, we found a relaxed set of check-in agents. This was in stark contrast to the images I saw of Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
As I explained that I’d like to be put on an earlier flight, to my surprise, they said, ‘That shouldn’t be a problem, there are two more flights leaving this evening, and there’s plenty of seats’.
If there were two more flights, then why were we put on a morning flight with an entirely different airline? Why weren’t we booked onto the next available flight, which was a few hours later? When the staff member said there were ‘plenty of seats’, I had to suppress an outburst that would have got me detained by TSA.
Confusion and anger were bubbling within me. Yet, the BA staff, whose names I sadly didn’t get, were the most helpful individuals I’ve ever dealt with at an airport. The supervisor called the booking team around four times, passionately explaining our situation and was tenacious in putting forward our case to be on the flight.
She was amazing, and I’m annoyed I didn’t get her name, but she showed that New Yorker energy that they are famed for.
By 11pm, we had got new tickets for a flight leaving New York at midnight. Relief and happiness had set in yet I couldn’t shake my annoyance at British Airways. Their staff at the desk were amazing but the overall debacle can’t be forgotten.
As I sat down in my premium economy seat (another wonderful upgrade by the supervisor), I was grateful that things had panned out this way.
Placed on a new flight for the following day, no updates were communicated directly and the fact that if I didn’t turn up, which went against their own message, we would have had to spend extra money staying overnight. I can only imagine how many other passengers spent money due to BA’s lack of clear communication.
As I landed at Heathrow at around 11am on Wednesday, I expected to see chaos, but there was none. I passed through border force easily, my bags came out quickly, and I made my way to the Elizabeth Line, grateful I was doing this at midday rather than 10pm, which would have been the case if I had followed BA’s instructions.
