British Airways appalling service

This is Reece McHardy here. I am writing this letter on behalf of myself and partner Stephanie Strachan. Apart from the most incredible holiday we have just experienced, we received unacceptable and *********** service from British Airways which left us nearly missing our trip and both in a financial crisis as we are both in our early twenties. We had purchased our flights with Qatar Airways well in advance through a travel agency, set to leave from Johannesburg airport at 1:10pm on the 26th of December 2019 ,to Doha and then further on to London. The both of us live in Durban and had purchased a domestic flight ticket through British Airways at 8:50am on the 26th of December 2019, giving us more than enough time to land in Johannesburg and check in our bags. We both were at our gate waiting to board, when we received a message stating that the flight has been delayed by an hour and our boarding gate had been changed as well. We then moved to the correct boarding gate and an hour later we get informed that the flight has been cancelled due to technical issues. As you can imagine all passengers running to the ticket sales counter to get alternative flights. Stephanie and I then get told that the next available flight is only at 11:30am which was far too late, so they managed to get us on the earliest flight with Mango at 11:10am which was still too late and further on got delayed by half an hour and we ended up missing our flight. When we landed in O.R. Tambo Airport I went to the British Airways counter and received appalling service from both the employee behind the counter and then the supervisor who said ‘Sorry we cannot help you’ and turned her back to me. We then had to book another flight with Virgin Atlantic Airways at the cost of R5 055.93 per person direct to London Heathrow Airport.

At the end of our trip we made our way to the Amsterdam airport to leave back to Doha airport and further on to Johannesburg airport. When we proceeded to check our bags in with Qatar Airlines they then informed us that due to us missing our first flight the entire return flight had been cancelled as well, which we were not informed of by British Airways nor Qatar Airlines. We then had to purchase another flight back through AirFrance to Paris and back to Johannesburg which amounted to R13 165,12 each. This totals to R18 221,05 each which we had to incur over and above the rest of our trip.

We are both 21 and 24 years of age and we cannot financially afford this, we are now financially broke and are in a state of desperation due to the appalling service we received by British Airways. I have been travelling with British Airways for as long as I can remember and I have never received this kind of service and we both feel that for such a reputable company this is just not acceptable. We both do not feel that we should be liable for a mistake committed by British Airways. There was no plan B for another aircraft and not one employee had a sense of urgency in helping us rectify this issue and in turn we incurred a cost of R36 442,1 between us.

Subsequent to me writing a letter of complaint for a compensation I received an email that said they (British Airways) is not liable for any consequential loss a customer or third party may have as a result of a delay or cancellation.

This has honestly been the most appalling service I have ever received from a conglomerate company who will not take responsibility for anything that requires them to pay out. Absolutely pathetic that they will leave two young adults in their early twenties completely broke because they don't want to pay out money for a mistake they committed that they will make in a couple seconds. This is the last time I will ever fly with British Airways and will certainly never recommend them to anyone.