British Airways grounded flights

I booked a flight from British Airways for my father, who is 86 YEARS OLD to come for a family visit, flying from OR Tambo to King Shaka. He does not live in Johannesburg and had to travel via Shuttle to OR Tambo airport - a trip of 5 hours.

We do not live in Durban and so left this morning to meet his flight (over an hours drive). We only heard when we were in Ballito that all British Airways flights had been cancelled. We were NOT notified by British Airways.

At King Shaka airport an employee of British Airways said that the ticket would be valid for 6 months. NO APOLOGY.

We then found out that all flights from OR Tambo to King Shaka were full. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE THE STRESS THAT THIS CAUSED MY 86 YEAR OLD FATHER??!!! ALONE IN AN AIRPORT WHERE HE DOESN'T KNOW HIS WAY AROUND WITH HIS FLIGHT CANCELLED???!!!

I had to book him to stay overnight at the City Lodge at the airport and book him on another flight tomorrow morning.

On top of the disgraceful inept way that this was handled, these are the additional costs incurred due to the negligence of this airline - material costs as I cannot put a price on the emotional, anger and anxiety caused. The City Lodge : R1800.00 Tolls: approx. R200.00 Petrol: R659.35

And now we must repeat the same trip again tomorrow.

I expect to be reimbursed for the above expenses as they would not have been incurred had your airline not been grounded.