Just read that Fiona 😵😵😵😵

Feel so sorry for those at airports & whose holidays have been affected.

What a total mess , it does appear though that by Sunday that Gatwick was back to normal schedule and that Heathrow problems were because of planes being out of position due to the previous day . This is going to cost BA an absolute fortune in compensation and damage to its reputation , I'm guessing a lot of leisure users were inconvenienced due to the bank holiday and half term timing and will those customers come back ? I have used BA a lot over the last few years and have also added on accommodation or car hire to my flights and the service and quality has been very good also the crews and frontline staff have been excellent on my flights , it's just such a shame that these hardworking employees are let down by a management team and a CEO totally out of his depth ( there is a leaked email floating around that could have been penned by David Brent ) . This problem could happen to any airline but it's how it is dealt with and the leadership that is needed when a crisis occurs ,it's time to say adios to Snr Cruz who is failing his passengers , his staff and his shareholders .

That might be one big positive amongst all the shambles. Cruz, with his a cut a day agenda, needs to go now.
M&S must be regretting their association with BA as well. A sham of a menu handed out to passengers with most of it not stocked, or with only one or two of the item. ( I know they have nothing to do with the stocking for each plane)
BA is becoming a joke airline and they need to do something drastic to stop all the negative publicity. It's a shame as I have had almost all positive experiences but I can see that, in any cabin class, service recovery is poor.
I feel sorry for BA employees. The stress levels mus be sky high. ( pun sort of intended )

It's just a lack of leadership , it's all short term ideas with little thought going into it , the people at the top are paid big bucks and I have no problem with that as long as they are held accountable and provide leader qualities and thought out strategy and high morale with the staff . The customer service is only from the bottom up , it should be from the top down as well , the top is only concerned with financial results .

But I think customer services have their hands tied most of the time.
One thing they can do to help with some positive news - is reinstate free water, teas and coffees. And make sure you are properly stocked so that folks can actually buy food, particularly on the longer flights.

Been reading the Pprune forum and the Financial Times where some of the comments are from IT experts who work for big corporations and they simply do not believe the excuse given by the CEO of BA.
There have been no reports of a power surge in the area at the time the BA computers went down.

I know nothing about computers and I wouldn't be here if it were not for my eldest lad, but even I know that I have a part of my hard drive that's partioned off and isolated as a backup, and another backup copy on a portable HD in my desk drawer.
Mind you, I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to access the backup or get into my system.
One possibility is that this fiasco happened because someone in India decided to do a software upgrade on one of the biggest travel weekends in the Uk, without testing it and double testing it before making it live, and when it went t*ts up they didn't know how to fall back to the backup.

Another piece of useful information that I gained from these IT experts, is that when you have a system where there are different interconnecting computers talking to each other, (think of boarding cards, luggage labels and checking in. etc) there should be safeguards in the system which stops the domino effect of one after the other falling down.

I can understand that because when we went to OZ, Virgin's boarding computers went down and the staff had to resort to good old pen and paper, but it didn't knock the whole lot down.

Seems to me that BA are on a race to the bottom. A Spanish company with a Spanish CEO and out sourcing to India after getting rid of the British IT workforce..... what could possibility go wrong?
I don't know how they have the audacity to call themselves British Airways. Willy Walsh will slash to the bone until our national flag bearer is no better than Mickey O'leary's outfit..... Senor Cruz is the monkey, not the organ grinder.
Their reputation is in tatters and their shares have tanked......What a joke and BA has become the laughing stock around the world.

Instead of concentrating on cutting sandwiches, they should have an IT system that's fit for purpose and top notch.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/24/ba_job_offshoring_gmb_union_hand_delivered_letters/

Sanji x

BA is not a Spanish company , the operations are run from London and it's only based in Spain for tax reasons , it is listed on the London and Madrid stock exchanges . I don't think IMO that the reason it has it board meetings in Spain or has a Spanish born CEO has a bearing on the chaos at the weekend or even the fact that the IT is outsourced to India , many companies now outsource IT to India and can run their IT effectively . It might well be the system and back up could be not up to requirement and the cost cutting in this critical area means that cutting a free sandwich and drink on a short haul flight pales into insignificance at the lack of investment and planning of its IT system when something goes wrong .
My main concern about the whole fiasco is the lack of management and leadership from the CEO to his staff and poor communication to customers , that in my eyes does more damage than having a problem .
The shares did tank this morning , but have now nearly recovered to their opening position , so that will delight WW who is the main architect behind the BA cost cutting , the expected loss of about £100m for the weekends chaos against the operating profit of 2.5bn most likely means that WW and AC will stay in their jobs for the moment , but in years to come what will be their legacy .

Also famous British brands that are not British owned
http://uk.businessinsider.com/33-british-brands-that-are-not-british-2014-10