British Airways repatriation policy lottery left a sour taste while abroad for 57 days due to Covid

MSE_Chris_D

I'm unhappy with British Airways. It's an airline I like, but I'm disappointed in it.

Why? Well, it's clear massive disruption due to Covid-19 is not BA's fault and it's going through its own major financial problems, but its policies left me and my wife in a bit of pickle (a very small pickle in the bigger scheme of things) while we were in Dubai in March and April.

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British Airways repatriation policy lottery left a sour taste while abroad for 57 days due to Covid-19

fifeken

If originally due to fly home on 22nd March he must have noticed by then what was happening all over the world.  If he wanted to be in the UK he should have made arrangements to shorten his break and returned early.  I think BA were offering that at the time for no additional cost.

bagand96

In a nutshell, it failed to book us on to any alternative flights that were still running (which it should have done) after it cancelled multiple flights home

Yes it should have, but everything was falling apart by 22nd March.  Instead of sitting around waiting for BA to do something, why not take some responsibility to get themselves home, as per FCO advice?  As the author says, there were plenty of flights Dubai-UK for a good week or more after our lockdown had started.  I'd have got myself home, and argued over the cost and who to try and re-coup it from at a later date.

Yes there are regulations that cover what airlines must and must not do, but it was an unprecedented event, everything went out the window, take some responsibility for yourself!