British Airways told Róis Porter, a nurse from Edinburgh, she had been chosen “at random” as one of the people who would not be getting on the plane because it had been oversold
A nurse was told she wouldn’t be getting on her British Airways plane as she had been “randomly” removed from the flight.
Róis Porter was selected as one of the people to miss out on the flight for Tokyo because British Airways (BA) had oversold it. She had been planning the trip, to meet up with friends who she hadn’t seen in years, for some time.
When staff at Heathrow Airport told Róis the news, she feared her once-in-a-lifetime trip would be “ruined”. BA eventually booked her onto a flight to Hong Kong, with another connecting flight to Tokyo, which extended her travel time and cut into her holiday.
The UK’s flagship carrier airline offered Róis a £50 voucher for the inconvenience, the nurse claimed She slammed the “poor communication” she experienced ahead of the holiday on September 30, 2023.
Róis said: “I’d booked everything a year in advance, I’m a nurse so it’s quite difficult to get days off. It’s even more tricky and expensive to get to Japan. I had been planning to go back before lockdown, which obviously didn’t happen. So this trip had been three years in the making.”
The nurse was left at Heathrow all day as she waited for her new flight, EdinburghLive reports. She continued: “I was basically begging them to let me get on the flight. They were pretty blunt and not very compassionate. I just don’t see why they oversell flights… I was meant to arrive at 8am the next day, but instead it was 8pm the following day.
“I wrote all of this down at the airport and submitted a complaint. I was just so confused and stressed, it wasn’t clear what was happening on the day or where I was meant to go. It was just a horrible way to start my trip. I thought the whole holiday was ruined.”
British Airways later offered her a £50 voucher with the airline, which Róis feels wasn’t adequate. She said: “I lost a whole day. That was time out of my annual leave, time out of my holiday. I’ve still not spoken to an actual human, the whole time it’s been through a system where I’m basically told there’s nothing they can do. I’ve chased real compensation, heard nothing back. The communication has been poor throughout.”
“I was meeting up with friends who live in China and the delay meant we missed a whole day together, which out of only a week is a lot. I hadn’t seen them in years and probably won’t get to for a long time.”
British Airways said: “We’re in contact with the customer to apologise for the inconvenience and resolve the issue.”
