BA CALL CENTRE IN MELTDOWN OVER STRIKES

.. But won't draft in extra staff. The call centre operation at British Airways has ground to a standstill as it attempts to cope with "many thousands" of concerned customers fearing for their Christmas and New Year flights.

But the airline has refused to draft in additional seats to handle the calls. 

BA cabin crew announced last night they would stage a walkout from December 22 to January 2 threatening as many as 650 flights a day from Heathrow and Gatwick.

The phone lines went into meltdown as customers waiting for up to an hour to get through to BA customer service staff. By this afternoon a recorded message was advising customers to “please try later or visit our website at BA.com” before ending the call.

A spokesman for the airline said all the information which agents are able to give out is on the website. He said: "A lot of the calls are about refunds and we cannot give information about refunds until we know whether there are any flights which will definitle be cancelled."

BA still plans to try to avoid the strike and has refused to say which flights are at threat of cancellation, leaving call centres in Manchester, Newcastle, Cyprus, South Africa, Delhi, Nigeria, the United States and elsewhere inundated - with no plans to beef up the existing teams.

Customers due to take flight during the period are being contacted by email or phone, and information on the website is advising that decisions on flight cancellations are yet to be made.

Members of the Unite union voted for the strike over the imposition of job cuts, a pay freeze for some and reduced cabin crew on every flight.

Union protesters yesterday donned T-shirts with the strike slogan "United We Stand".

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