Passengers share fury at British Airways live-chat customer service after being stranded amid Heathrow fire

Exclusive: Couple were wrongly told BA could not get them out earlier – but their holiday company could

125,000 BA passengers were disrupted after Heathrow airport closed on 21 March because of a fire at a nearby electricity substation, with some flying home on Emirates (Maja Smiejkowska/PA)

British Airways was harder hit by the shutdown of London Heathrow on 21 March than any other airline. More than half of the 1,400 cancelled flights were on BA, wrecking the travel plans of 125,000 passengers.

The airline re-booked travellers on dozens of other airlines. But The Independent has learnt that British Airways left some passengers stranded – wrongly telling them no other flights were available.

Joan Keevil was in India on a Cox & Kings holiday with her husband Paul. They were at Delhi airport preparing to fly out aboard BA256 to Heathrow when the flight was cancelled.

Under air passengers’ rights rules, British Airways was obliged to find a replacement flight as soon as possible on any airline with seats available.

But Ms Keevil was told she would need to wait nine days to fly home – unless her holiday company stumped up for a new flight.

She bought replacement flights on Emirates two days after the Heathrow closedown, which BA must reimburse.

The “live chat” with a British Airways agent shows a remarkable lack of recognition of the long-standing passenger rights rules.

Ms Keevil told the representative: “We have work commitments on Monday as well as Tuesday, plus family commitments, and have run out of essential medications. Other passengers have been switched to Air Canada. This is really difficult for us due to all our commitments.

The agent said: “I duly understand your concern being a consumer myself.” But he added: “I am really sorry as we do not have the available flights to rebook you before 30 March.”

The agent then appears to shrug off BA’s obligation to find seats on any available carrier, saying: “I would suggest you to please check with your travel agency if they can rebook you on another airline as per their policy.”

Ms Keevil responded: “No, that’s not possible. Please let me escalate my chat to a supervisor.”

She was told no supervisor was available.

The agent then invoked a mysterious “policy”, saying: “Joan, If there was any available option with me than I would have loved to rebook you. As per the policy, I can only rebook you for 30 March.”

Ms Keevil then asked if they might fly via Mumbai. The agent responded: “I am really sorry as per the policy we cannot rebook from Mumbai as it is not within the 350 miles from Delhi.”

British Airways is obliged to get passengers to their destination as soon as possible by any means, and cannot introduce arbitrary policies.

The agent then returns to the subject of asking Cox & Kings, saying: “I would request you to please check with them as they can rebook with other airline as per their policy. As they have made the booking, they have more flexibility than us.”

British Airways told The Independent that the passengers were offered nonstop Virgin Atlantic flights on 25 March, four days after their scheduled departure, but chose not to accept them.

A spokesperson for BA said: “Our teams are contacting the customer to resolve the matter.”