British Airways down updates — Hundreds of customers report problems with airline website

How Sean Doyle rose to become CEO

Doyle started off in “various financial, strategy, commercial and alliance roles for the airline.” 

He was appointed to the airline’s executive management committee as director of network, fleet, and alliances, in 2016. 

Doyle stepped into a role as Aer Lingus chief executive in January 2019 .

He took over as CEO of British Airways in October 2020.

British Airways CEO

The CEO and chairman of British Airways is Sean Doyle.

The Irishman grew up in Youghal, County Cork and studied at University College Cork.

He joined British Airways in 1998 at the age of 27.

British Airways is 50 years old

British Airways was created in 1974, and the company is now 50 years old.

It was made by the government to manage two national airlines, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines.

All four companies were merged to form British Airways in March 1974.

British Airways was privatised in February 1987.

More tips for cheaper flights

Midweek travel tends to be more affordable than flying over the weekend.

If you can stretch your getaway for a few extra days, you may also be able to take advantage of cheaper return flights.

If you are open to travel early in the morning or late at night, you are more likely to save money on flights.

Skyscanner, Momondo and Kiwi.com are a few of the best websites for comparing flight costs.

When flights are the cheapest

Flight prices are usually cheapest when tickets are first released, especially during the summer months.

Prices increase as demand rises.

During peak travel times such as Christmas, flights are usually more expensive.

You can often take advantage of cheaper fares during the low or shoulder seasons if you don’t have a preference about when you want to fly. 

How to check for an outage

To see if the British Airways website is down, you can check the website Downdetector, which reports complaints inputted by users.

Today, hundreds of reports flooded the British Airways website.

You can also monitor social media channels for updates.

Reports drop

Issue reports on have dropped to under 200.

Earlier, reports peaked at over 300.

Customers had also taken to social media to report a website outage.

If you can't access your boarding pass

If you are unable to access the website for your upcoming flight or boarding pass, you should contact customer service via their social media channels.

Alternatively, you can call the customer service number on 0344 493 0787.

If you need to visit the airport in the upcoming hours, then passengers should go to the BA help desk on arrival.

British Airways responds to complaints

Responding to customer complaints on X, formerly known as Twitter, British Airways wrote, ‘’We are aware of some intermittent issues with the website and the app at the moment and our IT teams are currently investigating this for us.

‘’Please try again later today and hopefully, the issues have been resolved.’’

The company wrote in a second response to complaints, '' We are aware of the issue and we're working to get it resolved as soon as possible.''

How far in advance flights can be booked

British Airways allows customers to book flights up to 355 days in advance.

For example, if you want to travel on November 20, 2024, you can book the outbound flight from November 30, 2023.

This applies to tickets bought with both cash and reward currency, Avios.