A PASSENGER caught up in the British Airways cancellations has said how he was told his flight was cancelled – only for it to take off without him.
Marcio Mattos, 38, was due to fly with British Airways yesterday on flight BA247, from London Heathrow to Buenos Aires.
He told Sun Online Travel: "I had a flight booked for yesterday at 10:05pm going to Buenos Aires with a stop in São Paulo.
"By 11pm we were told the flight was cancelled and that we should wait for an e-mail with further instructions about reimbursement, accommodation, and an eventual new flight."
He then said not only did the email never arrive, but he was later told the plane wasn't cancelled – and actually took off.
He continued: "Today I received the information from my travel agent that the flight actually departed without some passengers."
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"Right now my travel agent can’t book me another flight because it was not technically cancelled but delayed."
According to Flightradar24, flight BA247's first connection took off, but the second connection between Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires was cancelled.
Marcio, originally from Brazil but was in the UK for a workshop, said he was forced to try and get hold of British Airways himself, with the queue for customer service "crazy".
He said he has has no idea how much money he will have lost by the confusion as he was still waiting to hear about everything including his "flight, hotel and food".
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Marcio added: "I understand technical issues happen and it’s acceptable.
"However, we had no information about anything.
"No BA staff approached us to say a word. I am talking about at least one hundred people lost at Heathrow looking for information.
"The few BA staff we could find by that time just repeated the same mantra: wait for the e-mail."
A British Airways spokesperson told Sun Online Travel that due to pilot sickness the second connection had to be cancelled, while the first connection from London did go ahead – however passengers were not put on it to prevent them from being stranded in Sao Paolo.
They also confirmed that a direct flight from the UK to Buenos Aires would be operating later today for passengers who had missed their flight.
British Airways has cancelled more than 100 flights today, as Brits face travel chaos while trying to jet off for an Easter break.
The majority of flights were suspended after British Airways announced it was reducing its schedule last week, with flights affected until the end of May.
Only five of the cancellations were at short notice due to staff shortages caused by Covid, including routes to Paris and Oslo.
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The airline was forced to cancel flights last week due to an IT issue across the UK, affecting nearly 100 flights.
But British Airways isn't the only airline facing Covid-related flight cancellations – easyJet grounded hundreds of flights yesterday due to staff absence because of Covid, with around 100 more today.
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