I booked 4 tickets with BA on 23 Jan via their website. I booked in South Africa. By 25 Jan i had not received any e-ticket.

I checked my credit card and no debits were present. I went back to the web site and tried to book the same flight again. The price had increased to R34000 (from R31800). I booked a flight with SAA at R26000. On Jan 27 my credit card showed a debit from BA. My bank confirmed that BA delayed processing the card transaction. BA also advised this is "because the card debits are done via London". I have never received an e-ticket although BA say they issued it. After many phone calls, and repeated listening to the BA theme tune i have been told that i can only cancel my ticket via the web site as well as pay a penalty of +/- R4000 for doing so? I would think it reasonable that they refund in full - after all it is their poor systems and procedures that led to the problem. To cancel the booking i had to once again contact BA to get a booking reference as they still have not issued a ticket. The final word is that their web site says "Unfortunately our systems are not responding, so we are unable to process your request at the moment." The worlds favorite airline? Not. (roughly divide R by 10 to get pound equivalent).