Is anyone really surprised? Does anyone who has ever used British Airways actually have anything good to say about them?
Last year when I flew back from Nicaragua, British Airways lost my bag. I was left with a phone number to call to try and trace it.
I called it. It was so busy that I couldn’t even go into a queue. My God, how many bags had they lost?
They recorded message simply told me to ring back another time. I tried and tried and tried and I never got through to one human being on that phone line. I didn’t even get to join the queue – not even the luxury of being exasperated by hold music.
I started ringing all numbers. I no longer cared that I was ringing the wrong hotline. I just wanted to speak to a person. Nothing, nothing and nothing.
Some weeks later I came home and wandered what that was in the backyard. It was my bags. I hadn’t been in so they just chucked them round the back.
No letter of apology or anything. No follow up phone call or email. Can you imagine any other organisation behaving like this?
Traveling by air is not fun. It’s almost as if the airlines know they are the bad guys. Like they’ve decided to cut back on every customer comfort and maximise their profits before the green lobby catches up with them.
If their customers hate them in the meantime then what do they care? If it’s all going to come crashing down then they might as well be architects of their own downfall. Better that, they must reason, than letting the Greenies do it.
I liked this from author Anthony Horowitz who was caught up in the debacle with his family:
The one thing I didn’t see at Heathrow was the expected demonstration by environmental groups such as Greenpeace or Plane Stupid. But perhaps they weren’t needed. There were, after all, thousands of people protesting for them, albeit in a rather lacklustre and disorganised way. They were called passengers.
And at the end of the day, it is their voice that may put an end to the vexed question of airport expansion. The bigger it gets the worse it gets, and I’d guess that modern air travel carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. There will have to come a time when everyone decides that anything is better than seat 27K behind the lavatory… even staying at home.
The environmentalists only have to wait, because in the end they’ve simply got to win.
5 comments
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March 30, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Diehard Geordie
I have not flown for 50 years - so I just do not care what happens in airports.
Probably BA are no worse than the rest. Just that they get more publicity.
No, not green, just double thickness eardrums.
March 31, 2008 at 10:01 am
Abby
Actually, they did something right by me. Sorry. On the final flight home from a RTW trip we made our connecting flight from Heathrow to Manchester with minutes to spare - the delay was due to fog, not BA’s rubbishness - however our bags didn’t. We filled a form in and they promised to have our bags with us within 24 hours. They were delivered to our front door about 2 hours after we got home. The best bit of all this was the immense joy I felt at not having to lift my stupid backpack one last time as we left the airport! I’ve always had a soft spot for BA ever since, sparing me that one final fight with the worlds heaviest bag….
March 31, 2008 at 12:06 pm
ourmanwhere
Abby - glad to have you put it right from your point of view. I certainly know the feeling of having lost your bag and enjoying how light you feel on the way home.
Trouble comes when you don’t get it back sharpish.
Ms Geordie - in my experience not worst than the rest - it takes a lot to our worst the economy airlines. But at least they are economy - you pay full whack for crap service on BA.
March 31, 2008 at 5:23 pm
minxlj
The only airline I’ve ever been 100% happy with was Virgin Atlantic. Great service, great food, very nice staff and a stellar service to LA and San Fran both times I went. I was pleased that a British airline was getting it right, because I’ve never been that impressed with BA’s service. I refuse to fly with ‘budget’ airlines because I don’t appreciate the thought of cutting costs on a bloody airplane…just makes me worry! Short-haul I’d rather drive through Europe, it’s great fun if you have the time and I’m pretty sure I can’t lose my own bags…I’ve cut right down on my carbon footprint now so little flying for me these days, which is good.
FINGERS CROSSED, I’ve never had the misfortune of losing a bag when flying, but if I came home and it was dumped in my damn garden I’d make sure I complained about it. That is shocking service! If some passer-by nicked it, how would you have known?
2 or 3 times flying (can’t remember who…Delta and American Airlines I ‘think’) I’ve ordered veggie food (and re-confirmed as I never trust them) only to get the shrug of the shoulders on the plane when it doesn’t appear on their list. So no food for me for 10 hours? Cheers! (If that was kosher food for someone, there’d be an uproar)
So I always pack back-up food…but I think it was American whose staff tracked down a spare veggie sandwich and pud so I could have something to eat - which I thought was very nice since it wasn’t their fault!
April 8, 2008 at 11:27 am
The not so hot BA hotline. « Our Man in Newcastle
[...] There is just nothing you can do. Nothing that BA haven’t suffered. No threat you can make against them. Legal? Media? Whatever. It’s water off a ducks back now. I feel your pain. [...]