British Airways? or Bloody AWFUL?

Posted At : 18 July 2006 18:24 | Posted By : Andy Allan
Related Categories: What the F%*k?

So, I've been back from CFUNITED for a couple of weeks now, and I had planned to blog before this, however I wanted to wait until my wrangle with BA (British Airways) was over.

You see, I'm none to pleased with BA.My trip to Washington got off to a bit of a shaky start after I landed in London (from Glasgow) to find out my flight was delayed by 90 mins. This meant I would now land in Washington around midnight. Ack well, it could be worse.

It got worse.

We eventually boarded around 4 hours late and by the time I got to Washington, and to the hotel it was somewhere between 3.30 and 4am.

Considering Jeff Coughlin's alarm then went off at 6.30am ... yuk things weren't good. Luckily Scott Stroz had some beer for me to kick off my day. Yes, nothing like a 7am beer to get you going.

Anyway, after an excellent conference (which I'll blog about later), I left the hotel on the Sunday afternoon and headed for Dulles. Upon arrival at the airport I found that my flight to London was cancelled. *sigh*

At this point, all the BA staff could tell us was there was a crew shortage, and no backups to take over. Some folks were lucky in that they got slotted in to a different flight that day, or booked onto another airline to take them to London. However, because I was going to Glasgow I was told that the best they could do was the same flight 24 hours later. It's currently 3pm and my flight now isn't until 9.55pm the next day.

I'm then told I should have known this, as BA emailed me earlier that day. That just plain pissed me off as how could they assume I would actually have access to email? I should also point out there was NO email.

Anyway, so apparently BA have arranged to put me up in the local Hilton and will pay for my dinner and breakfast. The least they could do. So, I finally get to the Hilton only to find out that no one from BA has contacted the Hilton to tell them that passengers from the cancelled flight are coming to stay.

FORTY minutes later the Hilton finally manage to get in contact with someone from BA. She's not pleased. BA are giving them the run around too. Next up is the meal voucher fun. I'm issued with a voucher for $18 for dinner and $8 for breakfast.

It's plain to see that no one from BA has visited a Hilton lately. Do they really think there's anything on the Hilton menu that is covered by those vouchers? ... oh and don't forget the tax too. So I'm also now out of pocket.

This blog, just like the whole BA fiasco is now dragging on so let's skip to the following day. I arrive in the airport for 2pm. I want to see if I can get a free upgrade so the earlier I get there the better. I get to the desk, get checked in but told I can't have an upgrade. Oh well. There's a heated discussion going on at the desk next to me. The passengers are pushing for more information as to why yesterdays flight was cancelled.

I wish I had got this (BA) girls name but she then tells these passengers that the reason the crew never should up was because of a football match.

Yes ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the crew never showed up because they were watching the World Cup match between England and Portugal.

Anyway after numerous exchanges with BA, they point blank refuse to pay out any sort of compensation (even for the additional costs at the Hilton) claiming their staff watching the football instead of coming to work was outwith their control.

That seems like a serious management issue to me.

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Although it's bad you're out of pocket, just be glad you went with BA. You can bet if you'd gone with EasyJet or something, you certainly wouldn't have been given a bed for the night !

We had a missed connection once due to a delayed BA flight, and they payed for a several hundred pound taxi ride to take us to our destination. In a different country :-)

# Posted By Tom Chiverton | 18/07/06 14:14

Dude, it hurts to even tell you this, but I live only a few miles from dulles. I wish you'd known! You could have called me. I'd have given you free food, a soft couch and some cheerful company.

Oh well! Sorry to hear about the fiasco.

# Posted By Doug Hughes | 18/07/06 14:42

I blame Dulles airport myself. Of all the airports in America that I've used over the years (many, many dozens of them), Dulles is the only one that I can pretty much guarantee getting stuck in overnight. I've stopped using it. My wife didn't know how bad my experiences were with Dulles and booked a cat show trip thru it a few years back. Guess what? Yes, we got stuck overnight again.

Sorry to hear BA gave you the run around - they've always been good to me over the years (better than most any other airline I've used except maybe Virgin - and I've done a *lot* of transatlantic trips!).

Glad at least that you're home safe and blogging again :)

It was great to finally meet you at CFUNITED!

# Posted By Sean Corfield | 18/07/06 16:09

I'm also just down the road from Dulles. Bummer! I might have to reconsider BA as an option for our UK trip. Glad I got to meet you at the conference.

# Posted By Cate Sia | 18/07/06 19:13

I came back to Europe with Delta which really sux!

I think BA is one of the best as service but you just did not have any luck at that day.

Lufthansa rulez! :)

# Posted By O?uz Demirkap? | 18/07/06 19:48

heh. When you knocked on Scott's door that early morning (meeting him for the first time in person) and your first words were "I heard you have beer" I knew I was in for a long week :).

Glad you got home safe. If you're ever in/near CT (NYC/Boston) make sure to look me up again.

# Posted By Jeff Coughlin | 18/07/06 20:05

Jeff, thanks for not attacking me with a baseball bat when I finally arrived. Though I have to say, it was a strange experience being woken up a mere 3 hours later by the alarm clock of someone I'd never met before :)

Hey O?uz ... yeah Delta have so far been the worst airline I've ever flown with. I had two international and 4 domestic flights with them back in 2002 when I spent a month in the US and it was far from pleasent!

Fly Virgin Atlantic Cate, and mind drop in for a beer when you hit Scotland. Who knows, maybe I'll be back working in the supermarket by then ;)

Mr Corfield. Sir Sean! A pleasure indeed. Even more so with the fact you seemed to pay for most of my beer on the Friday night. Yer a good man!

Doug, that would have rocked. Ah well, at least you made it on the Thursday night giving me the opportunity to meet you. Can't believe you left the beard at home though :p

Tom, yer dead right. Easyjet are pure evil but at least you know what you're getting for your money. I expected more of BA, but oh well.

# Posted By Andy Allan | 19/07/06 01:55

I urge everyone never to travel with BA again. I have had the most horrific experience with them and am still waiting for them to reimburse the expenses i had to bear ( which they promised in writing to do btw!)I was meant to be travelling from heathrow to dehli on the 19th of July 2007. when i reached the airport BA staff requested me to go on a flight the next day as due to technical problems they had to deploy a smaller aircraft and would therefore have to offload passengers. I agreed and they put me up at the hilton. I was rebooked on a flight the next day. This flight was cancelled due to weather conditions . I had to queue for 7 hours to get rebooked. When i reahed the counter they said i had to wait for 4 days to fly again.I was travelling back to India for good after completing my gradation and had nowhere to stay in the u.k. they refused to put me up at a hotel and said if i paid for it they would reimburse the amount after i had returned to india. i had to request friends to travel down from huddersfield with some money. i was emvbarrassed and scared as i had to spend the next few days alonbe in heathrow. ba said i should come back to the airport everyday to see if they could accomodate me on an earlier flight. i did this with all my luggage twice and they coulkd not. at this point i was absolutely disgusted and rang their custoner care. after much ranting and raving they put me on a flight a day earlier. I have had to spend close to 300 pounds extra ( money which i had to borrow).my parents were frantic with worry in india.I am still waiting for ba staff to respoond to my query as to teh reimbursment. it has been over a month and a half since this happened and the only response i have had is a generic email saying that they are looking into it. I have no clue where to go from here.,evrytime i ring their local customer desk in delhi i am told that the matter has to be dealt with by the u.k. office. Does anyone know what i can do?

# Posted By rukmini | 04/09/07 16:22

I had to opposite experience, flying BA to Denmark.
The flight left the UK late, so we missed our connecting flight.
BA hired us a taxi to take us on a 200quid trip to the door of the hotel.

# Posted By Tom Chiverton | 04/09/07 16:54

I would never fly BA again. I just had the most horrible experience. My husband and I were traveling from Barcelona to Philadelphia via London on BA. The flight from Barcelona to Phillhya was delayed by four hours; we missed our onward connection to Philly. BA has two flights to Philly daily and we missed the last one for that day. When we asked BA if they could put ous on the earliest flight to Philly the following day, they said all flights to Philly were fully booked for the next three days! The only option they provided was for the two of us to fly on two sepearate American Airlines flights to Philly via Chicago! We were really pissed, so we asked them if they could at least get us to NY on the same flight - they refused to accomodate us. To make things worse, they said they couldn't put us up near Heathrow as all the hotels were full so they made us take a 1.5 hr bus ride to Gatwick at 12am after this entire fiasco to stay at the Hilton. The following day, we really had to get back to Philly so we took a US Airways flight from Gatwick. To make things worse, they misplaced both our bags. We are still waiting for them!