British Airways — World’s Most Disheartening Airline
This is not a rant neither is it a whiny complaint, this is a careful evaluation of a long relationship with a “partner” whom I was fond of and liked. It’s lengthy yes but do read on and let me have your thoughts……
On occasion, I have wondered about whether I should travel exclusively with one airline. The benefits of doing so are compelling because of the loyalty programmes offered. For many years I travelled on British Airways. I maintained Gold status for the last few years of that relationship. The airline offered good service, comfort and convenience. Then I had two very bad experiences that caused me to rethink my loyalty to British Airways (BA). Recently, I thought I may have had an exaggerated reaction to those two events, so I flew once more with BA. The experience on that flight in December brought me to the stark realization that BA is the worst out there — even in comparison to other, less prominent airlines I have flown with over the years.
My first terrible experience was in 2015. On one of my flights to Europe, from West Africa, my luggage and some of its contents arrived damaged even though I had gone to the extent of having fragile stickers attached. On receipt of the bag, I immediately alerted BA about the damage. I was asked to send pictures of the damage and I promptly did as instructed. Over the next three months I had to keep going back to BA about replacement of the damaged items. I did not want money. To date, BA have refused to address the matter because I cannot provide a receipt for the purchase of the luggage. Apparently, though it was a gift I must still have a receipt to claim. Providing images and a model number of the item has proven insufficient for their protocol.
In the same year I boarded another BA flight, this time from Amsterdam to Accra via London. A flight attendant was extremely rude to me right from boarding and I couldn’t quite understand what had set her off. It came across to me as though she felt I did not belong where I was seated. I put my hand luggage away and fastened my seatbelt, as is custom. My seatbelt usually stays on throughout the flight. Prior to take off, said attendant approached me to tell me (and I do mean tell not ask) to fasten my seatbelt. I informed her that I had. She response was that she was not satisfied with my answer and insisted on seeing the belt buckled.
At this point I should mention that I am a self-conscious obese man. My stomach goes over the belt when fastened. I told her she was welcome to take a look to assure herself of this. Her response was that it was my responsibility to demonstrate to her that the belt was fastened. I attempted to stand so she would see the belt hold me down. This also was not to her satisfaction and she raised her voice to me. I found this unacceptable and asked her to explain exactly what she expected me to do. She left in a huff after informing me she could have me taken off the flight. Shortly one of her male colleagues approached me, possibly at her behest, and asked if I’d fastened my belt. I said yes and that was that. Though I submitted a written complaint, I have not received an apology from BA. This lack of consideration by BA convinced me that I was not a valued customer. I stopped flying BA, not even bothering to use my over 200,000 Avios or the OB points.
I have had to give myself sufficient time to recover from the scars of the most recent journey to be able to write objectively about the experience. I purchased a ticket from Frankfurt to Heathrow meaning to spend one night in London on business. I had intended to do this trip by train but with the failure of one of the carriers these were fully booked. I decided to catch a morning flight, do my business in the afternoon then spend the night. If I hadn’t completed my business I’d then have the morning for this and would catch an afternoon flight back. Simple enough, I thought. I bought my ticket quite late, so I ended up paying a substantial premium.
I arrived at the airport early and went up to the lounge. When it was time to board I got up to leave. I walked over to the counter to thank the staff and was then informed that the flight was delayed. It didn’t say so on the board. I was asked to take a seat and would be informed when the new boarding time came. I did so. However, when I didn’t have any updates for a while I got concerned that I would miss my meetings. I walked up to the counter again to enquire about the delay only to be told I was about to miss the flight if I didn’t hurry. I had to speed walk to the gate, arrived breathless and made it through the gate security just on time. This is where things really got bad.
A lady on the ground staff checking boarding passes before one would board the bus to the plane told me, without bothering to look up, that I had booked my flight late so there was likely to be no meal provision for me. This being a short flight it wouldn’t have mattered. Nonetheless having paid almost double the standard price I stated that I didn’t find that or the manner in which I was being informed acceptable. In quite an offhand manner she simply told me in effect; “too bad”. I went down the escalator and entered the open bus. I remained seated in this bus, as I couldn’t re-enter the building for 45 minutes in sub-zero temperature with the doors fully open before the driver appeared to drive to the aircraft. I was beginning to remember why I had stopped flying with BA.
I boarded and was approached by an elderly couple asking to swap seats so they could sit together. I put the previous annoyances out of my mind. There was just something about their desire not to be apart even for this short flight that touched me. I swapped seats and settled down for the short flight still conscious that with every minute I had less and less time to get my business done. After about a half hour we were informed that we would be delayed further because of the weather. However, this short delay turned into an hour, then two, three, eventually after about six hours of delay, and more excuses than I can recall ever hearing, we took off for Heathrow. In all this while the only food/refreshments available were crisps, alcohol and sugary drinks. Nothing I wanted or should have. I began to think, I may have lost all of the day, but perhaps I could get my work done in the morning the following day.
As we approached Heathrow I noticed that the aircraft had begun to circle the airport. A number of passengers, including me, asked the flight attendants what was going. Oddly, they seemed to have no knowledge of what was happening. Eventually, it was announced that a parking slot couldn’t be made available at Heathrow because of the delay thus the flight was being diverted to Newcastle. I had to fly out of Heathrow back to Frankfurt the following afternoon. How would I make my flight? I had prepaid for a hotel in London for the night what would happen with that? How would I get out to London for my meetings? The attendants had no answers. I would have to wait till we landed at Newcastle and enquire from ground staff. I kept asking the attendants because surely, they were in contact with the ground staff and could get the required information.
We landed at Newcastle. There was no BA ground staff in sight. We queued at the immigration desk. By the time I got through immigration and into the hall I released my mistake. Once out there was no pressure on BA. Still no BA personnel in sight. My flight should have landed at Heathrow at 1150. Here I was at baggage claim in Newcastle at almost 2000. At this point I spotted a few passengers from the flight at the far end of the hall. As I walked up I noticed a Travelport (I may be mistaken here — it has been a while) employee holding sheets of photocopied paper. The cowardly airline would not even have their staff there to apologise to passengers and direct them on how to access arrangements made to accommodate them. Indeed, it turned out that no arrangements had been made.
I asked the gentleman a few questions, however, his repeated response was that the next flight out would be in two or three days and this was all the information he had. My flight back to Frankfurt was the following day, what could I do about this. No information. I need advice here. I have a Frankfurt — Dubai flight to catch in three days then another flight two days later. “I can’t help you. You’ll have to call BA in the morning. But as I said the next BA flight is in two or three days.” I finally took the paper and read it. Even more ridiculous. e.g. I had to find my own way into the city, find a hotel and get this, BA would consider reasonable expenses of £200 for two people sharing a room and up to £50 on transportation.
Right, so I travelled to the UK alone. I do not know any passenger on the flight. I’ve paid for a room at a good hotel in London that will not be reimbursed. Now I had to find a hotel with vacancy, find someone to share said room and willing to pay half the cost. Pay for a cab, pay for a hotel and meals for two or three days then wait for a BA reimbursement. In my case, as this was a simple overnight, I’d have to also buy clothing. Fortunately, I heard a passenger say the trains were running. I followed them. If I hurried I could make the last train from the airport to the Train Station and catch the last train to London. I made it to the station in time. But it was almost time for the train so the tickets to London were over a hundred pounds sterling. I purchased my ticket and boarded nonetheless. The train was late but at least I’d make it to London. While my journey was a complete waste at least I’d make it out to Frankfurt and continue with the rest of my journey.
I got to London well after 0100. I had found a hotel nearby as I was now a no show at the hotel I initially booked. There was quite a queue to get a room, but it eventually got to me and there was a room or two still available. Of course, this would also be at a premium. I got to the room just before 0300 had a shower and went to bed. The next morning, I got my things together and at 1100 headed back to Heathrow after confirming my flight was still scheduled. Needless to say, getting out was no better than getting in. I was held up by ground staff though I had checked in online. The BA staff wouldn’t respond to my very simple question as to why my boarding pass was being refused unless I joined the queue. After two hours of being in a queue I shouldn’t have had to be in, the staff stated with surprise that I needn’t have queued. My passport simply needed to be verified because it wasn’t an EU passport.
It was such a relief to escape BA when I landed in Frankfurt. On the way to the hotel the driver told me how Emirates and Lufthansa flights had been grounded at the airport. However, in this case every passenger was provided with transportation as well as hotel and meal vouchers. It was all very orderly and demonstrated the value these airlines placed on their customers. I compared that to my ordeal. Strangely, I was no longer angered. Merely relieved to have it all behind me. I had, in the end, spent a little over £1,500 for this journey with British Airways. This was almost double what I would have spent even with the premium I had to pay for the original flight. I ended up unable to do any of the business for which I undertook the flight. A month later British Airways sent me an apology for the inconvenience suffered together with a £300 airline voucher. That was an expensive lesson, but I’ve learnt it.
This is to British Airways, the provider of the worst service I have ever experienced!. Here’s the kicker, if this was my experience as a business class passenger, what would have happened if I’d flown economy?……..