[Anonymous]

[PaulJennings]

My LGW to Marseille flight was cancelled last week because of a strike in France. The cancellation was only confirmed after the advertised take-off time and the first indication of that was when the flight simply disappeared from the screens. The lounge staff either could not or would not offer any help in rebooking and made us all trudge back to the Reservations Office landside and stand in a half-hour queue to rebook, with no priority for Club Europe. It was made very clear very quickly that BA did not consider this cancellation to be within their control and so would not offer any help in finding a hotel. I don’t disagree with the fact that the strike was beyond their control and I realise that the EU rules don’t cover this. But the whole ‘not bothered’ attitude is not what I expect when travelling with BA.

To add insult to injury, when we tried to check in for the return flight from Marseille a few days later we were told that our reservation had been cancelled. Why? Because we didn’t take the outward flight we were supposed to, thereby triggering an automatic cancellation of subsequent sectors. We did get on the flight, in the end, though because we were ‘extras’ we were told that the food would be dependent on other passengers’ refusing meals. The flight was 1.5 hours late by the way, the 737 had had a technical fault earlier in the day…

Bit unimpressed.

[Flytoomuch]

Sadly, it’s a tale I don’t find surprising given my own experiences of BA ground staff here in LGW and LHR.

I’m about to relate a balancing tale about my family’s return from the Far East only a few weeks ago. We were returning from our holidays at the end of August (read end of school holidays also), on KUL-SIN-LHR with MAS / BA in WT with my wife, a young child and a toddler (under 2). On the MH flight, my wife started to experience abdominal pains.

Seeking assistance from the Changi staff at Term 2, we wheeled her to the QF/BA FIRST lounge in Terminal 1, where a quick flash of my gold card and my boarding pass (which read WT) and a quick explanation of the situation and I’m suddenly surrounded by four very concerned lounge staff in BA uniforms, all helping in one way or the other. (One taking our hand luggage and stowing it away in the lounge office, another taking the kids to the ice cream bar, one attending to our tickets and checked luggage and one escorting us down to the Raffles Medical Centre).

I’m going to skip most of the detail – briefly, we ended up staying a night at the transit hotel after my wife had received medical attention. One of the BA Lounge staff as well as a Changi CSR even escorted us to the transit hotel, helping with the hand luggage etc. She then suggested we check out of the transit hotel in the morning and retreat to the lounge, where indeed we were greeted with a warm and knowing hello the day after by new staff (word had been left).

Finally, being the school holidays, all outbound flights were fully packed the next day. However, although my wife was only passed fit to fly four hours before the flight, they managed to get us 3+1 seats in WT.

Absolutely ace service which I intend to congratulate BA on. However, having regular experience of the lounge staff at Changi vs LHR / LGW, I do not believe BA lounge staff would have been anywhere as helpful in LGW / LHR. I know there is a considerable difference in volume of traffic passing through the lounges, but I do believe there is also a considerable difference in the attitudes of the staff.

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