British Airways Incompetance

[®îçhå®?]

Oh, and unlike Americans, Canadians do "get it" much more often.

Lol. I hsve to disagree. I have met one Canadian this summer and she was hilarious. She didnt know if anyone was joking or not and just got so confused about it all. She expected someone to laugh as soon as THEY had made the joke. Most English people dont do that incase no one else laughs. That would be funny

And i also met an American tourist in London. Pointed to a random builing and go "Buckingham Palace" and he is like "WOW" and starts taking loads of photos of it. Really stupid.

 

[AndyR]

We had a bloke at work who flew out of LHR with BA when all this was going on. He had to pack all this hand luggage into the hold baggage which meant camera, camcorder, laptop, ipod, car keys and phone.

Got to his destination (tenerife) and his bag was there. Opened it up and all the above mentioned was missing!!

His travel insuranec is refusing to pay out as there is no proof it was in the luggage. They will only cover lost keys as when he came home he had to leave his car at the airport as his car keys were in the luggage. Got a cab home and had to smash a window to get in as also house keys were in there.

Freakin disgusting!

I'm dreading travelling for my wedding in 3 weeks!

 

[®îçhå®?]

We had a bloke at work who flew out of LHR with BA when all this was going on. He had to pack all this hand luggage into the hold baggage which meant camera, camcorder, laptop, ipod, car keys and phone.

Got to his destination (tenerife) and his bag was there. Opened it up and all the above mentioned was missing!!

His travel insuranec is refusing to pay out as there is no proof it was in the luggage. They will only cover lost keys as when he came home he had to leave his car at the airport as his car keys were in the luggage. Got a cab home and had to smash a window to get in as also house keys were in there.

Freakin disgusting!

I'm dreading travelling for my wedding in 3 weeks!

That was the same problem with me but luckily (if you can call it that), i got t back 2 days before i was due to come home. Instead of it being stolen, it was broken. BA did absolute ****e. They were saying that terminal 1 had been cleaed. That in itself was no lie, it had been sent to terminal 4 and given to FedeX!!!!!! The way they handled the situation was disgusting. British Midlands had no problems, no one at their desks complaining or anything!!

 

[Dr.Chiz]

Look i feel bad for you but i have been flying BA for hmm 20 years now from when i was a mear 6 month old baby to spain its the best flight ever ( not much of a selection for tv;s though only 10 channels and they re run) but thats just london for you you wanna heara bad story ill tell you one when i was hmm 13 i was in your shoes brother i acutally cried and so did my mom we were so depressed ok we live in california and every year the imediat family ( my mom, me and my little bro --- dad dotn wanan ever come) go to spain to visit like our family of 500 cousins, uncles, aunts grandparents. We fly from San Fransisco to Heathrow to BilBo i hate it ****ing 10 hour flight, anyway we get to san fransisco airport which we live in roseville so its a 3 hour god damn drive!!!! ARFHG!!! and guess wat we get there like 2 hours early before our flight on BA goes and we get there and they say sorry your planes been delayed so were like omg ok until when i was gonna cry at this point when the man said untill tomorrow night ...ARGH IT TAKES US 3 HOURS TO DRIVE TO SAN FRANSISCO 7 TOTAL THERE AND BACK so my mom is flipping out cause they made us drive here now they say its 24 hours next flight ( which we cant du ebecause we have a switching flight from heathrow to spain with our bags ) so were like is there any other flight yes theres Virgin Airlines we never used it cause BA owns, so we go on it , yall it was like hell compacted into a plane. Only positive it had every movie u could watch but 1. they said me , my mom and my bro were all going to be sitting at diff ends of plane ( my bro is 9 and im 13 ok so im kinda freaked im alone next to older adults . 2. i actually did cry so they manage to get us all to sit together but then the food omg i hate the smell of airline food even the new gay garlic pretzles god i just want peanutes,it makes me gag any plane any food i usally eat the desert. well i ate stupid sandwhich gave me i fell asleep and i wake up with people yelling and me throwing up on my shirt that was nice to wake up covered in barf so that happened. Then we go at heathrow to our next flight and we go cause the bags are supposed to be put on the flight there selves and we only stay in spain for 2 weeks well guess wat happens when we arive in spain yes the begs are missing once again my mom is lik having a mental break down at this point i felt like shooting the god damn baggage lady cause they dont do **** so we go to stay at my aunts house like we always due i have 1 pair of clothes well 2 lol the first class people gave me pajajmas cause i threw uip on myself so i felt lucky having 2 so we only had 2 pairs of clothing and no bags....well 3 days later we get a phone call there delivering 1 of the 2 bas we brought ....1 of them had food and a baby stroller for my aunts new baby and other crap and the other had all of our clothes to last 2 weeks....WELL KNOWING OUT LUCK GUESS WHCIH SUITCASE THEY DELIEVERED!!!! i was so happy when i heard this i was like thank god our luck is changing then we open it up to notice no clothes but a ****ing stroller so after i ran into my roomc rying and break the walls with my fist i went to sleep. Then THEN ****ING THEN!!!!! i think wat on the second week were there we only hav elike 4 days of spain left they get our suitcase with clothes and i was staying a tmy uncles me and my bro cause hes cool like that hes awesome well we get the clothes but i dont no cause my uncle lives like 20 miles away from my aunts so i go another 2 days wearing bought clothes at a spain store which i hate ....worst trip ever....really i would wake up at like 1 am ( 9 hour time difference_) and id go to there living room watch alittle tv to calm myself down and then sit on the couch and cry for like 2 hours one i missed my doggie and dad and because of this horrible vacation form when we arrived at the airport.. I WAS 13 DONT JUDGE ME!!! ill n ever forget that vacation cause it was so sad but this one time like 2 years ago when i was 18 i brought 2 ibooks and a windows laptop put them in a suitcase with electronics well they saw the cables and laptops arranged in odd ways so immeditaylly the dumbass scanner guy screams HE HAS A BOMB!!!! they tackle me .... and im pissed off they apologize and i just wann punch him in the face././/...but ya moldy clothes eww

 

[XIII]

My god. I have a headache after trying to read that.

 

[Glen Quagmire]

My god. I have a headache after trying to read that.

You actually read it? You're a braver soul than I.

Dr.Chiz: click on this link and absorb the information therein.

 

[XIII]

You actually read it? You're a braver soul than I.

"... after trying to read it." Not succeeding.

 

[Peterkro]

I read it all and I don't have the slightest idea of what it was about.Now I'm going for a lie down.

 

[garybUK]

I fly BA a LOT and i love them, never once had a problem, unlike the idiotic american arlines uuuugh, I agree though BA stewards do think they are above other people, but I don't like the anti-british tone from some people!

If we started thinking everyone was like George Bush from America you'd bit my head off..... you know if u dish it out, u have to take it.

 

[mr?]

That is alot of writing and yes i did read it. Your holiday sounds as bad as ®îçhå®?'s, not any worse.
Who else saw ®îçhå®?'s post before it was deleted??

 

[®îçhå®?]

Just an update. The house insurance company will pay for all of it BUT recommended asking BA because we will loose our no claims bonus and have to pay a 20% extra premium ontop of that. If we dont claim, we loose our clothes and laptops etc but if we do, we are pretty much paying for it.

 

[iGav]

The house insurance company will pay for all of it

Told you so.

BUT recommended asking BA.

I wouldn't get your hopes up, limited liability... though BA aren't unique in this, all major carriers are the same or at least similar.

we will loose our no claims bonus and have to pay a 20% extra premium ontop of that. If we dont claim, we loose our clothes and laptops etc but if we do, we are pretty much paying for it.

That's the way insurance works. It's a business.

Claim, then shop around for insurers for a better renewel deal.

And then invest in better travel cases for the future.

 

[®îçhå®?]

Yeah i supose we should do that. I imagine thousands are in the same situation but with car insurance, after your claim, you do not loose your o claims bonus or have to pay more, it is like a second chace kinda thing.

 

[iGav]

Yeah i supose we should do that.

It's no different to switching electricity companies for example, if you can get the same coverage elsewhere cheaper, then do it...

but with car insurance, after your claim, you do not loose your o claims bonus or have to pay more, it is like a second chace kinda thing.

Some house policies are the same.

Though usually you just end up paying a higher premium in the first place, as they calculate your risk factor.

Insurance is a business based on calculated risks. Nothing more.

 

[true777]

I have been on roughly 100 transatlantic flights in the last 10 years and have mostly *chosen* to fly British Airways because I actually like them a lot.

Are you sure you aren't confusing British Airways service with the service of the Heathrow baggage handlers? Heathrow airport is a mess, and their baggage handling is quite bad.

I am sorry about what happened to you, but I think it could have happened to you if you had flown ANY airline out of Heathrow during those terrorist threat days.

 

[®îçhå®?]

I have been on roughly 100 transatlantic flights in the last 10 years and have mostly *chosen* to fly British Airways because I actually like them a lot.

Are you sure you aren't confusing British Airways service with the service of the Heathrow baggage handlers? Heathrow airport is a mess, and their baggage handling is quite bad.

I am sorry about what happened to you, but I think it could have happened to you if you had flown ANY airline out of Heathrow during those terrorist threat days.

Not entirely true. BMI and Air Lingus, two others from Heathrow were exceptional. To an extent, it was the baggage handlers because of the security checks but BA's customer service was crap. When we got back and complained, we were told..... quote "You may have had a sh*tty holiday but at least you werent blown up"

 

[macartistkel]

Dude that sucks about the wrecked powerbooks, but honestly I can take the airline staff being rude as hell to me as long as they get me to my destinations...ALIVE! That is all I care about the whole time.

 

[Thanatoast]

Dude that sucks about the wrecked powerbooks, but honestly I can take the airline staff being rude as hell to me as long as they get me to my destinations...ALIVE! That is all I care about the whole time.

That's ********. I'm paying for both myself and my luggage to arrive in one piece, not just myself. Flying has become a joke. And not a funny one.

 

[®îçhå®?]

That's ********. I'm paying for both myself and my luggage to arrive in one piece, not just myself. Flying has become a joke. And not a funny one.

The ironic thing is that to fill out the lost baggage form, we needed our address that we would be staying at. Where do you think that was?? A pen (the Athens staff didnt want us to use one of theirs), a mobile phone, money to make a phone call, all in the suitcase. That was the worst thing.

 

[yojitani]

Just an update. The house insurance company will pay for all of it BUT recommended asking BA because we will loose our no claims bonus and have to pay a 20% extra premium ontop of that. If we dont claim, we loose our clothes and laptops etc but if we do, we are pretty much paying for it.

Similar thing happened to my dad on a flight to Sudan.. or Kenya, I forget which. BA lost his bags, said they would deliver them the next day at his hotel, but nothing came. Now this was a buz trip and he had a meeting later that afternoon. Obviously, he couldn't go to the meeting in dirty clothes so he had to get the hotel to wash his clothes while he hung out in his room with no clothes on (he didn't have time to go shopping). Anyway, clothes got washed, but made an embarassing situation when the hotel sent a young woman to deliver his suit!

As for BA, they never actually got the suitcase to him in the two weeks he was there. Instead, the bags had gone to Singapore and Malaysia! BUT, the day after he left, BA delivered the bags to his hotel. The hotel refused them and so when BA finally got the bags back to the UK, BA wanted to charge him for the 'additional delivery!' ...

At any rate, I believe that it is true they will only pay out £1000. My dad got that, but that did not cover some of the lost business (he did not lose it all) and the clothes he had to buy. So, he got his solicitor to send a letter threatening a lawsuit (personal damages) and they coughed up the extra amount (I can't remember what).

Short story: BA is crap. And yes, their staff, especially the floor staff at Heathrow, are utterly rude. It's so uniform, I assume BA offers lessons in rudeness. At the very least, take this to the OFT and any other consumer groups.

 

[yojitani]

Look i feel bad for you but ...

I offer competitive rates on composition classes .

Seriously, unless you just want to create noise on a forum, please use paragraphs at least. A less stream of consciousness style might help too. It worked for Joyce, but he wasn't on MR.

yt

 

[®îçhå®?]

Thanks. Yeah i will do but BA wont pay anything. Does anyone in the UK happen to know where to find the government legislation about paying compenation during an act of terrorism. Judging by the title, the "act" is if it takes place and does not include a threat.

 

[macartistkel]

That's ********. I'm paying for both myself and my luggage to arrive in one piece, not just myself. Flying has become a joke. And not a funny one.

OK ****, I honestly feel sorry for you--I was commenting more on MY fear of flying and how I feel in an airplane overall...basically the moment I touch the ground again I am thankful that I am alive and get to see my cat, friends and family again. That matters most and its a REAL HORRIBLE feeling to deal with this much fear. BUT ANYWAY, I can relate because my laptop ,ipods, Blackberry, MEAN SO MUCH TO ME TOO and I am sorry this happened to you. But I would NOT give up until I was fully compensated for EVERYTHING! I don't see why something cannot get worked out.

 

[imacintel]

Maybe you should look into Air Canada. I just got home from the east coast, and they are very nice. At least on the flights I was on, they had a passion for what they were doing: serving the customer. So basically, they aren't complete *******s. They are polite, and friendly, yet very professional. They manage people...well...the absolute complete opposite of themselves. Those who always complain and don't know how to give friendly flight attendants with complete job insecurity and not much pay a decent smile- they have a professional way of managing them. A polite "sir, please calm down."

Usually works.

[semihalfrant/]


(No, I wasn't paid by AirCanada to say this).

 

[®îçhå®?]

TBH, i dont think that we will be going to Canada soon but we have been recommended Olympic airways. It sounds like a good airline but i did like the better environment of BA but now that is absolutely shattered.