Why not to travel British Airways (British Airways in general)

Member Name: Sushma Bharath

Product:	British Airways in general
Date:	14/01/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can't think right now ... blinded by anger

Disadvantages: All!

WHY ONE SHOULD NOT TRAVEL BY BRITISH AIRWAYS

Our flight from Delhi to San Francisco via Heathrow started off on a rather bad note with fog delays causing the flight to move from 3:30 AM on the 30th December, to 7:30 AM. However, we were informed of the same by phone, and accordingly changed our plans to reach the airport by around 5 AM. I think I can pinpoint that THIS is probably where the nightmare started.

As we were standing in the check-in line, we were interrrupted by a BA employee who surreptiously informed us that the flight, BA 142, on the 30th December 2008 was further delayed to 11 AM. We looked around in confusion, since no sign reflected the change. However, due to her insistence, we called up our pickups in San Francisco, and informed them of the change. When we reached the counter, however, we were more confused since the BA check-in lady, a young woman named Ashika seemed completely unaware of any change and calmly disregarded the info change to pack off our luggage. Since she was so convinced, we called our people back to tell them that there had been no change in our programme. However, I insisted that she call the representative and tell her to stop spreading wrong information - which is when she made a call and realised that the flight had been changed. I found it highly unacceptable, that a BA desk rep did not even know that there was a change in itinerary and in fact after that, behaved like having that information was not her problem. Unbelievable!

The only high point was because of the mix-ups, we got to travel Club class for the first part of our journey (or rather because they had to stuff lots of people into our flight) which was to Heathrow. But since we reached Heathrow late, we missed our connecting flight to San Francisco, originally planned for 1040 AM on BA 285 and had to stay a night in London.

When we finally boarded our flight to San Francisco, which was the same flight as above, but an entire day later, I had to go through the entire flight (a good 9 hours) with no food - simply because the travel information had not been updated by BA, and so there was absolutely no extra vegetarian food on the flight. I was curtly told I should have informed the officials during the booking, and they completely ignored me when I insisted that my preferences were even on my tickets more than 3 months ago, it was just that BA had not bothered to transfer the data. However, through the trip, there was no effort made by the crew to try and help us out (there were more people like me, who's food prefs had not been updated by BA), and instead we had almost feel like it was our fault for not eating the 'sea bass'. (In fact one crew member insisted rudely that I should try it as an option - she just did not seem to understand that it was not a matter of fussy eating, it was a matter of vegetarianism.)

Finally when we reached San Fran, our troubles reached their zenith when out of our 3 bags, 1 bag did not make its appearance. On questioning the BA staff, they told us that it was coming on the next flight and would be couriered to our house. Tired, hungry and in no mood to argue with such incompetence, we didn't even put up a fight. But days passed, and there was no sign of the bag. Repeated calls were to no avail and finally after 6 days, we physically went to the airport, hoping to get some answers there. However, after waiting for almost 4 hours, the baggage services were nothing short of rude, saying that they had tons of bags lying at Heathrow and that we should stop complaining or creating a fuss - almost like its a gift to get your luggage along with you when you arrive at your destination! When we asked for at least compensation, since my husband was left in San Francisco in single digit temperatures with no shoes, coat, sweaters or clothes - we were made to wait till finally because of our insistence, anger or just because they wanted to get rid of us, they gave us $400 to temporarily keep us happy.

It has now been 15 days since we reached the US, and not once has BA on its own accord even called to let us know anything about our luggage. I am truly disgusted at their behaviour, and what is more shocking is that everyone seems to know that BA is never to be trusted in terms of customer service or luggage. We have consciously decided never to travel BA again, and to inform all our friends and family as well (who already seem to know anyway) and would like to advise everyone to do the same.

Extremely disgruntled travellers,
Sushma Bharath & Gaurav Ghosh

Summary: BA Horror Story