Feb 07
Stuck in London
2007 at 09.28 am posted by Veerle Pieters
So after the big rush to get ready for trip I was so glad that we made in time. To make everything go as smooth as butter I checked in online at the British Airways website so we didn’t have anymore unnecessary delays. The airport taxi picked us up at noon and we arrived at Brussels Airport at 12.45pm. Plenty of time to relax a bit and wait for the information board to show the right gate.
The horror story of British Airways
Only 40 minutes before the departure time the gate showed up and we proceeded to the boarding area. 20 min before we should take off they all of a sudden announce that because of the fog in the morning on Heathrow our flight would be delayed by one hour. Now you have to tell me how they manage to react so slowly when the trouble was going on since this morning. We checked in online at 11am so you would assume that they already know that the rest of the day would suck ass and there would be cancelled flights and delays. No, they didn't or they just don't care. The lady at the boarding gate doesn't know any information because she is employed by Aviapartner and they are hired by British Airways and have no access to the system to make any changes.
SN Brussels Airlines ROCKS!
So what to do next? They don't tell us anything. We don't know if we would make it, we don't have any certainty that we would get a hotel etc. So Geert and I went to the service desk of SN Brussels Airlines instead to tell our story because there is nobody else in that terminal. The super friendly lady did everything she could for us and made some calls to insure us that we would be looked after in London. So it's true THEY CARE about the customer at SN, even if you are not traveling with them. I'm a glad my trip to SXSW, Texas is with SN Brussels Airlines.
Can it get any worse?
YES it can :) So we went on finally and would touchdown in London with approximately 25 minutes to get our Vancouver flight in the same terminal 4. Almost 15 minutes before landing they announce on the plane that all passengers to Vancouver and Cape Town need to move to the front of the plane because somebody of ground personnel would meet us. This sounded promising and we got our hopes up again that we would still make our flight. If you think about it why else would they go through the trouble? Once out the door we saw a guy waiting there with a sign just to tells us our flight is gone and we missed it!!! Can you believe that? It's like putting in the knife in a little deeper and turning it around a bit. He is standing there just to say we need to talk to connecting flights that's it. What a waste of resources! To make matters worse we needed to go through security just to talk to some REALLY unfriendly guy that only says "well your flight will be tomorrow and we will put you up in a hotel.
That's the least they can do right? I don't know about you but you would expect a bit of comfort and some friendliness to ease the pain. The only other explanation from him was that we would need to take the hotel bus to get to it. What he forgot to mention is that we first needed to go from terminal 4 to terminal 1, 2 or 3 and then try to figure out where the bus stops exactly. After some running around finally somebody told us we needed to take to Heathrow Express to the other terminals.
The Hotel
The Renaissance Heathrow is not that bad room wise but the rest pretty much sucks. We got a dinner and a breakfast that was ok but if you would like to inform family you needed to pay 2.5 Pound per minute to call to Belgium. No Wifi in the room, at least not free. You need to pay 17 Pound for high speed internet to be precise. So you would expect that in the Lobby you'll have access, well guess again because you need to pay too, 5 Pounds to be exact. That's unbelievable and a complete rip off.
My conclusion
When we got our flight the next day the guy checking us in was friendly and he tried to do an effort to give us seats next to Jeremy Keith but the system didn't allow that. A wasted opportunity to correct a bad situation to something better. It was my first time with British Airways and my last time or they have to convince me this was a one off. Otherwise I don't recommend them to anybody because what they did is unacceptable. No trained or friendly staff and nowhere to turn to, late information and go on. British Airways if you are reading this your employees need an attitude update and I suggest you come look at the staff of SN Brussels Airlines soon to be Brussels Airlines how it is done.
51served
1
Ouch, sorry to hear the trip started so badly. Hope the rest will be a lot smoother.
2
Welcome to the travellers club Veerle.
You will not be taken care of, any dissapointments you encounter will only be taken care of by being trumpfed by the next, larger dissapointment. Consider yourself a special care passenger as we didn’t loose your luggage and foodpoison you.
Regards, Some-Generic-Airlines.
3
The London Heathrow airport had been closed due to fog about a month earlier, so you’d think they would be better prepared for a similar situation in the future. Sorry to hear that they weren’t.
I first heard of your missing the connection on Jeremy’s blog and I’m glad you eventually made it to Vancouver. Hope you have a good time and your presentation runs as smoothly as an SN flight!
4
wow, I so feel your pain. I have been stuck in a couple of airports in London and it’s like nobody cares… not sure if it’s just BA but maybe a lot to do with English customer service in general :-) But airports are especially bad!
Have fun in Vancouver, very jealous I can’t make it especially seeing it’s my hometown!
5
Two friends of mine just flied to sweden with British Airways one week apart. BA manage to lose both their luggage. I regret I choose BA when I’m flying to California in may…
6
British Airways aren’t exactly having a good new year and it would appear that they still haven’t learnt anything from the way they dealt with the luggage situation after cancelling so many flights just before Christmas. There is a program over in the UK called Watchdog http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/
They look at consumer complaints and British Airways are regulars on there (no surprises). I really sympathise with you Veerle, they are absolute crap. The issues with the staff are not surprising either as their is an obvious internal struggle at BA which is why the threat of staff strikes is regular too. I hope you had a relaxing journey there! Enjoy the conference - wish I was there!
7
Sorry to hear about your troubles with a much needed service. Sorry, but not surprised. I believe that’s one of the reasons I left the hospitality business. After seven years of working the front desk of a motel, I found that I was turning into to the ilk you just found at British Airways. It’s the job that sucks the life out of these people. I cannot fathom why anyone would stay in a job that is, supposedly, geared toward customer satisfaction and yet not extend even the most basic forms of courtesy and service, e.g. provide a troubled passenger with INFORMATION!
</ rant>
8
Unfortunately, this is typical British Airways. They are full of hot air, charge a fortune for tickets, and give you worse service than you’d expect from a 3rd world country bus depot.
I’ve stopped traveling on BA simply because of the fact that they just don’t give a crap.
9
Those kinds of charges are pretty typical in the UK unfortunately, you’re lucky they were so cheap ;)
Personally I’ve only had good experiences with BA, although I usually only use them for transatlantic flights. They probably don’t give as much effort to european flights, as it’s a smaller market for them (with RyanAir and Easyjet taking most of the economy market share).
Nontheless that was pretty poor service, and you should probably send them a letter and try and blag free stuff :D
10
:( Don’t you just hate airline mis-information..
11
Hi Veerle,
I know BA can be a major PITA. I had a similar encounter when I went to Seattle last year, in September. To summarise, we arived late at Heathrow, our gate was occupied with passengers ready to board (they never heard of two lane walkways, I guess), so we had to take a bus, that dropped us off at the fartest point from the security check. Etc. etc.
It was the first and it will be the last time I fly with BA.
12
On behalf of Great Britain, i’m sorry. Our airport staff in general are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
13
I flew BA from Brazil to Glasgow this week and the staff were great.
14
So sorry you had such a bad experience in my country, our airports/airlines for the most part suck - that’s for sure.
Richard
15
“Welcome to ‘rip-off’ Britain. We offer absolutely no customer service and a wholly unpleasant, not to mention hugely expensive, public transport experience. We honestly couldn’t care less if you enjoy your stay just as long as we can take your hard-earned money and continue to increase our profits, by any means necessary”
—That was a public service announcement on behalf of ‘Great’ Britain, Inc. brought to you by New Labour.
16
Ouch, thats really very unfortunate.
I’ve been with British Airways only twice before but both times went smoothly.
I’d guess you got unlucky with the unfriendly staff. That or they’re grumpy because they’ve been threatening to strike alot recently :P
Nice blog, i like the design alot!
Andy
17
Hey that totally sucks. I will now terminate my booking with british airways for my Londontrip this summer.
I wonder what they will say when I tell them I heard they got crappy employees from your blog. Guess their faces would be like questionmarks but hey, soon the world would actually be aware of the internet :)
18
Sorry to hear about your nightmare trip with BA. I’m a frequent flyer with them and a card holder - I’ve never had any problems with their customer service. Of course things have gone wrong, and I’ve been put up in hotels a few times when connections go wrong or flights are over booked, but I’ve always managed to get them to waive the hotel charges for internet access too.
I would suggest that you write a letter to their customer service office with your story. At the very least you should be compensated with flight vouchers or money off. I’ve had similar disasters with other airlines (mentioning no names). Stern letters to their heads of customer service have always been met with apologetic responses and suitable compensation.
It is also a sad truth that hotel and cafe wifi is still very much a premium rate service in the UK, £20 per night is not at all uncommon for hotels, and £5 an hour in cafes. This can’t possibly last though, and I think free availability will be much more commonplace over the coming years.
19
Welcome to Vancouver, or Canada for that matter. I haven’t found an airport here that provides free wifi. And if you do pay, you better be sitting right under the access point or you’ll use your laptop to cut your veins open. It’s ridiculous how much money they charge you in the first place for a service that should be provided for free these days….
20
Yikes. That really stinks. I will be flying to Paris in about a month. Hopefully I have a better experience, and thank goodness I am not flying British Airways.
21
I feel your pain Veerle. Last year on my way to SXSW, I flew Northwest Airlines from Baltimore to Austin with a connection in Detroit. Our flight out of Baltimore was an hour late, and when we landed in Detroit, I was told my flight to Austin was leaving in a few minutes, but if I ran to the gate (which was located in another terminal), I might have a chance to make it. So I ran like hell with my carry-ons, and when I arrived at the gate, I saw the jetway pulling away from the plane. The gate agent told me that the other flight should have called him beforehand instead of telling me to run to catch the flight. Didn’t do me much good though. The quickest path to Austin after that was via a connecting flight through Nashville the next morning, so they gave me a free hotel room for the night, a couple meal vouchers, and some extra frequent flyer miles (as if I’d ever want to fly them again). For all flights I’ve booked since, I’ve made sure they’re either direct flights or there is at least 3 hours of buffer time if I have to make a connection.
I hope your flight back home from Vancouver is a much smoother experience!
22
I feel your pain and frustration! I have been through similar scenarios. One item in OCt with Air Canada /united Airlines. And recently with Alaska air. The plain fact is these days air travel is just a PAIN! Veerle if you make it to the Yaletown Brewery for friday aft…TWO beers are on me! al lthe best…. keep on truckin.
23
Ouch! That must have been very frustrating!
I hope the return flight turns out better!
Enjoy the conference.
24
Sorry you’re having a difficult trip. Give BA another chance they are one of my airlines of choice and have always had great service from them. (I am in no way affiliated with BA etc. blah blah)
The worst airlines are the small internal Us ones such as Air Worst sorry I mean Air West. I’ve been on cleaner and more comfortable buses! Paying for peanuts in First Class wtf!
Hope the rest of the trip is better.
25
Not to talk about the miles you save while flying SN. Be happy you never had to fly EL AL until now. That’s a BAD joke f it happens to you…
26
I’ve terrible experiences with BA and nearly every other airline with one exception - VIrgin. Never had any problems, their seating is good ( decent amount of room) and plenty of free creature comforts. I fly them everytime I go from London to New York
27
I’m stuck in London aswell =) They’re all these really petty charges for stuff. £8ish to drive in Central London. £2 for Adults to go on the Bus, even for just one stop.
At least you didn’t travel when London was hit by the Fog Monster. There were loads of delays, and most flights were cancelled, and it was just before Christmas. So loads of angry families and people.
28
It’s funny - I work my ass off to provide the best customer service I can, because ultimately, people will always try to buy from people they like. It seems to be the better customer service you provide, the more sales you’ll make…
...until you hit a tipping point where you’re so big it doesn’t matter. You can place some excrement in a paper bag and serve it for lunch to your customers and they’ll eat it happily. It’s a shame to see companies hit that point.
Welcome to Vancouver, by the way—I won’t be attending WDN, despite running my own web software development company and living just 20 minutes away, but… *If* it’s sunny at some point while you’re here, I highly recommend the White Rock Beach ;)
Cheers,
Brett
29
Yep! We Brits have the phrase “rip-off Britain”. We seem to have to pay more for everything. Look at something and it’s price, and i bet we have to pay more over here - for the exact same thing.
It’s crazy! Sorry to hear you’ve had troubles over here Veerle…
30
Sounds bad sorry!
31
Hey Veerle, I’m sorry to here about your story, but welcome to Canada! I didn’t get a chance to meet you today, but I did see you. Hopefully I’ll be able to say hello tomorrow. Other than your terrible flight experience, I hope you and Geert are enjoying your stay so far.
32
Sorry you had such a bad experience. We consistently have the same and worse with BA. Their seating system is so poor that they could not seat our 7 and 5 year old children with us on a flight to the US where we purchased two of the four tickets with airmiles, we had to move people around. On our last two long haul flights, one time the movies were dead for our seats and the next time just the children’s channels.
Staff can not or will not help and they never offer something to make up for it.
The only good thing is that they are so bad, our kids sort of expect it and don’t get too bothered they have nothing to watch for eight hours.
Oh, and we often have to take a bus after waiting one hour at Terminal 4… and usually have to wait nearly an hour for luggage… so the airports are nearly as bad as the airline.
_sorry for the rant_
33
In responce to Stephen I agree totally, we are totally bent over and :@{]~# by VAT etc.
34
Maybe they don’t update own website, so you thought it was no delay
35
Oh, wow, there’s nothing worse than spending unecessary time in an airport. I almost experience the same dilemma during my recent trip to Paris.
36
Customer Service and Airlines do not match. The last time I flew I thought I was going to get tasered cause I had a bottle of Contact Solution.
37
Even though that sucked, I’m glad you made it. I just heard you speak at WDN and it was great/nice to meet you.
Thanks!
Best regards!
Tom
38
Well look at the bright side : the plane didn’t crash !!
39
Hey Veerle, it was great listening to you speak at WDN, glad you could make it! And to think all this time I had been pronouncing your name wrong! :)
I was wondering about that “role-play” you did. Was that site (I think it was “geek chix?“) real? Or did you make it up just for the conference?
40
I can definitely relate. I love seeing new places, but the act of traveling can be a nightmare.
I hope to see you and Geert again sometime soon. =)
- Jackson Walker
41
That sucks! Hope the rest of your trip goes swimmingly and makes up for it.
I wonder if it’s something to do with the country you are in rather than the airway. My husband had a flight with British Airways (from Japan to England) and there was a change in the flight time. The boys were late to the airport, luckily the flight was late and hadn’t left yet but they had given away their seats - so they got upgraded to business. It must be those nice accomodating Japanese folk. :P
42
That was horrible. I had similar experiences flying with Americal Airlines. Absolute chaos, and when asked, AA blames all shortfalls to lack of man power. When you fly within the states, US Air was my best experience so far. Continental was not bad, but as you probably heard, they have problems with luggage ending up in the dumpsters…
For better or worse in most cases, it beats driving…
43
When I look at SN Brussels Airlines logo it reminds me Sabena logo.
Do you agree?
44
Yikes. Heathrow really must be one of the worst places to get stuck! Over the years I’ve gained the impression that, more than other airlines, BA reserves its customer service purely for premium paying passengers. I’d certainly choose them if someone else was paying for a business class ticket, but otherwise, run a mile…
45
Welcome to the second most expensive capital in the world. Please enjoy your stay, don’t bother us too much because we are busy watching Big Brother and read Hello. Everything you do will cost money, but at least a significant amount, and please leave a tip :-(
46
now that it’s over and done with, are you going to do a break down? i had some friends who went to web directions north, they had some…interesting things to say. anyone know of reviews or comments about the conference?
47
I’m British and should be proud of anything British - but BA are useless. We have flown with them twice and never again!! I wouldn’t fly with them again even if they paid me !! :)
48
So sorry you had such a bad experience in my country, our airports/airlines for the most part suck - that’s for sure. Greetings
49
poor veerle had a bad trip…sigh…so boring…
Question: can I just subscribe to the category’s rss I’m interested in? because to be honest veerle’s floating beds, light switches and British airways horror stories articles are just soooo freaking trivial. I feel like reading Bridget jones diary.
+ everybody is so consensual, amusing but ridiculus…
50
Phunk said:
Hmmm, let me think about it since you ask it so nicely… NO. I leave it up to you to come up with less trivial content, genius.
51
BA have done their best to ruin 2 holidays, both times due to their apalling organisation and attitude, they left 32 of us at Vienna because their own connecting flight was a few minutes late. We had to create Hell just to get a meal voucher and transfer to Munich so that we could get to Delhi. The staff at Vienna couldn’t have cared less. All I can say about the transfer with Austrian airlines is that they fitted their national stereotype very well.
Next we tried to go to Namibia. The 1st flight from Newcastle to H’row was cancelled by fog, FAIR ENOUGH! It was on the BA website the evening before-BUT WITHOUT ANY INSTRUCTIONS OR MEANS OF CONTACT. No one could get a word out of them. Should we go to N,castle anyway? Or would our onward flight be cancelled? In the end our tour operator(Bales Worldwide, who are habitually brilliant to the extent oftheir MD getting involved) advised us to drive to H,row, they would sort out the parking etc. Arrived at H’row to scenes of Biblical chaos, found that our flight was ok and that we had 90 minutes to check-in. NO PROBLEM we thought. We got into the correct (long) queue. We noticed that only 2 of 5 desks were manned. We were then told that the gate had closed and that the plane had left. No one had thought to look in their own queue. We found that there were 8 of us and that we were unwilling to delay until next day and lose onward flights.
Luckily we had some very forcefull ‘negotiators’ in the group. We were found standby seats on South African an hour later!PARADISE! Competent friendly staff good food and no delays, they got us onto one of their onward flights to Windhoek, rounded-up the missing baggage and delivered it to our hotel by taxi a couple of hours later. Our Last (it will be) BA experience was the vile food served on the return journey. If BA were the last airline in the world I would rather stay at home, I can’t understand how they stay in business.
NEVER NEVER AGAIN!