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Grrrr BA at Heathrow

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Why oh why?

I used to think I was unlucky. Disrupted travel plans on a more regular basis. More and more, it is becoming apparent that BA are seemingly free-falling into mediocrity. Why would they want a third runway when they cannot handle the traffic generated by two?

In the last 72 hours I have seen:

A colleague with a disabled daughter denied boarding due to overbooking. Fair enough, it happens. However, she was re-routed on Croatian, through CDG, with a 70 minute connection, no boarding pass issued and a terminal transfer in Paris. Needless to say, she missed the connection. Finding no help from the French as she was on a BA ticket, I ended up having to sort her a hotel and ticket the next day. Dreadful disowning from BA. To make a good story better, her luggage had been sent to ZAG on her original flight. It goes without saying that it could not be located when she finally arrived the next day. So much for me telling her how good BA are.

Today's (Monday) morning 112 arrival from JFK. Landed on time so should not be a surprise to anyone. For 25 minutes we sat on the taxiway waiting for a tug to move a previous flight from our gate. Eventually, we just found another gate.

Fast forward to my flight to Milan 2 hours later, and despite the weather (lightening and heavy rain) the doors were closed about 10 minutes late. However, once again, no tugs. 20 minutes later a tug arrives but then we are held at the stand due to routes south having weather closures. 45 minutes after boarding, we are now told clearance will not be for another hour so departure over 2 hours late.

After all the "no-one to turn on the stand guidance", "luggage delivery", "cancellations through a lack if pilots", is it me, or are BA operations having a meltdown that is getting worse as the year progresses?

I know Heathrow operates at capacity and that a drop of rain can cause chaos. But knowing that this is their Achilles heel, BA should do everything in their power to make sure that they can operate as efficiently as possible when it does rain. Instead, BA have no coping mechanism to expedite things and doing what they can to minimise any disruption. Why not have more gate teams, baggage handlers and buy some more tugs. Had a tug been available this morning when we were ready to go, we would have got out before the weather came in. They have cabin crew on stand by at the airport so why not ground staff? Apart from cost saving. One day I will save them a lot of cost by not troubling them with my newly earned (this morning) loyalty card.

Instead, poor captain tells us it's just another one of those things. Those things that are happening more and more frequently when flying with BA from Heathrow.

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