An unhappy experience with British Airways

Please log in to recommend this experience

• Locations: Los Angeles, Hawaii, New Zealand
• Holiday Type: Getting there

• by: cockburn
• on: Thu 09 Feb 2012

2 like 164 views

My wife and I are both retired and regularly fly first class to New Zealand, usually flying with Emirates or Singapore Airlines, and as we had seen stated in Saturday Daily Telegraph on February 20, both these airlines are fully deserving of their five-star status.

On January 6 this year however, we decided to fly British Airways in first to Los Angeles staying over for two nights before an early flight January 8 to Hawaii. We boarded our 12-noon flight at 12.45pm and were bussed to the plane. With champagne in hand we waited for take off. After several announcements that we were waiting for a de-icer, we sat patiently until 5.45pm when the de-icer appeared. 

At 5.50pm the de-icer drove off. At 6pm the captain announced the flight was cancelled. He announced that once back at the terminal we would be offered a hotel for the night and re-booked on January 7.  The bus arrived at 7pm and we then joined what seemed like 2,000 people in immigration for about an hour before entering the baggage hall.  We were greeted with a chalked blackboard stating that all the cancelled flights baggage would be available on carousels six and seven. I would estimate some 20 flights had been cancelled and all the passengers were all clamouring round these two carousels which had now stopped working due to the weight of luggage. There was no-one from British Airways to be seen.

The passengers decided to offload the two carousels into the middle of the hall to get the conveyors working. They did and then promptly stopped again. More bags were dumped on the hall floor by the passengers. This carried on for about two hours.  We could not leave the hall as we would not be allowed back in again. I could not re-book a flight for January 7 until I could reach the departure hall.  I telephoned my son who managed to book two us seats on BA's 10.15am flight to LA, both first class at full fare, using my credit card.

My reasoning was that once through to departures I could transfer my original booking to the 10.15am flight and cancel the booking my son made.  At 10.45pm I found my luggage on carousel eight…

It was now 11pm and I arrived at the first-class desk and saw a BA rep.  He duly transferred my flight to the 10.15am and assured me the booking my son made would be cancelled and the money (£11,306) refunded. He also said there were no hotel rooms available, but I could join a queue where I would be given a plastic tray to sleep on on the floor of Terminal 5.  My wife and I opted to find a chair.  All the lounges, bars and restaurants were closed. The terminal got colder and colder as the night went on. 

At 3am we went for a walk to try to keep warm.  We glanced at one of the departure boards and saw that the 10.15am flight was cancelled.  There were no BA staff anywhere. The next flight advertised was 12-noon but I now had no way of transferring my booking. In desperation I telephoned my daughter in New Zealand.  Her travel agent was unable to even get onto the BA website to rebook me. She managed to book two first-class on American Airlines tickets from Terminal 3 to LA.  The full price was paid for this booking to allow me to cancel, assuming BA could transfer my original booking once they opened for business later on that morning.

At 6am three BA staff arrived at first-class check in. They stated they could do nothing as they were only check-in staff. They suggested I form a queue to speak with a senior staff member who would arrive shortly. She turned up at 6.30am and stated there was nothing she could do and told me to join the queue at the other end of the terminal. This 'queue' consisted of a throng of bodies all attempting to re-book their flights from the one desk that was open. I took one look and transferred to Terminal 3 for my 11am flight on American Airlines. I was greeted with a smile and the information that most, if not all, the long-haul Terminal 3 flights had taken off the previous day. We got away with one hour's delay due to the security checks prior to boarding.

I arrived back in the UK on February 1, only to find BA had not re-imbursed the £11,306. It took an hour on the telephone to find someone to speak to. This money eventually got credited to my credit card a week later. My travel agent Dial a Flight - an excellent company - has been attempting, to date with no success, to obtain some sort of refund from BA for my two unused tickets.

Whilst I am sure BA's new first-class cabins will be the envy of some other airlines, I think I shall stick with travelling east on my next trip down under.

I would add that I have written to BA but apart from an e-mailed acknowledgment of my complaint some two weeks ago I have not heard from them.

They may want to save money by cutting their cabin staff but are they also getting rid of their complaints department too I wonder?

• Destinations