British Airways and their problem amplification procedures

Copenhagen to Heathrow

In Copenhagen Airport we arrived early on a hot july afternoon to absolute chaos. The baggage handling system was having troubles and everything was taking much longer than planned.

The British Airways staff was short staffed and obviously under serious stress from impatient passengers. We had arrived 3 hours earlier than our flight so we weren’t worried at all. The staff member checked us in and seemingly managed to get our bags on the conveyor belt for a brief moment where it was working.

The flight before us left an hour late due to the problem with luggage. The lounge staff told us our flight should be leaving on time, so again we weren’t too worried.

At about the time our flight was supposed to leave the lounge staff told us to go to the gate. There we first waited standing up without any information for about half an hour before we were herded out of the gate area again so BA staff could take our boarding passes. Now the people including us were starting to get visibly annoyed. They then left everyone standing again without further information for at least another half hour before we were let on the plane.

I tried to talk to some BA staff because I was getting worried about our connecting flight. 2 different people told me in Copenhagen to not worry and people would meet us at the gate in LHR to take us to the next flight.

Once we were on the plane we had to wait yet another hour to get the baggage onboard. I talked to a flight attendant who said several people were on our connecting flight and they would send a message onwards to LHR for more info.

Finally in the air and it looked like the pilot was able to pick up speed and while we were more than 2 hours late we would land about 15 minutes after our Buenos Aires flight was due to leave. The flight attendant said she still hadn’t heard anything from London, but that we would be taken care of. We were hoping as is normally the case that they would hold the Buenos Aires flight for us, in particular since there were several people on our flight due on it.

Heathrow hell

We arrived pretty much as the captain estimated 15 minutes later at 10pm and we were told to rush to the connections desk which we did only to be met by a mile long queue. Luckily there was a premium queue which we as AA Plat members have a right to use. There were only about 6 parties in front of us. By now we realized that we would probably be on the next evening flight.

The line was moving really slow. It probably took at least half an hour for each party to be served and the premium desk only had one guy helping out. We were listening to how people were being put in hotels for the night and on the next evening flight. We also noticed how almost everyone in line were heading to Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo which is the same flight. A flight had arrived late from Paris a bit before ours, which also had lots of people due for South America. My estimate is that there were at least 100 people who missed that flight.

A friendly older customer service rep went through our line offering us to go straight to the hotel and staff would help us with our ongoing flight the following day. Quite a few people took him up on the option, but we decided it would probably be best to sort it all out straight away. This turned out to be a wise move.

When there were only 2 remaining parties in front of us the customer service rep left for home leaving us in disbelief, they said another one would come soon. 15 minutes later another very tired customer service rep came over to our queue. By now we could hear that there were no more seats on the next flight and they were starting to route people via alternative routes.

The Brazilian party of 3 in front of us were very upset. They were routed via Gatwick, Lisbon and Rio to Sao Paulo and without their luggage due to the transfer to Gatwick. We were thinking wow, poor them. At least there shouldn’t be too many problems to Buenos Aires as several airlines go there daily.

Wrong. Firstly the next available BA flight would be 4 days later. Due to Varig’s (the Brazilian airline) strikes and near bankruptcy situation everything was booked up besides the Lisbon/Rio flight. They also gave us an option on arriving 2 days later in the evening via Johannesburg. In the end we really had to take the Lisbon/Rio option at least we would get in the same day (more or less) as planned but without luggage.

They would put us on a taxi to Gatwick. The flight would be at 4am (it was now close to 1am) and we would have a couple of hours wait in Rio. I asked what exactly a couple of hours meant and I was told 2-3 hours. They did give me an itinerary but I was frankly too tired at the moment to go over it in detail. The said that when we arrived in Argentina or if we chose Panama we could request our luggage to be sent on to were we wanted it.

A funny little detail was that he said that there would only be 50 minutes in Lisbon before the flight for Rio would take off. Our BA agent without blinking his eyes said in all seriousness that we shouldn’t be worried about that as we were flying on the same airline and they would hold the flight if it was delayed. While I wasn’t exactly in the mood for laughing at the time at least it is one thing I can laugh at today.

They also told us that they had sent messages to BA in Copenhagen to give people the option of staying put in Denmark until the next day, but that they had sent everyone on to London anyway.

The BA staff was probably the most dedicated BA member we saw that day, but he still did quite a few things he shouldn’t have done. But at least he staid on at work way after his normal work hours to help sort out the mess. He also had vast amounts of patience after some serious verbal abuse from the Brazilian party before us.

Heathrow → Gatwick → Lisbon → Rio → Sao Paulo → Buenos Aires

We were whisked out of Terminal 4 into a waiting minicab. We noticed about 20 people waiting for the bus to take them to the complimentary hotel rooms. So much for “the bus will take you to the hotel straight away” line they were giving people inside.

Our minicab driver was doing a Formula 1 race to Gatwick and we arrived to find the monitors saying our plane was schedule for 6:30 am and not 4am. We checked the itinerary and yes 6:30 am was correct not the 4 am the BA guy told us. I also checked further on and the Rio stay was not 2-3 hours but 5. I was furious, but there was really nothing to do as there is no BA office in Gatwick South terminal. Their customer service line is also conveniently closed when you most need them.

The good news was that TAP the Portuguese airline were far more efficient than British Airways were. So after a long uncomfortable wait without sleeping we could finally board the TAP plane to Lisbon. So at around 7 am we finally were allowed to sleep for an hour or so.

TAP had a minibus waiting on the runway for Rio bound passengers due to the short connection time. Now why couldn’t BA think of something like that? Onboard the Rio flight we actually had to wait about 45 minutes as they were waiting for passengers from a delayed flight. We looked at each other when this was announced and said why couldn’t we have flown with TAP in the first place?

The flight was surprisingly comfortable and we managed to sleep most of the way.

In Rio we were instructed by the still helpful TAP staff to wait at a certain desk (see below for desk) for an agent from TAM (a Brazilian airline) to give us boarding passes. We had to wait for nearly 4 hours before this happened. By the way if you are ever stranded in Rio’s airport bring cash as there are no cash dispensers and the only place that sells food does not accept plastic.

When handed our boarding passes we discovered that our direct flight from Rio to Buenos Aires actually involved a transfer in Sao Paulo. This it turned out involved a long wait in a security queue in Sao Paulo airport and a run down the terminal to our final flight.

This final flight was thankfully pretty comfortable and we arrived in Buenos Aires at 1 am in the morning 38 and a half hours after we left our apartment in Copenhagen 15 hours later than originally planned. Of course we did not have our luggage.

Next day we bought a few clothes in Buenos Aires, which isn’t really as cheap as you might think. With receipts in hand we hope to hear from British Airways tomorrow with information about how to receive compensation as well as reimburse the extra costs we incurred due to them.

What went wrong?

To me this was a classic case of no one having any incentives to actually take care of the problem. Firstly who has the authority within BA to hold a flight. This was at night and there weren’t all that many flights going in and out at the time. No doubt as well that the captain could catch up as it was a 15 hour flight. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Captain makes the final decision. Of course he was not interested in helping anyone out but himself and his flight plan.

Everyone in BA had their own self interest in hand when they were feeding us lies and sending us forward to the next staff member. This included the blatant lies people including us were being told by the Heathrow staff. I have seen lots of airlines handle delays professionally by providing real information and actually trying to solve a problem.

I can not begin to imagine how much money it ended up costing British Airway finding accommodation, alternative routing and compensation for these roughly 100 people who were quite literally screwed by some anonymous decision maker (or captain) who decided to not hold the flight. Was it possibly some rigid business rule they have about not holding flights? In reality I don’t care how much money it cost BA, I’m worried about all the people who had their plans ruined and were put through really stressful and costly situations.

Even if it was impossible to hold the plane they should have met all of us with connecting flights when we arrived in Heathrow with at least some attempt of a solution. Waiting in a limbo line for almost 3 hours in the middle of the night is no way to treat people in this situation.

An alternative solution could for example have been having a staff member waiting at the gate with envelopes ready with hotel vouchers, flight coupons and itineraries as needed. That would probably have been fine for 90% of people. The remaining people who weren’t satisfied with their suggested itinerary could then go to the flight connections desk. This would mean much less stress for travelers and considerably less work for BA staff.

Now we are in Panama . I have waited since Friday for a response to my official complaint. A British Airways staff member woke me up this morning saying that our bags would be on the flight to Panama tomorrow. Of course we still have to grab a taxi to go to the airport to collect it. That means we will have been without luggage for 1 week. We couldn’t wait anymore yesterday and had to go get a few more clothes, which thankfully is cheap here. However BA still will have to pay for it. BA do not have an office in Panama, so I have to thank the very helpful AA staff members here in Panama who managed to get a message through to the BA baggage handling bureaucracy.

I will report back when I know how BA will respond.

Update 11/7/2006