Re: OT OT OT: British Airways !!!! The original 2010 thread
Date: July 3, 2022 11:02
On 26 June, I wrote this letter. Today, as off 3 July , I still have no luggage, no reply to any email , and I have written 3 more since I wrote this. Since 26 June, I have attempted to calll daily, and been disconnected. I realise 6he travel industry is on chaos around thr wolrd , and I am sympathetic in many ways to those emmployees left to deal with the public. BUT YOU SHOULD NT BE SEELING TICKETS TO FOOLS LIKE ME IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE STAFF TO BACK IT UP! And the total reliance on APPS etc had dehumanzied the whole thing.I have had to spend over $2000 nz on a new CPAP machine, and and another $1000 to replace missing clothes.
Good Day,
Could you please forward this and bring it to the attention of Sean Doyle, Chairman at the office of the CEO ? I am sure he is too busY to be bothered with one person's problem , but maybe he should be aware of how the service of his company is failing. I am a 65 year old semi-retired physician born and bred a Yankee, living life now after decades in the Pacific as a Kiwi. Having spent so many years out on islands no one has heard of while maintaining friendships with people around the world, I am a fairly seasoned traveler. I have never had an experience like this last trip. I have a reference number,"XXXXXXXXXXXXX", that can provide al the details and numbers, I just want him to hear the human story, if there is any humanity left to the company.
I left Auckland on Cathay Pacific 20 June, business class to Hong Kong, Then flew Hong Kong to Amsterdam. There is where problems started, as incredibly hundreds of us cued into a T2-9 transfer gate that only had two gates working. After nearly 3 hours, I passed through, but my connection had long since left, a flight to London Heathrow . No problem I was assured, just go to the T6 desk. But of course that was not the correct desk according to people working there and I assume they were right because there was no record of me in their kiosk. Off to T5 where a woman from Air Canada informed me that yes the location was right, but no one from BA had been there all day. It went down hill from there
At one point information suggested I go get my bags , leave the airport , re enter the departure terminal and just buy a new ticket. Thank goodness, I didn't, I would have sacrificed all my return flights. After nearly 8 hours I am talking long distance to someone in NZ with Cathay Pacific who keeps insisting I talk to the non existent BA agent at the transfer desk. No one at the airport was of any help at all. Finally long distance Cathay Pacific says they will fix it all if I pay a $500 fine, and place me on your flight later that evening, but only if I can answer an email and pay via a link which I can't because of some weird Internet glitch. I am sent to the BA lounge to straighten it out, which is closed. I follow signs to another lounge that says there are no BA personal there, am walked by a kind security gaurd to an elevator that when I exit leaves me in a prohibited area and now I have border guards on my back. All the stress triggers an asthma attack I end up in the infirmary, where the nurse is compassionate thank goodness. A while later the Internet glitch is over I now have a flight. I am back out in arrival halls, still no BA personal, and no way to get a boarding pass because al the self help kiosks for BA are TURNED OFF, LEAVING NO WAY TO CONTACCT YOUR AIRLINE VIA EMPLOYEEE OR ELECTRONICS IN THE TRASNFER HALL.
I head to the gate, finally catch site of someone from BA, she has nothing to do with my flight, but at least she helps. She prints me a boarding pass. I ask about my luggage, she is honest and says all that she can do is send a request for Cathay Pacific to send things over. Though she repeats what is said earlier that if I was not on my scheduled flights, the bags would have been removed , they would not fly without me. I arrive in Heathrow, and I am directed to baggage claim area 6. After a while , I ask someone when no bags come through, they says , despite the signs, its area 4. I go there, nothing. I ask an information desk, she runs a check on my bags, says one is n the airport, and arrived 6 hours prior to me !! I asked her how, and she has no explanations, but suggests I walk to the end of the hall past area 11 and look to see if it is in ll the stacks of unclaimed luggage,. I find nothing, ask an agent, who says the computer must be wrong, nothing that started on Cathay Pacific has arrived all day. With nothing to loose i keep searching, at the end of a stack of luggage along the far wall under other bags I find one bag on my own,
Back at the only place to do it, I fill out all the forms and wait in line behind a lot of tired angry people for the one poor lady currently at a keyboard. I hear polite encouragement, leave the place assured Ill probably have my bag in 72 hours. I go to my freind's house, and since then over the last 6 days nothing has improved. In the luggage that is missing is my CPAP machine, without which I cannot sleep well secondary to Obstructive Sleep Apnea unless I am heavily medicated , all of which increases my risk of a cardiac arrhythmia at night. I dutifully check the website daily I was provided which gives me no information other than my bag is missing. Following all the links, I finally get to a telephone number to call, I have called multiple times per day, only to get disconnected multiple times never speaking to anyone. Finally early one morning I got through to someone who was so disdainful I asked to speak to their manager, only to have that request rebuffed because the manager would be of no more help. I was even questioned about why I had called, and when I said because I followed the links, was basically told it was a waste of my time and your agents, they could tell me nothing more than the computer! It was the first time I have ever asked for an employee name.
A second call a few days later did get me through to a more polite employee. But he too was powerless, explaining that BA was looking for 34 pieces of lost luggage from the same flight. THIRTY FOUR PIECES OF LOST LUGGAGE! I asked for advice, especially with my health concerns, and the missing CPAP machine. At least he was honest, and I do not want yo cause him a problem. But his best advise, buy a new machine, and if I have travel insurance make the claim there , I will have better luck and less hassles than going through your company.!! I am in Europe for 60 days, for comfort I wore sandals over, but now have no shoes. It's summer, all of my short pants are in the missing luggage. ON and on and on, and 6 days later, I have only been able to speak to one employee of your airline that seemed to give a fig and his advice was to use my travelers insurance rather than depend on you.
And while the problem no doubt started with the airport at Amsterdam, I cannot help but think that if one person had bothered to even turn on a self help kiosk , so much could have been avoided. More over, I am horrified by the idea of if I had listened to the employee that informed me no bag had arrived, the bag I eventually found might have been destroyed as abandoned, and seriously wonder if somehow that was not the fate of the the missing luggage. The implications are just staggering, no one from your airline at work, bags flying internationally without a passenger on board, no one knowing anything, and finally the inability to talk to anyone live as your company has carried this mobile app policy to an extreme. I can only imagine being a 67 year sheep shearer from Shannon New Zealand traveling with his burner phone on your airline.
IN my whole life I have not had an experience like this.
Sincerely,
Stephan Lebamoff
AND OH, I KNOW IT IS CHILDISH AND WRONG, AND HAT IS PROBABLY WHY I SMILE SO UCH WHEN I THINK OF IT, BUT THE AIRPORT IN AMSTERDAM HAS BEEN RENAMED FOREVER IN MY MIND AS SHIT HOLE INTERNATIONAL!!