paul_ng5
Aug 6, 08, 3:38 am
The outbound flight was on Monday 31st March 2008 returning on the 8th April 2008. Both flights were in the Club World Cabin.
Sorry to post a negative report but, the areas that we were not happy with are as follows:
1. Being advised by email that I can’t use the Online or Self-Service Check-in as my credit card used to purchase the tickets had changed. (it was stolen a month after purchasing the tickets and I was issued with a new card with a new number). I Was advised by your the BA Customer services team (I have a copy), to go to the airport ticket desk with ID and have my booking re-enabled for check-in.
We travelled down the day before our flight in order to do this (on my partners 30th birthday). On arrival at the ticket desk I was told this was not necessary, they had never heard of such a policy and that I could check in as normal. We returned to our hotel and used the online check in later that day.
2. Due to the problems with the opening of Terminal 5, both the media and the BA website, advised passengers to allow extra time to check-in. The website still states “please allow plenty of time in case of long queues, particularly at peak times” “Please allow yourself plenty of time to go through airport security checks.”
In view of this and all of the queues shown on the media, as well as witnessing for ourselves the large queues in the terminal on the day before.
We arrived at the airport at 11am to be told that we couldn’t drop our bags off until 3 hours before the flight departure.
The member of staff couldn’t give us a reason for this decision and just stated they had been given new instructions. She did state that if we were travelling First Class or had a BA Gold Card then we could check our baggage in at any time.
We were therefore left to spend the next 90 minutes sat on the terminal floor (as there is no adequate seating available landside) before we were allowed to check in. We usually travel in FIRST bu due to the flight being full in that cabin we traveled in Club (it was my partner's birthday and due to previous enguagements, the dates were not flexable.
3. At 3 hours prior to the flight departure we finally checked our baggage in, we asked the member of staff if the baggage would get delivered. He assured us that all baggage problems were now sorted, long haul baggage had never been a problem in any case and he guaranteed it would be on the plane as we were Club World passengers and baggage had priority.
At this we felt reassured and made our way to security only to find a very long queue. We went down the fast track line only to find no member of staff policing the line and therefore everyone else was using it and made the line (and the benefit of paying for this service within our ticket price) totally pointless.
We spent 25 minutes queuing for the security checks before we finally got to the airside area. We then faced a long unnecessary walk all around the retail area before we could get to the Galleries lounges, what a strange design.
4. We immediately went to the Spa area to book a massage only to be told that they couldn’t fit us in as it was 2hr 15 minutes before our flight departure, the gate closed 20 minutes before the departure time and that we should allow an extra 30 minutes on top of that as the flight left from Terminal 5B this only left a 1 hour 25 minute time slot for them to find an appointment and it was fully booked during that period. Bearing in mind it was physically impossible for us to be there any earlier due to the BA 3 hour check-in policy and the queues at security, this is another Club World benefit that we had paid for but BA were unable to fulfil.
5. We continued through to the Galleries Club Lounge to try and relax before the flight. The BA website and advertisements make it all look so promising. I quote: “The Chef’s Theatre where you can obtain a light meal from an extensive menu and then enjoy the pleasure of watching your meal being prepared in our frosted glass fronted chef’s theatre”.
What we experienced was a dirty buffet bar that had nothing but a few remnants of cold food which were not replenished once during the 80 minutes we were in there.
There was no sign of any “menu”. When I asked a member of staff where the menu was for selecting the hot food to be “prepared” for me. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders and the staff member walked off, great!
The frosted glass chef’s theatre where you can watch your meal being prepared consists of a window that is so heavily frosted it matches the reception you receive from the unhelpful staff.
The Wine Gallery offers, according to your information “An extended cellar of fine wines”. On our visit it consisted of two bottles of white wine and two bottles of red wine, no champagne. Hardly an extended cellar! Luckly I was aware that champagne was available on request.
The flight information screens were not working in the lounge meaning staff were having to use a very loud tannoy to shout the flight departures out. This totally wrecked any idea of the Galleries Club providing a “relaxing sanctuary of peace and quiet” as advertised on your website.
6. The flight to Tokyo was pretty under whelming:
My AVOD in-flight entertainment didn’t work correctly and had to be reset three times by the flight crew.
My personal TV screen was also broken and wouldn’t stay in one position without me holding it still. I reported this to the onboard crew but they were unable to fix it.
The food on board was very average, lacked flavour and was not particularly well presented. There were no vegetables offered with the Cottage Pie and the quality was more like I would expect in a supermarket cafe than a premium cabin on a world class airline.
The cushion supplied had a small stain on it and I suspect it wasn’t changed from the previous flight. The information on your website states that we would receive “damask pillows by Osborne and Little and pale taupe quilts and pillows with sky blue detail.” Where exactly are the pillows? Because there were none available on either of our flights, this prevented a good sleep.
The BA website also states that “The laptop connection point no longer needs an adaptor” Why was I therefore unable to plug in my laptop and was told by the crew I would need to purchase an adaptor to do so?
7. On arrival at Tokyo Narita Airport we were greeted by the friendly Immigration staff and processed very quickly, leading us straight through to the Baggage Reclaim. This is where our nightmare began.
As we stood by the baggage belt we discovered a board with our names on as well as many others. The sign said to go to the BA Baggage Desk. We walked over to the desk to be told by a member of staff that our baggage had not made it onto the flight. We then spent the next hour completing paperwork and trying to understand what would happen.
The staff at Narita couldn’t tell us anything, they didn’t even seem to be aware of the problems at Terminal 5. They were unable to say when the bags would arrive and could only give us a cash card for £150. They couldn’t even tell us where we could withdraw the money. They said we would have to telephone each day to find out if the bags had arrived or not, great!
By the time we had finished, all of the World Traveller Passengers had claimed their bags and left the airport. It seemed that only Business and First Class Passengers had been affected by the baggage problems, another benefit of travelling Club World gone.
We then spent another hour in the airport trying to find a cash machine to use the card you had just given us along with numerous other passengers, when we eventually found one a queue had formed and we all had to wait in turn to get our money.
All of this extra delay meant we missed our train departure to Tokyo Station and had to wait another 30 minutes longer for the next train. We finally arrived in Tokyo Station approximately 3 hours later than what we would have done if the baggage hadn’t been lost.
After checking in to our hotel we then realised we had no clothes at all other than the casual ones we had been in all day at Heathrow and for 12 hours on the plane.
We were staying in a 5 star hotel with the normal standard of dress expected to be casual but elegant. Turning up at check-in wearing jeans and a T-Shirt was understandable after a long flight, going to dinner or having a drink in the lounge in the evening would require something a touch smarter.
We realised we now had the task of finding some clothes, shoes and toiletries for the holiday.
The hotel concierge tried their best to help us giving us a list of shops and directions on how to get there. We went in shop after shop only to find that the Japanese clothing sizes were far too small to fit either myself or my partner.
We returned to the hotel to find out if there were any western stores. The only one they seemed to be able to find nearby (30 minute walk) was Diesel. We rushed over to their store as it was now 7pm and the store closed at 8pm.
We managed to find some clothes that did fit however the cost was outrageous.
Having no idea how long we would be without clothing, we purchased one pair of jeans each (This was as smart as we could find), some underwear, 5 T-Shirts between the two of us, a jumper each and a shirt each. This came to over £1,200 but we had little choice but to pay.
The £150 each given to us at the airport wouldn’t even have paid for the underwear.
We then had the task of finding a shop to get some toiletries, not as easy as you might think as it was now nearly 8:30pm but we managed it.
We returned to the hotel just before 9:30pm only to realise our dinner reservation was at 8pm in the hotel restaurant. This was supposed to be a special meal for my 30th Birthday. Not only did we waste a whole afternoon and evening sorting out the baggage situation but I missed my special birthday meal and by now we were both very angry and upset not to mention worn out so we went straight to bed.
Hope the report is not to long or wining, but BA isn't in my good books at the moment. :(
Sorry to post a negative report but, the areas that we were not happy with are as follows:
1. Being advised by email that I can’t use the Online or Self-Service Check-in as my credit card used to purchase the tickets had changed. (it was stolen a month after purchasing the tickets and I was issued with a new card with a new number). I Was advised by your the BA Customer services team (I have a copy), to go to the airport ticket desk with ID and have my booking re-enabled for check-in.
We travelled down the day before our flight in order to do this (on my partners 30th birthday). On arrival at the ticket desk I was told this was not necessary, they had never heard of such a policy and that I could check in as normal. We returned to our hotel and used the online check in later that day.
2. Due to the problems with the opening of Terminal 5, both the media and the BA website, advised passengers to allow extra time to check-in. The website still states “please allow plenty of time in case of long queues, particularly at peak times” “Please allow yourself plenty of time to go through airport security checks.”
In view of this and all of the queues shown on the media, as well as witnessing for ourselves the large queues in the terminal on the day before.
We arrived at the airport at 11am to be told that we couldn’t drop our bags off until 3 hours before the flight departure.
The member of staff couldn’t give us a reason for this decision and just stated they had been given new instructions. She did state that if we were travelling First Class or had a BA Gold Card then we could check our baggage in at any time.
We were therefore left to spend the next 90 minutes sat on the terminal floor (as there is no adequate seating available landside) before we were allowed to check in. We usually travel in FIRST bu due to the flight being full in that cabin we traveled in Club (it was my partner's birthday and due to previous enguagements, the dates were not flexable.
3. At 3 hours prior to the flight departure we finally checked our baggage in, we asked the member of staff if the baggage would get delivered. He assured us that all baggage problems were now sorted, long haul baggage had never been a problem in any case and he guaranteed it would be on the plane as we were Club World passengers and baggage had priority.
At this we felt reassured and made our way to security only to find a very long queue. We went down the fast track line only to find no member of staff policing the line and therefore everyone else was using it and made the line (and the benefit of paying for this service within our ticket price) totally pointless.
We spent 25 minutes queuing for the security checks before we finally got to the airside area. We then faced a long unnecessary walk all around the retail area before we could get to the Galleries lounges, what a strange design.
4. We immediately went to the Spa area to book a massage only to be told that they couldn’t fit us in as it was 2hr 15 minutes before our flight departure, the gate closed 20 minutes before the departure time and that we should allow an extra 30 minutes on top of that as the flight left from Terminal 5B this only left a 1 hour 25 minute time slot for them to find an appointment and it was fully booked during that period. Bearing in mind it was physically impossible for us to be there any earlier due to the BA 3 hour check-in policy and the queues at security, this is another Club World benefit that we had paid for but BA were unable to fulfil.
5. We continued through to the Galleries Club Lounge to try and relax before the flight. The BA website and advertisements make it all look so promising. I quote: “The Chef’s Theatre where you can obtain a light meal from an extensive menu and then enjoy the pleasure of watching your meal being prepared in our frosted glass fronted chef’s theatre”.
What we experienced was a dirty buffet bar that had nothing but a few remnants of cold food which were not replenished once during the 80 minutes we were in there.
There was no sign of any “menu”. When I asked a member of staff where the menu was for selecting the hot food to be “prepared” for me. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders and the staff member walked off, great!
The frosted glass chef’s theatre where you can watch your meal being prepared consists of a window that is so heavily frosted it matches the reception you receive from the unhelpful staff.
The Wine Gallery offers, according to your information “An extended cellar of fine wines”. On our visit it consisted of two bottles of white wine and two bottles of red wine, no champagne. Hardly an extended cellar! Luckly I was aware that champagne was available on request.
The flight information screens were not working in the lounge meaning staff were having to use a very loud tannoy to shout the flight departures out. This totally wrecked any idea of the Galleries Club providing a “relaxing sanctuary of peace and quiet” as advertised on your website.
6. The flight to Tokyo was pretty under whelming:
My AVOD in-flight entertainment didn’t work correctly and had to be reset three times by the flight crew.
My personal TV screen was also broken and wouldn’t stay in one position without me holding it still. I reported this to the onboard crew but they were unable to fix it.
The food on board was very average, lacked flavour and was not particularly well presented. There were no vegetables offered with the Cottage Pie and the quality was more like I would expect in a supermarket cafe than a premium cabin on a world class airline.
The cushion supplied had a small stain on it and I suspect it wasn’t changed from the previous flight. The information on your website states that we would receive “damask pillows by Osborne and Little and pale taupe quilts and pillows with sky blue detail.” Where exactly are the pillows? Because there were none available on either of our flights, this prevented a good sleep.
The BA website also states that “The laptop connection point no longer needs an adaptor” Why was I therefore unable to plug in my laptop and was told by the crew I would need to purchase an adaptor to do so?
7. On arrival at Tokyo Narita Airport we were greeted by the friendly Immigration staff and processed very quickly, leading us straight through to the Baggage Reclaim. This is where our nightmare began.
As we stood by the baggage belt we discovered a board with our names on as well as many others. The sign said to go to the BA Baggage Desk. We walked over to the desk to be told by a member of staff that our baggage had not made it onto the flight. We then spent the next hour completing paperwork and trying to understand what would happen.
The staff at Narita couldn’t tell us anything, they didn’t even seem to be aware of the problems at Terminal 5. They were unable to say when the bags would arrive and could only give us a cash card for £150. They couldn’t even tell us where we could withdraw the money. They said we would have to telephone each day to find out if the bags had arrived or not, great!
By the time we had finished, all of the World Traveller Passengers had claimed their bags and left the airport. It seemed that only Business and First Class Passengers had been affected by the baggage problems, another benefit of travelling Club World gone.
We then spent another hour in the airport trying to find a cash machine to use the card you had just given us along with numerous other passengers, when we eventually found one a queue had formed and we all had to wait in turn to get our money.
All of this extra delay meant we missed our train departure to Tokyo Station and had to wait another 30 minutes longer for the next train. We finally arrived in Tokyo Station approximately 3 hours later than what we would have done if the baggage hadn’t been lost.
After checking in to our hotel we then realised we had no clothes at all other than the casual ones we had been in all day at Heathrow and for 12 hours on the plane.
We were staying in a 5 star hotel with the normal standard of dress expected to be casual but elegant. Turning up at check-in wearing jeans and a T-Shirt was understandable after a long flight, going to dinner or having a drink in the lounge in the evening would require something a touch smarter.
We realised we now had the task of finding some clothes, shoes and toiletries for the holiday.
The hotel concierge tried their best to help us giving us a list of shops and directions on how to get there. We went in shop after shop only to find that the Japanese clothing sizes were far too small to fit either myself or my partner.
We returned to the hotel to find out if there were any western stores. The only one they seemed to be able to find nearby (30 minute walk) was Diesel. We rushed over to their store as it was now 7pm and the store closed at 8pm.
We managed to find some clothes that did fit however the cost was outrageous.
Having no idea how long we would be without clothing, we purchased one pair of jeans each (This was as smart as we could find), some underwear, 5 T-Shirts between the two of us, a jumper each and a shirt each. This came to over £1,200 but we had little choice but to pay.
The £150 each given to us at the airport wouldn’t even have paid for the underwear.
We then had the task of finding a shop to get some toiletries, not as easy as you might think as it was now nearly 8:30pm but we managed it.
We returned to the hotel just before 9:30pm only to realise our dinner reservation was at 8pm in the hotel restaurant. This was supposed to be a special meal for my 30th Birthday. Not only did we waste a whole afternoon and evening sorting out the baggage situation but I missed my special birthday meal and by now we were both very angry and upset not to mention worn out so we went straight to bed.
Hope the report is not to long or wining, but BA isn't in my good books at the moment. :(