A sorry tale that I feel compelled to share. The point being not to dwell on the gory detail, but to indicate BA’s response. Or lack of it.
Was in the CCR with my wife prior to boarding for CPT. A waitress delivering drinks to my neighbours lost control of her tray, one of the glasses fell on to the arm of my chair, shattered and sprayed glass and fizz over my trousers. I shot out of my chair but in doing so incurred a puncture wound in the palm of my hand courtesy of the flute’s stem. It was deep and bled profusely. Abject apologies from the waitress, the lounge manager was called and so in turn was someone from BA. I was patched up, -catering plaster and glove and because our flight was boarding took the decision that if it needed a stitch that could be seen to at the other end.
The CC in first were excellent, -and indeed I filed a compliment via the website to that effect on my return, and on us briefing them on the saga, cleaned me up again –necessary as the bleeding hadn’t stopped and it was getting rather messy, and filed an incident report. I emphasised my concerns that I incurred the injury through no fault of my own, and if this required some medical follow up then I was not to be out of pocket. I was assured by the CSD that this would be followed up.
Well, it wasn’t. And my injury meant I was significantly inconvenienced during the first week of our holiday. No swimming, no bike riding and driving the hire car was difficult.
Three weeks after the incident, having given up waiting for a call, I filed a complaint, giving the details and requesting someone call me. A few days later I received a rather inadequate letter of the we do hope you’re ok and look forward to welcoming you back soon variety. No phone call.
Leaving it for a few more days I contacted You First. They contacted customer service and assured me someone would telephone me that afternoon. Three days later, nothing.
All in all, a nasty incident that really did distract from the enjoyment of the holiday. A month on and the wound remains painful to the extent that I think there may be some glass lodged in there. Whatever, I remain ‘wounded’ and have determined this does require medical follow up. Being pain-averse the prospect of someone opening up my hand (again) and poking around is not an attractive one.
I am a GCH and was travelling in First. Some time ago BA adopted a strategy of targeting premium traffic. I had assumed this strategy remained in place but this experience indicates quite firmly that this is not so. Aside from being really, really annoyed, I am somewhat bemused at the approach this airline takes to its premium customers. Clearly from this experience one that discounts entirely the prospect of repeat business.
I do want to like BA, but they are making it very difficult. As we often hear from the flight deck at the end of a trip, thank you, we appreciate you have a choice. We do indeed.
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I think you have very genuine gripe here, and the BA response (or lack thereof), especially for GCH in F, is most disappointing.
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A month on and the wound remains painful to the extent that I think there may be some glass lodged in there. Whatever, I remain ‘wounded’ and have determined this does require medical follow up. Being pain-averse the prospect of someone opening up my hand (again) and poking around is not an attractive one.
IMHO, irrespective of whatever BA does or does not do, you really shouldn't be waiting and taking chances like this with your body. Go see your GP and get proper advice and treatement for this.
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If someone from You First said you'd receive a telephone call and you didn't then you're right to be disappointed. People should do what they say they will do.
Other than that though, I'm not sure what you're expecting?
It seems that the staff apologised at the time and that you were happy with the way it was handled in the CCR. I would expect that any related medical and out of pocket expenses would be reimbursed on receipt of a claim. Have you submitted a claim?
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Originally Posted by G-ARVE
A month on and the wound remains painful to the extent that I think there may be some glass lodged in there.
I'm not medically trained but if you think the wound is not healing and that there's possibly something not right you should get yourself to a doctor without delay. I don't think you should have waited a whole month to have reached this conclusion.
Sorry to hear you were injured. Regardless of how BA is handling things, it sounds like you need to have it it looked at. I would suggest you do so and send BA the receipt and ask them to reimburse you, which I am quite sure they, or the service providers that run the CCR, will oblige.
BA should have written this up at the time in the lounge so there was a reference point (I personally would have insisted upon this). I personally would also take legal action had my holiday been compromised in the way you describe here. I can understand the difficulty here for BA in responding from a customer service perspective given the potential legal liability.
I would have visited a doctor at the first opportunity though to sort out the problem properly and also to establish a documented record of the injury and it's subsequent progression. You have probably jeopardised your own position in respect of this by inexplicably failing to seek appropriate medical help at the earliest opportunity.
Pain is the body's way of communicating to the brain that something is wrong. To ignore the communication will just compound the issue.............won't it?
On a serious note............get yourself to the doctor's and forget about the accident.
Yes I can see it must have inconvenienced you during your holiday to some extent. Incident reports can take some time to process as they usually have to go through the H&S rep who in turn will investigate it and make a report. Maybe the CSD report got lost somewhere along the line? If it had been completed in the CCR I imagine it would have been dealt with somewhat more professionally.
Consulting lawyers is a bit extreme but I agree BA should have responded in a better way.
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Don't let the Walter Mitty's get you down....
Given that you've been quite willing to speak to BA about it etc but they are ignoring you, I'd persue legal action for the fact it's ruined your holiday!
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Without sounding like a BA Apologist (and many of you are aware of my stance), this sort of incident could happen anywhere, such as a cafe/restaurant etc. Whilst that is not an excuse for BA's poor/lack of response, I feel it is an unfortunate accident.
I do fully agree with the previous posters that you should get it checked out properly by a medical professional in case there is any unknown damage. Any charges to the effect should be fully reimbursed by BA or the CCR service contractor without quibble.
I suspect the reason the OP has not received a call back is because the You First agent passed it to their supervisor, who probably passed it upstairs yet again - it may well have ended up in a legal department somewhere as nobody else wanted to touch the issue for fear of exacerbating liability.
The OP should really not accept anything from BA until they are satisfied, with appropriate medical advice, that no long-term injury may have occurred.
Had the injury occurred at a business I was responsible for, I would have no qualms offering the injured party a refund. However, I would prefer to offer complimentary services in the future, as that would allow me to retain the revenue and to create a positive customer experience.
If someone from You First said you'd receive a telephone call and you didn't then you're right to be disappointed. People should do what they say they will do.
Other than that though, I'm not sure what you're expecting?
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My thoughts also - unforunate an incident as this was.
If I'd had to endure similar circumstances, I think one of my ports of call would probably have been my travel insurer at a very early stage. Although that said, such a call would probably have had to have been made pretty quickly after the incident, and they may well have advised against travel until a medical consultation was possible.
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Sounds like a very unpleasant situation.
I'm actually quite surprised that BA let you board the aircraft with the still-bleeding hand, as they may have incurred costs for a medical diversion had things turned for the worse.
The cynic in me is shouting that one of the endless 'injury compensation lawyers' out there would bite your hand off (excuse the pun) to get involved in this one.
I can see this being a costly mistake for BA and probably a member of staff or two.
It seems that had BA dealt with this as promised with a few follow up calls to the OP to make sure he was OK etc then the OP would have been more than happy with that.
However, as it stands the OP is unhappy, will now contact a personal injury lawyer who will win as they nearly always do. The OP will probably get about £3,000 compensation and the cost of his holiday refunded and the Lawyer will get about £15,000 in costs.
So from the lack of a couple of 50p telephone calls I can see this costing BA in the region of £30,000 to £40,000
