Programs: ba gold, bmi gold, MAS gold, hhonors gold
Posts: 291
Quote:
Originally Posted by PUCCI GALORE
My Dear. My very Dear. On this thread full of incoherence, tortured English, and what amounts to no more than gloating, your thread is a beacon of reason and light. PLease send this to the Chairman of the Board for you have spoken for all of of us who do indeed care. If this is your idea of clumsiness, then God help those who come under the oprobium of your pen.
You have crystalised the thoughts of all reasoable men and women, and given voice to our the cause of our anger.
Thank You. I only hope that I can ever do for you what you have done for me with these exact sentiments.
Pucci Galore
couldn't agree more - since BA ditched the regional flights I have had lots of contact with FLYBE and the difference is astonishing - BA ground and flight staff can smile, they have a vocabulary which extends beyond grunts - and they appear to have the ambition to treat to SLF as human beings - the staff is about the only thing BA has going for it in these sad days
Programs: Mucci (Blue & needing a TP run), BAEC Silver, AAdvantage almost Lifetime PLT, CO, WN
Posts: 3,566
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrishow
Is anyone expecting a BA sale in light of the T5 PR disaster? If so, when would one expect it to start?
Probably, but they'd be foolish to do anything until they can operate the full schedule. Will they risk trying to recover the European business before they move the T4 longhaul flights?
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Frequent travel - it broadens a lot more than the mind....
Programs: BA Silver (hard landing) and Mucci des Sacs Exotiques.
Posts: 467
Quote:
Originally Posted by uk1
...
This isn't just about the opening of T5. It's about trashing the brand, which is still loved (although us chaps and chapesses will never admit in an un-British way to such a thing), it's about letting the staff down, the customers down, the shareholders down, and the British Flag down. And that lays at the door of a single man. And he has said so. WW....
I could quote your whole post it is so beautifully written uk1, but chose this last paragraph as it perfectly encapsulates everything I have been feeling and could not express. Thank you.
I may have overlooked something , and I've read every single post on this thread but is there any information as to what's going on at T5?
Have they BA identified the problems other than a general "baggage"?
What are they doing to sort this out?
Likewise BAA.
All there is on the BAA site is a refernce to disruption at T5 and to contact BA.
BA.com is not exactly forthcoming either other than what to do if your flights cancelled etc.
Why over the last few days have I seen on TV interviews with Virgin,BMI etc, why hasn't there been a person from BA on the news every night explaining whats gone wrong and what they're doing about it.
Where are you BA?
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If meat is murder, is Quorn wasting police time?
Programs: BA Gold status; BMI blue+; hhonors diamond; SPG gold; Amex Centurion; Mucci du Droit Informatique
Posts: 556
Stats
Today's stats to 1600 are as follows:-
T5:
Total flights 118
Cancelled: 15
Cancelled %: 13% (a lot better than yesterday)
Ave delay: 00:47:56 (a few minutes worse than yesterday)
Greatest delay 02:52:00 (ABZ)
Least delay: 00:03:00 (various - but nothing actually on time or early!)
Others:
Total flights 52
Cancelled: 3
Cancelled %: 6%
Ave delay: 00:22:06 (worse than yesterday)
Greatest delay 02:12:00 (EWR)
Least delay: -00:01:00 (MAD - lucky people!)
Since Thursday, when Terminal 5 opened, we accept that the service we have provided our customers has not been good enough. We are extremely sorry for this.
We are working hard to tackle the difficulties we have had with the terminal's baggage system. From time to time problems have developed that were not encountered during the extensive trials.
The manufacturers and a team of engineers and IT specialists from BAA and BA are working together to fix the problems.
The problems have caused a backlog of undelivered bags to build up and we are making every effort to reunite passengers with their bags by road to Gatwick, Manchester, and Scotland to speed up the process.
For those customers in EU countries on the European mainland we are also sending bags to a specialist sorting facility in Milan which will help to get bags back to those customers as soon as we can and for those customers in the US without their bags we are using space on flights from Terminal 4 to get the bags over to the US.
We have more than 400 volunteers from across the airline supporting this effort.
This work takes time as delayed bags must undergo enhanced levels of security screening. Much of this process has to be done manually because we have been unable to use the Terminal 5 baggage system to process these bags automatically.
We are sorry for the disruption and inconvenience caused to customers whose flights have been cancelled or whose bags have been delayed. We will not rest until our service has been restored to the high standard customers rightly expect.
We continue to work towards increasing the number of services in the days ahead.
Both British Airways and BAA have invested an enormous amount of time and effort to create Terminal 5. We remain confident that these early difficulties can be overcome, and that the terminal will be highly valued by customers and our staff in the near future and for many years to come.
Programs: LH Senator, BA Gold, AA Plat,SPG Plat,Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 1,747
I had the opportunity to try out T5 this morning connecting from T4.. It went relatively smoothly..
On my flight from Toronto, I was given a connection guide which stated that it would take 120 minutes to connect from T4 to T5 wow, that's a long time! I was contemplating clearing immigration when I arrived in T4 and taking a cab to T5 to shorten the connect time. I spoke to some FA's on flight, and they told me that the connection should not take 120 minutes and that I would be better off going through FCC (Flight Center Connection).
The result: It took 30 minutes... There was a long queue to board the bus to go to T4, but it went quickly with lots of buses...
I found the normal security line faster than FAST TRACK (which is located at the other end of the hall.!
pS..I like the fact that you no longer have to take out your laptop and put it in a separate bin for security.
Programs: BAEC Silver; Muccis du Monde des Peluches
Posts: 3,635
Quote:
Originally Posted by hsmall
Today's stats to 1600 are as follows:-
Interesting, and it sounds like things may be improving a bit, but the statistics unfortunately don't tell us anything about the baggage situation. The biggest problem for most pax seemed to be that a lot of flights seemed to be leaving with little or no luggage. This is terrible, but doesn't show up at all in cancellation or delay statistics.
I may have overlooked something , and I've read every single post on this thread but is there any information as to what's going on at T5?
Have they BA identified the problems other than a general "baggage"?
What are they doing to sort this out?
Besides whatever the various problems are behind the scenes, there are two big very visible issues that need to be fixed:
1. Security is a chaotic, poorly designed and poorly managed mess
- Fast track is not policed, and it's a free-for-all once there is a queue from the BP check point
- Why are only half the scanners manned? Who is responsible for keeping half the machines closed, and the resulting long queues?
- Those silly machines need to be fixed. Only 1-2 people can load their things into the trays at a time, and there is no room to prepare for security, no extension to the conveyors to put your bags and stuff on. Ridiculous.
- The stupid tray system is directly responsible for delays, as 1 person messing about with their change/shoes/belts/keys results in the whole conveyor coming to a stop
- Prodding the empty trays to help them on their way results in the whole system jamming (as I discovered today)
- It would be twice as fast to get through security if (i) you could take the tray off the conveyor and (ii) there was space to start putting your things in the trays in advance of reaching the machine
2. So many BA staff don't seem adequately trained to do their job
- SSCI supervisors don't know how to assist with checking in
- CI staff don't know how to print eticket receipts
- Lounge staff don't know the lounge access rules ("can this NCL passenger come in on his Gold card, or does he have to travelling in Club Class" was a classic)
- Lounge staff don't know where to go to change a ticket
- Airside staff don't know (and it's still a big mystery) how to get back landside
- It doesn't inspire much confidence when you can't get the most basic things done, and simple questions answered
So besides fixing the lifts, the escalators, the baggage systems, the guidance systems and whatever else wasn't properly tested beforehand, it would help if the staff could be given basic training in customer services issues at T5. Telling the customer to "go find it yourself" is not what I would have expected to hear.
The problems is that OLCI still can't do everything for you. And we have been telling them this for yonks, but - surprise surprise - nothing is done about it.
1. If you OLCI too early for your first flight, you are then locked out of OLCIing for the next day return flight, and have to do it at a desk instead
2. If you PYOBP, then the SSCI machine refuses to give you an eticket receipt, which some of us like/need for record-keeping
3. In many cases, OLCI and the SSCI will not issue onward BPs for connecting flights.
Sorry, I didn't want to imply for a minute that OLCI will solve all the problems - far from it - but just if there are issues like this then the easy way around them is to create an appropriate incentive. Thats all. However, it sounds like the 2 main issues are baggage handling and also security screening for which there is little that usa passengers can do.
Just heard from a friend about an annoying experience with BA - they were due to fly to LA at the weekend, but decided to postpone their travel as they were quite keen to travel with their bags.
Checked BA.com - advised that changes can be made to a different date.
They tried to change online a couple of times - no success.
Called up - and were advised that as the flight time had now passed, they were marked as No Shows, and they couldn't change their flight.
The fact that a) they tried to change online before departure, and b) the policy on BA.com makes no mention of the fact you need to change prior to departure was deemed irrelevant - their tickets are now cancelled and invalid.
BA should note that people affected by these problems are "regular" travellers - those that saved up for trips, trust MMB, and don't have £300 credit cards. With the current press climate, changing these tickets to an alternate flight (which has plenty of availability) should have been a no-brainer. But it wasn't.
Great job guys.
Online changes not working is one thing, but waiting until after departure to call BA would seem to be the fault of the pax, no? Even 'regular' travelers must realize that simply not showing up for a flight means you lose the value of your ticket.
Sale?
wow, that's a long time! I was contemplating clearing immigration when I arrived in T4 and taking a cab to T5 to shorten the connect time. I spoke to some FA's on flight, and they told me that the connection should not take 120 minutes and that I would be better off going through FCC (Flight Center Connection).
