Swanhunter

In the Expedia AUH sale last year I pickedv up a couple of tasty F fares. I also ballsed up one intended for a weekend away bu booking it as a turnaround! Taking the opportunity, I added on an AUH-MCT to to do the complete run.

The practicalities

Boarding passes are now no problem. You can PYOBP for all 4 sectors at OLCI. That take one headache away. AT AUH the ground staff are used to handling this now. Just ask the CSD/Purser to give them your BP. It will come back later once you have been boarded, and a security guy will come on to check your passport and write some details down. Let him know you are coming back and it saves him coming on again.

Transit at MCT has been well documented, however even if the plane is 30mins late you have enough time to clear immigration (pay USD20 at Travelex, get a receipt then go to immigration to be stamped in). Still plenty of time for a quick espresso, pick up a book at Turtles and go back through exit formalities (x-ray, immigration, security). I still had 30mins in the lounge and was on the first bus to the plane. Being in F helped (F and J get a seperate bus on arrival)

When it all goes wrong

We taxi on time. Bongs at the end of the runway, the GE90's spool up....and then we taxi back to our stand! Warning light? No, fog at Abu Dhabi (not weather I associate with the Gulf). And 4 hours later the crew time out and we all get off the plane. In the interim, a huge ^ to the onboard crew. The captain personally came through F and talked to all the pax. The CSD was highly visible (she is one of those BA superstar staff who just can't do enough) and the purser kept the 'poo in freeflow!

Once the crew had timed out, F and J were bussed off (with rumours of no rooms for Y! ). I wasn't exactly prepared for an overnight, hving just a courier bag with a couple of books and an iPod. 30 mins faff and we were off to the Shangri-La, a loooong drive away. Another 30 mins faff getting rooms (no record of the BA reservation, and GGL is closed) and finally it was time for sleep. On waking, a note had appeared under my door confirming a 19:00 departure, 01:10 arrival and 16:00 bus pick up at the hotel.

BA seem to have handled this well so far, though interesting the service received on the ground was purely on Class of Service with no mention of status... It's also rather frustrating watching people frolick in the pool while I am largely clad for a European winter.

Davescj

Good on BA!! Though surprising no assist to Silver/Golds in Y.

That being said, doesn't hotel have swimsuits? It might be worth buying LOL.

Dave

BahrainLad

Morning fog is very common at this time of the year. Doesn't help matters with the airspace and runway arrangements in the region being out of the 1960s and operators like EK who try and launch thier entire fleet between 0700-0900 every morning off a non CAT III runway mutter mutter etcetera...

KenJohn

Class of accommodation (ie which hotel) while a plane is being fixed is normally by class - being the equivalent of seats. For status to get a better hotel room if other Y pax are not is equivalent of being Op-Uped ?

If there is limited facilities for Y pax than status should get preference but I suspect, they would go for the lowest common factor - nothing for all. Its the old arguement of full fare versus status, isnt it.

I remember the days in the early 80s on SQ where F pax was bussed off but the C pax were grouped with Y in the days when C was considered to be more of an enhanced Y rather than being regarded as a premium pax. F went to Radisson Edwardian, J and Y went to the two Sheratons

DYKWIA

There was chaos at DXB yesterday by the sound of things. Heavy fog and an already way overcrowded airport.

Cheers,
Rick

heartybob

Seems that this morning's BA72 MCT-AUH-LHR ended up in DXB, from where it is now due to leave for LHR at 19.30 this evening.

Swanhunter

Well, we landed 20mins early this morning at 00:55. By 01:05 I was in a cab on my way home. Coupled with a straight in approach and landing on 09R and taxiing straight onto Gate 10 it was probably my best ever LHR experience. Touchdown to home in 45mins.

Other highlights were explaining to Omani immigration why I was entering their country for the second time in 6 hours and the impromptu plane party in the F cabin while on the ground in AUH.

The ground staff did manage to find rooms for everyone - no mean feat with two of the major hotels in MCT closed for renovation.

No problems with the BP shuffle on the way home either, despite having to be re-checked in at MCT. It took them a little time to sort the AUH-LHR BP for me but it was waiting at the gate.

typical

More Saturday morning in Dubai apparently - some colleagues flying in from Cairo were stuck for hours. I was actually early for once on last night's SV flight to RUH!

A colleague got overnighted at AUH trying to get the 2am flight into RUH, last night though.

Doing my first run to MUC this weekend (in J, since I'm mainly doing it for the miles and one run in F isn't enough to tip me over the renewal point). Wish I'd booked a hotel sooner - is there anything decent under 200 quid?

Rambuster

Paging Flamboyant1! He was on the flight that ended up in Dubai. Sounded like a total fiasco ...

flamboyant 1

Total disgrace, all went wrong.

Plane parked at DXB for 3 hours before crew was over its time and it was time to take a 30min bus ride from the most remote stand to the terminal.
No assistance/help whatsoever, bad planning given this has occured in the past. No hotel, no apology or compensation for First passengers. Endless queuing up at the ONE and only BA transfer counter with all the Eco pax who walked there and were not foolishly in the BA lounge with no food or any news, internet, etc from 0450-0650.
Offer EK Y or VS Upper Class (which is nothing to write home about. Fancy design, but uncomfy, narrow, weird seat).
Baggage of course still in DXB in the "sealed-off" plane.
No apology or compensation at arrival either.

Fuller report to follow. This was no tier point run, just a simple return LHR-MCT-LHR for a nice long weekend. Missed important meetings this morning. Nobody tried rerouting via MUC, CPH, VIE, ZRH, which would all have been possible. But nobody checked and I could not due to the time/ticket issuing times of Amex Cent service...which did not help either.

flamboyant 1

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Flight BA 72 from MCT to LHR booked in paid First Class turned out to be a nightmare last night, 19 November 2007 00:15 departure, with extremely negative impact on my personal well-being, my work (significant meetings missed this morning delaying an important transaction for a long-term BA corporate client) and my luggage.

I will try to summary last night’s events:

Takeoff was on time, but three approaches to AUH were aborted due to light fog. One could easily see street lamps and I have landed in much worse conditions on aircraft of lesser quality than your Boeing 777.
The plane was rerouted to Dubai, where it landed after circling above Dubai for 30min negotiating with air traffic control. It was assigned the very last stand/bus gate. Passengers are held on board for approximately 3 hours according to my recollection. The three aborted landings, waiting circles and delays in Dubai to refuel the plane and let the passengers for AUH disembark caused the crew to be no longer eligible to work and fly the plane home to London. The main problem is that BA did not recognize this and does not have a spare crew in the Middle East and did not fly a crew to Dubai from London or any other location. Instead the strategy adopted was to let the existing crew rest in a hotel in Dubai for at least twelve hours and then continue to London (which I now know in hind-sight). Unfortunately, passengers were not offered the luxury of a real bed or even hotel room. Instead we were all guided into the sub-standard BA lounge, which at that time had run out of food. First Class passengers were treated in exactly the same manner as economy class passengers, no help or assistance was offered to me or the two couples in First. I had to wait in the lounge with no food, no internet connection, no working public phone and never received any news from BA staff when the BA flight would continue or which other carrier had open seats in First or Business Class. I could not contact my 24hour Concierge Service and could not check myself how to get in time for my meetings to London. After staying for approximately 2 hours in the lounge from 0450-0650 we had to wait forever (2 hours) to be helped at the BA transfer desk to get the ticket endorsed to VS. Service was unacceptably rude and no priorities were set for premium class passengers. Then we had to queue at the VS transfer counter to get our boarding pass only to arrive about 9 hours delayed at LHR without any luggage, any apology or any compensation whatsoever.

In short:

• No substitute crew available, yet all passengers were stuck for 3 hours in the plane at DXB airport before being sent to the lounge to wait another 2 hours without any news; bad planning as it was clearly known early that a fresh/new crew would be needed
• No hotel room was offered for anyone despite the clear requirement, given the crew was going to rest for at least 12 hours in a hotel
• All passengers had to queue up at the on single BA transfer desk near gate 18
• No priority for F / BA Gold passengers
• No possibility was offered to communicate with outside parties or check flights on other airlines (I had a friend check in the middle of the night LH DXB-MUC-LHR with no success)
• BA only checked with EK and offered Y class as a substitute for F when I first asked the transfer lady.
• After negotiation with VS at least BA agreed to endorse the segment to the 1005 departure on VS. But VS Upper class is miles from BA F as far as seat comfort is concerned and after a night without sleep, I only wanted a comfortable bed and good pillows.
• Queue at VS Baggage Desk at LHR to file complaint for missing luggage. BA plane for some reason could not be unloaded from 01:50 until the VS departure at 10:05. Baggage could not be rerouted we were told immediately when getting the VS BP 2 hours before departure. There was still plenty of time in my opinion and baggage handlers tend to be efficient in DXB.
• No overnight kit or any kind of baggage compensation was voluntarily offered or given despite asking.
• No apology from BA for causing this mess due to bad planning (fog is not unusual at this time of the year), no availability of a contingency crew or rerouting to an airport with quick refuelling (which could have allowed for a departure to London with the same crew), for not providing reasonable accommodation to the stranded passengers and not showing any respect or generosity to its most valuable customers (paid First & BA Gold).
• I was treated like a piece of sh*t by BA and VS ground staff, the latter in fact refused to change my seat, to input my BMI FFP number (they claimed no BMI miles for VS flights…I thought differently, but then, VS Ground staff did not even know the BMI airline code “BD”). VS limousine service to central London could not be reserved “at such short notice”. Guess what, no VS either for me in future.

BA failed badly and owe me a sincere apology. Simply at 0150 we should have been sent to a hotel (and there are plenty in Dubai) to sleep with a new boarding pass for an equally comfortable flight to be presented the next morning with pick-up from hotel to airport arranged by BA. But no, passengers had to arrange their onward journeys with unwilling and unskilled transfer desk/lounge agents or we would have been stuck like some who did not take initiative…and were stuck at DXB for more than 17 hours. The flight should be in the air now and I hope everyone arrives safely back in London.

Rerouting, severe delay/cancellation, lots of queues and incompetent/unhelpful agents, no solution, downgrade, lost luggage, missed appointments...it could have indeed not been worse. The OP was treated quite nicely compared to what I had to endure last night.

G-BOAC

The 777 is more than capable of landing in dense fog...given the correct pilot training/certification and runway category certification. I suspect it is the latter which prevented landing in this case - something over which BA has no control, thus rendering your point in what appears to be a letter to BA useless, and making you look stupid. At least AIUI...maybe it'll be me who looks stupid

The handling at DXB described in the rest of your letter and in particular the shoddy treatment/lack of priority for premium pax does sound very poor, I agree.

Edit: Swanhunter do let us know how many TPs post in the end too

AJLondon

Sorry to hear about your troubles Seb, but using:
followed by a lengthy analysis with a dozen bullet points did make me giggle a tad.

If you do write to BA, I would strongly urge you to be more succint, and focus on a couple of points that were the major inconvience. (Or else the letter mind end up straight away in a place that you would not like! ) I would think that mentioning the poor ground handling / lounge facilites at DXB, lack of re-booking options via Euroland, and no hotels at DXB would be quite sufficient. I would ignore the rest and the bits about VS.

I would also resist from advising BA about how to fly/land their planes in any letter you write.

Swanhunter

G-BOAC is right, the problem is not BA's plane or crew (both are Cat3 equipped) but the runway at AUH which is only Cat 2. IIRC Cat 2 means you need 375 metres of visibility - it was 250 metres when we aborted our take off.

It certainly sounds like the ground staff at MCT had their act together better than DXB (not that it surprises me as I've found Dubai one of the poorest outstations for service). Bags off quickly, hotels found, plenty of communication and no quibbles over paying for my lunch and phone calls.

Compensation isn't something that even crossed my mind - though my experience was nowhere near as bad as flamboyant 1. However I can claim GBP75 for a cab home (same offer for Club), whereas the unwashed masses only get GBP50. I'm planning a letter to BA to say well done to the crew for handling things so well.

360 TP's posted so far...curiously only for the AUH-MCT and return.

Jenbel

G-BOAC is right - whether the plane can land or not depends on the categorisation of the AIRPORT, over which BA have no control. All their long-haul planes and crew will be certificated for cat III ops. The reason why you didn't land at MCT is either down to the visibility levels being below minimums for the level the airport is equipped to deal with (and this goes way beyond what, if any ILS they have but into things like ground operations, lights and signage) or the fact that the fact they were into low vis ops meant that there were delays, and the BA flight had to abort because of low fuel. If they were doing approaches and go arounds, it sounds like the former rather than the latter, with permission not being given to land - or there isn't even ILS there, and they were trying visual approaches. Complete speculation on my part of course, spottie may be along later to box my ears and point out my errors...