LeisureFirst

I was confirmed on BA174 last night (Tuesday - not a strike day) at 2001 from JFK to LHR. I checked the Arrivals and Departures section of ba.com at least daily and everything was looking fine right up until Sunday.

I then receive a text message, and also an email, about 45 hours before the scheduled departure to tell me the flight is cancelled. I thought 48 hours was the cut-off after which compensation is due? Am I wrong about this?

After several failed attempts to call the numbers BA recommended I call in the US (which apparently didn't exist) I called back home to the Silver line and managed to just get onto another service that evening. Now 15E on a 4-class 777 is the not the same as 62K, but at least it has extra legroom so I thought I'd be able to sleep.

It turned out to be my worst CW experience to date. The food in the lounge at JFK was absolutely execrable. Salmon fillets cooked to death and dried up under heat lamps or rock hard slices of pork in greasy goo? And the wine was all of a quality (I tasted every one) that I would be embarassed to serve at home even if just with the simplest of meals with my boyfriend.

During the flight itself, the one food/drink item I wanted before going to sleep, namely a pre-flight glass of champagne, wasn't available - no pre-flight drinks at all. And worst of all, there is no partition between 15E and 15F and the guy in 15F managed on three occasions throughout the flight to fall out of his bed and come crashing into me. I had a miserable night's sleep and needed to get some kip at home before coming into work - very late.

Furthermore, the Arrivals Lounge was not up to par. There were no spa treatments at all, "because there's only one of us here" the girl cheerily explained. Yet another service I'd paid for and not received. And the breakfast has gone downhill: I got to the scrambled egg as it was brought out from the kitchen and it was still cold.

Yes, BA got me to my destination within a couple of hours of the original time, so I was a lot luckier than some pax. But this was absolutely not a premium service. For my next trip to New York (in June) I'm pretty determined to at least test what the competition is like. Delta?