Originally Posted by
caz312
The Air India flight from Goa was scheduled to arrive at Mumbai @ 11:35pm with the BA flight departing at 02:30am
It appears the Air India flight arrived at 00:14am still leaving over 2 hours to make the connection
The BA flight left on time (had they "waited" for the passengers there would have been likely a long delay for a new air traffic slot, passengers with connections from London would have missed them, compensation would needed to have been paid and knockon effects would have hit the rotations for that aircraft)
It is certainly not clear in the media why the flight was missed, if it was issues within the airport itself, if there was a delay with disembarkation from the AI flight
I don't think people on the board are being BA apologists. There are a large number of regular flyers who at one time or other will probably have missed connections (I certainly have), the anger and frustration is usually at the carrier that made them late and caused them to miss the next flight not normally aimed 100% at the airline that left as per their scheduled time
I am not commenting on anything that has been said so far as I find it fruitless. What I often am surprised over is how quickly we all jump to conclusions without being in possession of the full facts. The devil is oftenin the detail and this appears to be the case here.
What I do have to say is this. I feel so sorry for the poor people who through no fault of their own are placed in such a horrible position. I could say a lot about the shouting as my supposition is that this was over who was responsible for this situation. The airline bringing them in, or the airline taking them on. Neither seemed to feel that it was their problem.Irrespective of who is to blame, what sort of people go home and leave them stranded? Both sets of staff deserve to be put at the door for the sheer unkindness and lack of professionalism. Customer care has gone out of the window whilst finger pointing goes on. My own view is the BA should have dealt with at least getting these customers into hotels and send the bill to Air India afterwards. What is more, you do not alarm people by telling them that it may take 8 days to get them home, you start organising things behind the scenes so that they get on a flight and go. It will take longer for the traveller but what would he prefer? Sitting around that poxy airport or starting the journey home?
Why one earth did this misconnect happen - there was any amount of time for them all to make the flight? Why were their bags with them? Did some idiot not tag the bags all the way through to London? Is that why they were so late - did they have to go and get their bags? I just do not understand.
That said, I am stating what should have happened rather than what went on because if I know anything about it there will be vast amounts of back protecting in the Mumbai station.