Would appreciate some advice from BA regulars ... late last week I was flying from a continental airport where BA is handled by a contractor, via LHR to the US. I am OW Emerald and was flying on a Business Class ticket.
I noticed that the check-in agent appeared to be fumbling somewhat and after a while he handed me the Europe-LHR boarding pass but not my onward BP for a LHR-USA flight on American Airlines.
When asked about it, he simply said that the "system" does not issue a BP and I should get it in LHR. Knowing what a tedious procedure it is to change terminals at LHR from T5 to T3 and keeping in mind my short connection, I requested for a supervisor.
At first he claimed that there was no supervisor. However, when I persisted in talking to one, if need be at least over the phone, suddenly a supervisor could be found. When he came, I explained to him that I flew exactly the same route / airlines six weeks ago and at that time there was no problem in getting all BPs when checking in for the first flight at the same airport.
The supervisor said, without batting an eyelid and without checking anything, it was a system issue and he could do nothing. At this point I gently suggested that may be someone else can try checking me in and since he was the supervisor, may be he himself could check me in.
To this astonishingly he responded that he handles check-in for seven airlines and he is not familiar with the BA system.
At this point, I gave up but asked for his name; he only gave me his first name and refused to give me a surname.
Next thing I know, he goes behind the counter, opens a cupboard and hands me
this notice!
I was absolutely flabbergasted because I had in no way "threatened, abused or insulted" the BA staff. Nor was there any prior 'warning' of any kind, contrary to what the message stated. I had merely asked for the Supervisor's name, including his surname.
Anyway, at this point I decided not to utter another word and walked away. Boarded the flight without any further incident and upon arrival at LHR/T3, presented myself to the AA transfer desk.
The agent there issued my onward boarding passes without any fuss whatsoever; when i asked him why the European station could not issue the onward boarding passes, he of course did not know but guessed that the check-in agent entered the old, now invalid expiry date on my green card and not the renewed date which was attached with a sticker.
Anyway, I am back home but am still seething at the unprovoked insult even after a few days. After 30+ years of flying BA long haul, very often in premium cabins, this is the first time that I have encountered anything remotely like this.
While I have a good mind to complain, I am afraid that I will just get a canned, nonsense reply at best. Also, considering how arrogant many airlines have become now, I cannot even rule out BA continuing to be nasty.
So what do you think I should do? Swallow it and move on? Or write to complain and if so to which e-mail address?