BA1405 MAN-LHR. Inbound flight arrived 8 minutes late due to a go-around thanks to the weather today.

Pax contacts ground crew whilst waiting outside the gate, she’s sadly lost her passport in the airport- ground crew suggest she retrace her steps again to look for it as she won’t be allowed on to her London flight. Queue DYKWIA then telling ground crew that this will no doubt cause a delay and the baggage should be found how to offload.

Boarding delayed due to late arrival of cleaning crew (frustrating for sure), but cleaners arrived after 20 minutes following announcement of delay (prior to our scheduled departure time). Ground staff made announcement as soon as delay was known. Pax invited to sit on the chairs in T3 so they were more comfortable.

Queue said DYKWIA, who firstly interrupted the ground crew prior to the cleaners arriving whilst they were trying to contact the cleaners to expedite them. This was followed by calling BA (hold music on speaker to the obvious irritation of surrounding passengers- followed by upon answer demand to the call centre that they phone operations ‘right now’ and ‘demand that the cleaners attend immediately’. He shouted down the phone that he had travelled from his home at 4pm (for his 1930 flight) and he could have driven in this time. This was followed by firstly a threat and then confirmation that he would ‘email Sean Doyle again’. Some passengers were calling him out whilst he was on the phone ‘your not special’ whilst lots of others were tutting- although he appeared oblivious.

Interestingly, everyone by the gate could have got his details used for a BA identity check- I do wonder, are BAEC numbers sequential so do they give an idea of how long someone has been a member?

We boarded about 15 minutes after our departure time. Flight was good, crew put their foot down and we landed 18 minutes late.

Sadly we pulled up to gate, crew ask for people to remain seated until the CPT pax had disembarked to try to make their tight connection. Then the captain came on to apologies as they had been a problem with the jet bridge., they were arranging for steps to be attached at the back of the aircraft.

Queue a gang of DYKWIA shouting at the flight lead, who did a fantastic job listening to the complaints. Some were angry that they couldn’t disembark first, the flight lead explained this was due to balance when disembarking from the back.

The aforementioned DYKWIA then joined in, repeated his claim about having left his house at 4pm and could have driven down, followed by ‘it’s not a jet bridge it’s a swing bridge’ and BA are the ground handling agent at T5 so they should know the bridge wasn’t working and move us to another stand. Next was a demand that we disembark first from the rear door ahead of the economy passengers as CE pax had paid more. This was followed by the same threat to email Sean about this ‘breach of contract’ and didn’t the flight lead know that he spent £50k with BA a year (later clarified as the company that he works for). Apparently another senior manager had replied on behalf of Sean (name withheld as per FT rules) but hadn’t agreed to fly with him to see what it was like for him to fly with BA.

The Captain came out, as requested one of the other people shouting told the Captain ‘it’s the same gate that was assigned to us when we left Manchester and BA should have known it was broken and there were other empty stands when we had taxied in’. Captain clarified that person information was incorrect; the gate had changed after we had landed and the bridge had broken after we were on stand. He reiterated why they can’t just disembark

We disembarked within a minute later. Delay on landing- 18 minutes behind schedule. I was the last pax off- 19 minutes after we had touched down (we walked off the steps and back into the stairs up to the gate). Another passenger waiter and came forward to CC to apologies for the horrible aggressive shouting she had been subjected to by the two vocal complainers (a nice touch I thought).

Said DYkWIA passenger had a bag to collect (with baggage having nothing been delayed by the bridge). Bags arrived 39 minutes after touch down (DYKWIA’s bag was number 2).

I fully understand people’s frustration, taking it out on the crew who were doing their best in the way that happened really was not ok and frankly, if I was Sean, I wouldn’t answer a guy personally complaining about such a small delay (he effectively had an 18 minute delay- 8 for weather due to the go-around of the inbound aircraft and 10 due to the cleaning delay. Due to having to collect a bag there was effect on his onward journey because of the bridge issue, although others prob had around a 8/9 minute further delay.

A company with a £50k spend doesn’t really impress me either- am I wrong?

Well done to the ground staff, and crew of how they handled the situation. Sorry I don’t care if it’s a jet or a swing bridge. And yes, the CPT passengers made their connection with the flight departing on time.