Originally Posted by HarryHolden68

I'll oblige.

My name is Harry. I am a DYKWIA.

Having flown overnight from HNL to LAX on Saturday with 90 minutes to connect to the 8am departure to JFK and then to LHR, I discovered that the onward flight from LAX had a 7-hour delay, arriving in JFK after midnight (it was later cancelled). AA had automatically "kindly" booked me on the 2pm direct flight to LHR. In a centre seat. In the back row of Economy. At the time, although sleep deprived, I understood that was just a computer algorithm trying to find an easy solution.

I called You First and after 10 minutes of "Oh no, we cannot have that" was told actually there was no F or J availability from anywhere in North America to LHR that day. I had an out of body experience telling the agent that this was not acceptable and even embarrassingly heard myself saying "Is this how BA would treat David Beckham"? Getting myself together, using Expert Flyer and ITA Matrix, I found my own routing via Boston with a Transcontinental First lie flat on the domestic leg and BA First on the Transatlantic. How is it that in 15 minutes I could find that but the agent couldn't. Without Flyertalk, I genuinely believe I would be flying at the back of an American 777 being proper Yorkshire grumpy. Anyway, the agent rebooked the flights and the day was saved.

The entire industry is a mess, BA doubly so. Booked in December, the 8 sector booking now has 23 flights in MMB, there have been so many timetable changes and cancellations. I have a great deal of sympathy with the coal face staff that have to deal with the customer while continually disappointing. I have no sympathy for the BA management for whom greed has created a self inflicted wound that is going to take years to heal or if some other global catastrophe occurs, may well prove fatal.

For example, I was on G-STBM for both transatlantic legs 4 days apart. On both sectors, 1A did not recline and the Wi-Fi was inoperative throughout the journey, Were BA aware, yes. Did they have the desire to do anything about it? Maybe, one day. Sometime. But clearly, the IFL was left having to tell a First passenger that their lie flat bed wasn't. And a host of passengers expecting to work / play or otherwise on the Internet - sorry you cannot.

No wonder I am a DYKWIA.