Originally Posted by
Geordie405
Fun and games after BA461 landed from Madrid. We came into the C gates. Lots of connecting passengers, naturally. Mrs Geordie405 and I managed to get a lift straight down to the transit and walked onto the waiting train to A gates. Allowed through the barrier to immigration where there was also no queue.
At the biometric barriers we failed conformance. We were told we’d been offloaded. Ridiculous as the cabin crew from the Madrid flight were also working the NCL one. The BA agent couldn’t persuade the relevant people to override conformance and so he then got in touch with Reservations. No rebooking options until tomorrow night, which doesn’t work.
We were then reloaded back onto the BA1338 as the departure time had been pushed back again. Up to security where only one machine in use, and all staff standing around and chatting. My bag got pulled for apparently having a laptop in it when there wasn’t one - additional stress for no reason!
We’re now at the gate (A11) where we have cabin crew but no flight crew. ETD is now 2300. Lots of very unhappy passengers moaning about a total lack of information.
Your 1338 is on it’s 4th airframe that is subject to a reactionary delay from earlier in the day. It has been to Naples and Warsaw and encounters a flight control computer fault (common and minor - easily rectified) and a more troublesome comms issue for ACARS which is needed in the BA operation for basic dispatch functionality. On top of that is also the ATC saga of delays ever since C-19 due to staffing shortages.
The cherry on the top is the late running flight deck crew from yet another late running service into LHR.
When you land and read this the tally is as follows; Airframe reactionary delay 1:09, Cabin Crew reactionary delay 0:15 and Flight Crew reactionary delay 1:10.