Tezzer, I hope you find you're return journey better. And I also hope you will give BA another go, though I appreciate it's easier for you to fly with other airlines from your home base.

Can I just remind you that this is BA policy, devised by BA Management.

If you're all so offended with being welcomed then only you can change it by writing in and telling BA that you find it offensive.

Thank you.

We also got the email "Welcome to your first time flying CW". Although it was rather amusing, since we been flying that cabin for at least 6-7 yrs in a row, (revenue pax) it made me a bit nostalgic, and I enjoyed reading it. I think one can become a bit blase and it's good to remember the days when we couldn't afford it.

If the same greeting had been given in lounge, with people around, Mr. Soames response would have been "thank you love" and mine would have been "I'm looking forward to it; Are you still offering the Malbec?". Obviously, she was trying to make the OP feel welcome. I can't remember who said it (it might have been Mrs. Roosevelt) "no one can make you feel inferior without your permission".

I adore flying backwards, even pay for it. And somethings I always check for when packing are the usual essentials for travelling, of which one is a pen.

I agree.

The OP had a thorough miserable flight because someone wished him a pleasant flight, there was a queue to board the plane, and the worst of all - the cabin crew didn't give him a pen. :rolleyes:

The lady in the lounge was clearly trying to welcome, or welcome back, the customer.

I suggest next time getting to the gate earlier, and bringing a pen, to avoid disappointment. And perhaps wear a badge saying "don't welcome me, I find it offensive".

Interesting...

Bearing in mind that (I'd assume) the majority of those eligible to use priority boarding will also use the lounge facilities, perhaps, particularly for L/H flights, it might be worth a heads up in the lounge that priority boarding will commence in say 5 mins?

Probably a rubbish idea but I fully concur that Priority boarding is used at LGW. However, if you want to get on board before the large queues form, maybe the above (or a variation of) could be trialled?

I'm not suggesting announcements need to be made but even if the boarding message on the screens could be amended, it might help......?

Personally I think such a welcome is a good thing. It is not as though all BA FFs will be called up to the desk is it? - only those that have not had access before.

As I said before perhaps it is possible that the OPs previous BA history has fallen out of the system (he did say he hadn't flown BA for some time) or his last visit was pre T5 and so the staff (on management instruction) were just trying to check that all was OK and if he needed any help finding it.

This is far, far better than just getting a wave in the general direction of the way in you get with some airline lounges.

Correct.

The welcome was actually in the lounge at the lounge desk from my understanding. And you're correct, if his last long haul travel was circa. 15 years ago (as tezzer himself says) then this would have fallen out of the system.

I agree.

tezzer

I find it a bit odd that such offence was taken at a gesture that was surely intended to be pleasant. If you were bothered by it, a friendly "oh thank you very much, but actually I'm an old hand at this", would have dealt with the situation adequately.

Were you really that embarrassed by it? If someone embarrassed me in front of some other passengers who I would likely never see again, I'm not sure I'd be that bothered. Who cares what they think?

Not trying to be unfriendly -- just trying to understand why it irked you so much.

I was thinking similar thoughts. Also the Gatwick "welcome" desk in the Galleries is well away from the public areas - I would be surprised if many people even heard the lady offering her friendly welcome.

Good idea in theory. In practice, not so sure.

Two main reasons - at the gate the TRM is in charge and the gate team who greet you into the gate area work as per his/her instructions. They are the ones who tell us a flight is ready for boarding and to send the passengers to the aircraft.
However, asking them to notify us approx. 5 minutes before they're ready could be difficult. They're under very tight time constraints and chasing various different departments to make sure things all come together perfectly so your flight leaves on time. So I suspect from that viewpoint it may not happen.

Second reason is most F/CW/CE passengers prefer to stay in the lounge until the very last minute. They're also aware that queues often form when the main cabin is boarding so tend to wait until the last minute.

I think the first reason could be the stumbling block, but I'll suggest it when I'm in tomorrow.

Seems a bit harsh.

I think he made a few other points as well ...didn't he? Non-existent service and having to beg for everything? You seem overly selective and defensive, and perhaps you are seeing unjustified attacks on BA in an otherwise balanced complaint about a less than premium experience?;)

That was all it seems to me he was saying.It seems a shame to simply pick the easily targetable complaint and ignore the core one. Poor service on the flight.

I'd be very surprised if there wasn't priority boarding for CW - you probably just missed it. This is one aspect of BA's service that rarely let's customers down.

Whilst I do get the impression that there was some level of self-fulfillment in your experience, it is true that the experience onboard with BA can be extremely inconsistent and it looks like you got a bad lot. However, please don't assume all BA staff are like that.

How was the return flight?

I HAD a pen, unfortunately, at that time it was in my paltop bag, which was in the overhead locker.

It was a simole request, and it wasn't that she didn't have one, it was the simple "NO" response, dismissed and forgotten in an instant. I'm sorry, it's poor service, and in my opinion, darned right rude !

It is possible that you really had bad lack. But based on my experience, whenever I was flying in Club (and in 95% when I was in Traveler) staff both on ground and in the air was superb. THE reason why I'm flying with BA (even though I had some problems with them in past) is their staff. BA's cabin crew and ground staff were always friendly and nice to me (perhaps that's because I'm nice to them too?). In addition, most of them makes me feel they really care about my comfort. Not just "I smile because I have to", but really warm welcome and care. That's why I fly BA whenever I can.

While they are many bad sides of BA, staff is not one of them. They're mostly doing great job.

[snip]

Sounds like poor service flight.