I didn't expect rose petals....but
 

In the dim and distant past, as a Civil Servant, I used to use BA a lot, as it was "the done thing", and after being somewhere unpleasant, there was a strange comfort in boarding a little piece of Briatain, aboard what we used to refer to as the "world's surliest airline".
Over the past 15 years, I have used BA very little, a lack of regional departures mean I use KLM (Humberside) or Emirates (Manchester) for my 35 or so long haul business trips a year.
This week, I need to be in Jamaica, and as BA and Virgin have the duopoly, I went with BA, as their business class fare was cheaper than their own Premium economy, and on a par with Virgin's PE fare.
Gatwick is a 5 hour drive from home, on a good day, and not really do-able by train onthe day of travel, any hitch would be a disaster if the flight was missed. So it was down the night before, and a £160 London hotel room before finishing the journey to LGW in the morning.

Check in was ok, the lounge average, and I was paged by my full name to attend the desk, where a nice lady welcomed me to my first trip in the CW cabin. Actually, I used to use it every month in the dim and distant past, but don;t let that stop you being patronising.

The minute the screen in the lounge went to "boarding" I set off. By the time I got downstarirs it was "final call" and by the time I got to the circular staircase towards gate fifty whater it was "gate closing". I got to the gate, and joined the queue of WT passengers, which went from the entrance to the airbridge to the plane door, about 10 minutes. The welcome onboard was a cool affair, and I have to say I was completely unimpressed with the service throughout the flight. Anything I wanted, I had to virtually beg for, I asked for a pen, to fill in the immigration form for Jamaica, and a short sharp "no" was all I got, not "I'll see if I can find you one" or any offer of assistance, just a plain "no".
For sure there was a huge difference in attitude for other passengers, presumably gold's rather than a mere blue (now Bronze), but I have never felt less loved as a fare paying passenger. Only 1 of the cabin crew made any effort, a pretty young thing who was always there with a friendly smile as she walked past the rest gave off a couldn;t care less attitude.

Ok, I didn't expect to be waited on hand and foot, that only happens in EK's first cabin with which I am very familiar, but this was a BIG let down.

The seating didn't work for me either, a rearward facing window seat was a bit odd, but the nick-nack drawer at floor level is a right pain if you actually want to get something if as in my case you are less than fit and agile.

Food was Ok, no more, but no, nice lady in the Lounge, I won't be making you my airline of choice based on this trip, I will continue to use you where there is little or no choice, the rest of the time I'll stick with Emirates or the Blue meanies of KLM.

This to me explains everything. You were determined that nothing was going to get in the way of having a thoroughly miserable experience.

That lady wasn't being patronising, she was being nice.

BAH

I disgree, to advertise to the assembledthat "this was my 1st time in the business cabin" was nothing more than patronising.

I would have LOVED to have enjoyed the CW experience, but there was little to like. It does not measure up I'm afraid.

^^^

OP said he had last used it in the 'dim and distant past' so maybe past usage had dropped of the BA system so they thought you were a new user??

Did the lady really announce over the tannoy that this was your first flight? If she did then that's bad but all you said that she called you to go to the desk.

And I think that even if the OP had got rose petals they would no doubt have been of the wrong colour / scent / variety

Gosh, did she make her comments that loud that the rest of the lounge could hear?

I thought she had paged you to the desk...which most in the lounge would either (a) ignore without speculating (b) idly wonder if you got an upgrade (and feel a bit jealous) or (c) if they had to guess, assume you had a connection issue or some baggage query that front desk were getting back to you with.

I very much doubt that was what the lady was intending. You showed a pretty bad expectation level at the start 'world's surliest airline' and had set your mind that it would work this way. I am surprised at the attitude of the CC when you asked to use a pen as I have never found this a problem on any airline regardless of class or travel or my status on the airline.

To clarify, it was to the assembled around the desk, rather than the entire lounge. As for the "worlds surliest airline", as I said, there was a "home comfort" feel to it, to be scowled at by an English Rose,after spending a hostile time in a hostile environment.
I just think that as an experioence that should have been enjoyable, it fell far far short of the competition, which is a shame for a National carrier, but indeed, nowhere near as bad as Air Fraince.

Oh, my, how awful!:rolleyes:

Go Kirmington! I was a nocturnal labourer on that runway extension as a holiday job when I was a hairy student :)

Must have been some glitch in BA's systems as didn't quite a lot of us who travel CW a lot get e-mails welcoming us to our upcoming first trips in CW a few months back. :)

Kirmington, in, check in, security to lounge in 5 minutes flat. On return, in, baggage reclaim, "customs ??" and in the car in 10 minutes dead.

Pefect regional airport, with good connections using Amsterdam as a hub.

You should try Iberia l/h in Y if you want a thoroughly miserable experience. I was glad I had a pen for the Colombian paperwork, I would not have dared ask to borrow one, getting a glass for the strictly rationed wine was hard enough.

Are you EK029 in disguise as they might sing from the terraces.

Sounds like a self-fulfilling propjecy to me - you were determined not to enjoy it and you didn't disappoint yourself. Congratulations.

Would love to know which countries you used to find unpleasant.

Mainly South American ones, and a couple in the Sub continent, where wokr was shal we say, difficult.

It's a shame that someone who flies such a lot found that BA was not as good an experience as on airlines he flies more often. It was just on one trip (was the return any better?) but in reality, that's all BA has to try to tempt frequent fliers from other airlines, so they've failed on this occasion.

Attempting to justify BA by disparaging the OP won't actually change his view of the airline, and I fear, show that this board is little different from the airline.

What could BA have done better that would have impressed you (the seat is obviously non-negotiable! ;)) more?

(I used to love using HUY - anywhere where you can check bags, but be back in the car park no less than 15 mins after your flight has landed has got to be good :D)

Oh please. You can tell from the tone of the post that absolutely nothing was going to change his view of BA away from 'The world's surliest airline'. Nobody has been disparaging - much as you might like to think so.

I particularly liked his comment about the one member of cabin crew he liked as 'a pretty young thing'. :rolleyes:

BAH

It's a shame Civil Servants were allowed to waste the Tax Payers money flying Club.

What could have been better would have been priority boarding for CW ?

A welcome at the door ?

Occaisionally attentive service ?

Not big things, but the complete lack of any of the above does not shout "Pride of Britain".

Here we go again, somebody makes a less than glowing report on BA, and gets jumped on immediately by the.... I won't use the word. :D

If you think telling the OP that nothing would have pleased him is not a form of disparagement (it's making the assumption that nothing would have pleased him, therefore you don't need to accept his viewpoint that BA wasn't good on this occasion, because the problem is his viewpoint, not how the airline worked) then you and I have very different understandings of the term :)

Nevertheless, discounting his opinion, on the basis you believe that he was determined not to like BA, is certainly one way of handling/deflecting criticism of BA. So is questioning his stated experience (to show he is not as experienced as he says, so that his views can be discounted).

Of course, another view is that he did experience an off-crew on BA. Most people admit the service can be hit and miss - even out of LGW - why does it seem to be so hard to believe that the OP hit one of those crews? Are they solely reserved for people known to the BA board?!

Having someone refuse you a pen, in the manner described, does not seem like good service.

This place is like groundhog day.

It is of course unfortunate that the OP had a disappointing experience. More often than not BA is fine, occasionally excellent, sometimes poor, rarely dreadful. Is that a good enough record against the competition? I don't know, but surely BA can't afford to be too complacent.

I find this post quite interesting. One man's meat etc...

I can't bear KLM or AF, so it's just a taste thing perhaps. There is no rule that says if you are British you must like BA. It is a shame that what is quite a customer-centric form of marketing seems to have backfired for the OP - I cannot think of a single airline that has called me up to the desk to wish me a good flight (or similar) as I have not travelled with them in business/first class before and I have flown with quite a few ;)

The odd thing about this little story is that the LGW crews are usually very enthusiastic, helpful and most un-surly.

Why ? Civil service RULES at the time were if your journey is more than 2.5 hours, Business class is appropriate.

And if YOU were tasked with some of the stuff we were tasked with, you would take every opportunity for a little comfort on the way there and back !

I agree it's disappointing that BA weren't able to win over a longstanding previous customer but it just sounds too dire to be true, I have flown 100's of times with BA in lots of different classes (all the way from the back to the front) and whilst some flights are clearly better than others , none have been calamitous or so dreadful as the OP suggested even in Y.

So am I just lucky, or is it that I have a wonderfully winning personality which makes everyone want to do a great job of looking after me, or that I customarily see the world as cup half full or is it that I haven't had prolonged exposure to the uber-bling of EK Business and First which might otherwise cloud my judgement.

If you view the world like Nigel Farage and have been spoilt by lustre of EK First, then maybe BA CW isn't the right solution for you. In any case I am sure it won't be long before you can fly to Kingston via Dubai.

Hmm......

I find this website a bit confusing sometimes.

I had a look at the boards for the US airlines, and it seems quite normal/ok to not really like the airline.

OTOH, on the BA board you get castigated..... I would put it down to patriotism, but we are not exactly patriotic in this country, compared to the US.



Now, I think it's generally accepted that if you want to get 'waited on' you need to fly an Asian airline.

That said, the OP stated that he flew BA having a generally negative perception of them, evidently based on past experience. Apparently they didn't get 'Asian' enough for him, as they did nothing to dispel that experience, which is evidently based on lack of servility.

I don't really see that this is unreasonable? "If you don't like 'the BA way', you can f*** right off?"

ho hum.......

That isn't what I said. I said the OP was determined to have a thoroughly miserable experience. He was convinced beforehand that BA were going to be terrible. When you get to an airport with that mindset it is going to take a lot to shift your viewpoint.


I didn't question his stated experience. I'm happy enough to believe that he's an experienced flyer. I don't see where I said otherwise.


BA do have off crews. We've all encountered them. But they don't make for the miserable, rotten experience the OP claims. They just make the flight 'meh'.


Agreed. But that seems to be the only complaint of substance in his post.

I also stick by my comment about the 'pretty young thing'. Why he (I assume he) feels that it is necessary to comment on the attractiveness and age of a member of cabin crew eludes me.

BAH

Why not?

Would you object if BBB did the same?

Yes. And as I recall when BBB did do the same on the 'pictures thread' there was an outcry and we almost had to get the United Nations in.

Incidentally, the reason 'why not' is because it's condescending and sexist.

BAH

Me too, and, though rare, they do exist. The worst I have ever encountered were in First.

Can I suggest you write to BA Customer Relatons telling them how angry this has made you then, please.

This is new BA policy to welcome people travelling for the first time in CW or F, and/or their obtaining bronze, silver or gold status. It's done to make them feel welcome and valued as customers. The vast majority of passengers are absolutely thrilled to be acknowledge by name and DO feel special as a result.

I'm not sure how you say everybody was able to hear because the lounge desk is quite some yards from the main lounge itself with a cloakroom area between so unless she was really shouting I find this hard to believe. And I know the agents in the lounge would not shout at all (except perhaps in an emergency), let alone loud enough for another passenger to hear.

What level are you in the BAEC? When did you last fly BA in CW? I ask because if these were recent you would not have been subjected to a staff member trying to make you feel welcome.

Hmm indeed ;)

No wonder the country is in such a shambles. :p

There have been a few ageist/sexist comments in this last week and I find them most unwelcome on a frequent flyer forum. A person's age, sex or "hotness" has zero to do with their ability to do a job well.

Wow !
 

I am suprised, nay amazed that a little criticism gets such a reaction.

I never WANTED the BA experience to be bad, tbh, I was looking forward to it, my last BA expreience was in Y to Bermuda and back, and it was great, load levels meant there were more CC than pax, and we all had a row to ourselves, several rows in fact.

To be honest, I'm not too sure why saying the only good member of the CC was "pretty young thing", at least she had the time to smile now and again, and was the only one who appeared to be bothered.

I will report back, to see if the return leg was any better, I have had poor crews on Ek too, so it's not unique to BA, I was just genuinely disspointed wihtthe whole experience, perhaps, as the World's favoutite airline, with the newly ressurected "to serve to fly" motto, I was expecting too much ! All I seemed to get was "to serve to dissapear behind the curtain".

OK - well this I think I can agree with you on. I genuinely hope you have a good return experience, because when BA crews are good the flights truly are a delight.

BAH

Folks,

tezzer is online at the moment. This provides us all with a perfect opportunity to help out, share our own [travel] experiences etc. Let's stick to the topic.

Prospero
Moderator: BAEC forum

I have had bad BA crews but I have had as many bad other airline crews and I fly with BA far more frequently, so statistically I assume BA to be alright really.

The good news is that whenever I have had a bad experience, it has usually been met with a vastly different one to follow. So fingers crossed that your return is indeed much better.

I would find someone drawing attention to the "club newbie" incredibly patronising and embarrassing...I don't see why they would call a customer up just to say, well done, you've made it to club (regardless of whether in the case of the OP they had flown in club/f before)...i'm sure an email would suffice on the off chance people do want a congratulations. There are often people milling around by the desk, so I can imagine it would've been heard but even if it wasn't, it would simply be an uncomfortable situation.

In fact, let me go further, who WANTS a poor travel experience ? Really wants a poor time ?

Not me for sure, I want a pleasant, trouble free trip, with as few ripples as possible, doesn't everyone ?

Priority boarding IS done for all F, CW and gold and silver passengers. They are also invited to board at their leisure.

However, we cannot hold back 200+ passengers in WT and WT+ until all the CW and F passengers get down from the lounge. If we did then the aircraft would be extensively delayed every day.

From the sounds of things you got down to the gate after priority boarding had been offered, and by the time you got there regular boarding had commenced. Unfortunately this is sometimes the case.

Jenbel - I note your comment "It's a shame that someone who flies such a lot found that BA was not as good an experience as on airlines he flies more often" Did you not see that the OP said he's not flown with BA for around 15 years or so? Maybe it used to be often then, but not so much these days.