hserus

http://getsetandgo.wordpress.com/201...itish-airways/

She does feel that she's entitled to compensation because of ground crew error - and delightfully naive for an "experienced flyer and travel blogger" .. accepts the TA telling her that her one hour connection is a registered connection so there's "no chance she'll miss the connecting flight", sheesh.

OK, I've done those tight connections before and they mostly do work when the inbound flight is on time. But misconnects can and do happen .. then she's upset that the cabin crew announced reroutes for pax going on to VIE and HEL but not for any connection to an Indian airport. I guess they only announce reroutes for pax who can and have been rerouted while the flight is delayed.

Still, customer service could have been a lot better - like their telling a wheelchair bound pax on the same flight that she should walk to the wheelchair assistance desk where they'll be able to help her further.

Final 3 Greens

She appears to be entitled to compensation, on the facts she writes about.

The misconnect was the fault of the airline, no extraordinary circumstances and lead to a 9 hour delay, so she is owed 600€.

KARFA

Talk about turning a simple misconnect in to a drama. She was booked with a 1 hr conenction at T5 which is just on the MCT, but misconnected and was booked on the evening flight instead. It happens.

What announcement was she expecting them to make on the flight? They are not going to go through the whole list of flights which passengers are connecting on to when they were delayed at the gate. It is somewhat bizarre to extrapolate this to crew being prejudiced to flights to India, or even Indians per se.

She is compeletely naive to think that BA would hold the BOM flight for her and 5 others. They are never going to hold an aircraft with around 300 passengers for the six delayed inbounds – is she seriously suggesting they should have done?

As she missed the 10:55 flight she was put on the 21:50 flight so I think teh agent was correct, no hotel but offered a voucher for food and drink. A hotel was out of teh question for the daytime and it isn’t practical to give passengers lounge access because of delays - how rammed would the lounges be if they did?

There may be some legitimate complaint issues in here story, but they are well hidden amogst all the silly hyperbole.

Final 3 Greens

What about the 600€ for being delayed?

UKtravelbear

for a self professed 'top' travel blogger she appears to have little knowledge how real travel works.

She expects planes to wait because other planes are late - holding up even more passengers?? I could imagine what she would have written if she was on the flight waiting to take off.

And as for her allegations of prejudice it is quite clear she has a heap of her own prejudices.

LondonElite

I agree with what you all wrote, except I'm not going into this tiresome 261 business. I'm going to sign up to her blog to tell her what a pointless letter it was she wrote. Top 50 blogger my arse. She seriously thinks a travel agent can guarantee a connection? Oh dear, she has so much to learn...

corporate-wage-slave

I think we learnt more about the writer than the airline or airport in this. Sounds like she has led a very sheltered travel life so far, to go alongside her innate modesty.

hserus

Me, I try not to do those 1 hour T5 - T5 connects, especially because there are very few BA flights to India, and I'd need a visa to enter the UK if I got misconnected. [OK there's a rather expensive hotel airside but totally not ideal for a 12 hour ++ stay]

Yes she is entitled to 600 euro if ground crew incompetence is not considered an extraordinary circumstance.

My more immediate concern is how they treated that wheelchair bound pax though. You can't hardly ask disabled or limited mobility people in a wheelchair to walk to a different desk where they'll get more wheelchair assistance ..

SCSA

Few years ago I had a 90 minute connection at FRA that was missed due to a delay on my inbound flight. I would've made it but for the fact that FRA sucks. I asked Lufthansa for the lounge. They said no but gave me 15 euro in vouchers. The later flight was delayed, but they gave me another voucher.

I got home a few hours later, but i got some free beer and wurst out of the deal. Who knew I was supposed to blog about it?

Hobbes01

You are supposed to blog about everything that happens in your life, preferably in real time.

sometalkofme

Isn't that what the kids today call "tweeting"?

Final 3 Greens

Do you find all laws 'tiresome?'

At the end of the day, she has her own 'style' of blogging, but she is as much entitled to lawful treatment as anyone else.

MPH1980

At the risk of going OT here ... I did witness a 'wheelchair bound' person arrive at baggage claim in YYZ the other week.

She then insisted to her helper that she was fine from here - signed her 'discharge' form, walked over to the cart vending machine, grabbed a cart - brought it back - lifted her bags from the carousel and walked out through customs.

But back to the travel blogger here - I'm astounded at her posting. A letter like that over email is going to generate almost no response as no one will be able to cut through the emotion to get to the real nub of the problem.

Basically - she misconnected due to a plane occupying the gate and a piece of poor work by ground staff. I do wonder how she treated the staff at the desk when she arrived. I've found that you get what you deserve when it comes to attitude with customer service staff. Go in demanding/shouting/screaming you're going to get the same back.

But to expect anyone to guarantee a connection or a connecting plane to wait is just plain ridiculous.

M.

LondonElite

What I find tiresome is this culture of "whom can I sue?" She was stupid for booking two long haul flights with a 60 minute connection time at the busiest time of day at one of the world's most strained airports. As a 'top 50 blogger' she's stupid for believing her TA that this was feasible, despite what published MCTs are. As an experienced traveller she should have checked her alternatives and assessed the risks. But she wasn't on the ball and is looking to let off some steam to make herself look less like a dummy.

As an experienced traveller she knows all about EU261, so let her file a complaint there. She's probably got a case. But stop filling KW's spam folder with this junk and poorly disguised accusations of institutional racism.

hserus

I've spent my career working with upset customers - ok, not airline customers, just corporations with escalated customer support issues. And I see a lot of things that did go wrong in that exchange - even allowing for the rather one sided lens of that blogger's almost righteous anger.

Inconsistent responses, a lack of following what is sure to be a rigid SOP .. and maybe a communication gap.