Skimanant

A recent poor experience club Europe to Nice. BA will not respond- any advice warmly appreciated. (IM me if that is helpful).
Lounge at Gatwick rammed to the point of no seats/ tables. Air con broken, and hot in the summer- the main terminal was preferable.
Aircraft boarded nearly two and a half hours late. We then waited on tarmac for nearly 40 minutes.
No refreshments whilst waiting. Afternoon tea served. No further drinks, no bar service, the curtain to the section was not closed, crew sat at front and closed the curtain. I pressed the button for a drink (a cola), crew told me they were tired...
I responded to the BA questionnaire but have had no reply. I emailed guest relations and got a sorry, then all further emails are ignored. I have written to them with no reply. I was quite let down by the club Europe experience- visibly you could look back and see the crew in economy doing a good job.
I asked for some compensation (in the form of avios or a future upgrade) for the poor experience, and have also asked for a claim due to the fact the aircraft was over three hours late departing. No reply or acknowledgement.
Any suggestions what next? Lodge a complaint with ATOL?

HighLife

My honest advice would be to put it down to bad luck, move on and get on with your life... but each to their own.

wyvern

It sounds as if the service delivery was substandard and it must be annoying that the plane was late to boot.

Ask to escalate the complaint with CS - if that does not help, write a letter to relevant board directors.

You should get some Avios if nothing else.

it's not 100% clear from your post - did cabin crew refuse to serve you cola as they were tired, or serve one saying they were tired?

JamieABZ

On the way back from Malta I was in the galley heading for the toilet and tried to strike up a passing conversation - I didn't want their life stories - I got brushed off by being told they were tired as well. I just mentioned something about how good it was to see the Malta flights being back and being so busy for a new route. That'll teach me to be nice.

Land-of-Miles

The problem is CS just isn't geared up to deal with complaints rather than fob people off. I sympathise with the Crew who have to weather the long delay run a band 4 service then manage an immediate turnaround. That said there is no real excuse to fail to respond to the call bell. I would have asked to speak to the purser and told them myself this was unacceptable.

corporate-wage-slave

I have just this minute rolled into Nice on a LGW service which was fine, lamb navarin for CE lunch too, I was out of Terminal 1 in Nice less than 5 minutes after arrival (helped by the complete absence of passport checks, must be lunchtime still).

My first reaction is that this is a one off. If there was a systemic issue here then there is every reason to complain to get things fixed, but if crew and passengers have a lousy flight - which will happen every so often - then it's not surprising that the whole show is an unhappy experience. Crews don't like sitting on a hot aircraft doing nothing, and yes they get knackered too. It shouldn't happen, but it does, travel is like that sometimes, luckily not so very often in my experience. I can't think of a flight I have taken with BA in the last few years like the one you had.

On the other hand, if you paid significant sum to fly this, and you genuinely feel you didn't get the service you paid for, then the usual customer remedies exist. In that respect you may want to consider what is it you really want? Maybe it's 10k Avios, since that would cover a replacement service on RFS to Nice. So request this specifically, then give them 7 days notice, and then consider taking it to Moneyclaim Online (MCOL), though you may have to use a cash figure or equivalent for this. More stuff on MCOL in the EC261/2004 thread (though this would only be a 261 issue if you were more than 3 hours late into NCE, and that isn't clear from this).

Filthy Monkey

Unfortunately I think you need to put the busy lounge and late departure down to experience, although, depending on the reason for the delay, you may have a valid claim there. However, it does sound like the on-board service was sub-standard, far below what is expected of a CE experience. Have you tried calling customer relations? I always find that works better than emailing them...

Often1

A complaint which cannot be reduced to 2-3 declarative sentences simply is not going to receive speedy or thorough attention. I would focus in on the thing that mattered and write about that.

BA isn't going to build a new lounge for you because it was overcrowded, you don't say why the flight was delayed or awaited takeoff clearance and BA is not likely to research such minutiae because they are part of ordinary commercial carrier ops.

If indeed the crew refused to serve you the extra drink, rather than served the drink and added that they were tired, that might be complaint-worthy. The rest is part of life.

HIDDY

On some CE flights no drinks run is done after the tea service so it might be standard to ring the call bell and ask for a drink.
If they refused you a drink because they were tired then it's certainly worth complaining about.

Skimanant

Thank you to those constructive comments above.

I fly BA about 8 times year- not lots- but enough. My return leg was in club from Venice and was fine, in fact very nice. That plane was also about 50 minutes late, but we were offered a towel and the crew talked to us, which made it all ok. I felt to Nice the economy passengers got a better service deal!

The lounge was overcrowded to the point that people were standing, no tables/ chairs, coupled with the air con had packed up. We went to the terminal as it was actually preferable. As the delay was longer than two hours I asked about refreshments, and was flatly refused as we had access to the lounge.

The service on the flight to Nice was non-existent. No welcome aboard, afternoon tea was served, no option of any drink except tea and coffee at this point. I have just checked my original confirmation. It was supposed to leave at 14.05. We then arrived just before 20.20, as in touching down.

I feel disgruntled because on this flight there was little "pleasant experience", I know I wouldn't have had the lounge or blocked out seat but I could have used my priority pass and an economy ticket for considerably less cost.
More so, I am annoyed about the lack of response. I got an original we are sorry email, but then everything went dead. Its not the way to carry on with a premium product.
Incidentally I flew this route return in January this year, and it was fine both ways. This time it wasn't, BA refuse to talk, so I feel I need to put it right.

PUCCI GALORE

Not allowed as customs determine that the bars remain locked until wheels up and the soft drinks are in there as well.

What? They came and told you that they were tired??? The reply you should have given was

"So am I. and am now so exhausted discussing this that you had better bring me the Purser and 2 Colas in that order. Ice and hold the lemon as I am acid enough thanks"

I don't suppose that you'd like to say exactly when this flight was? Complain at once - that is disgraceful.