tom139

We've all been giving LCA a hard time all these years but I recently had the misfortune of travelling through Corfu with BA in Club Europe.

Where should I start?

Firstly, no Online Check In is available because Swissport cannot check in onto BA's own check in system apparently. Therefore, the queues at the airport were dreadful and check in was slow. There were two desks for the whole flight - one CE and one ET. Although it was a scrum. Bags were tagged and you then had to take them off the belt to be screened in another area yourself.

However, most concerning was the fact that the baggage screening agent was sat on her phone and not even looking at the screen. Does anything suspicious flag up an alarm on the screen or does it rely on the agent actually looking at the computer and not at her phone or talking to a colleague? I have a photo but I'm not sure if I should take it further or not?

Next was security with totally rude staff who slung items onto the belt which hadn't been put into trays to their liking. Apparently laptops go loose on the belt in Corfu out of their pouches...

We then tried to go into the "Executive Lounge" directly by security screening. It was locked. A member of staff said BA don't pay for access for its CE passengers. We were then sat in the main departure lounge which was full of delayed flights and no air conditioning. I think its poor BA do not even give you any refreshment vouchers when you've stumped up for CE.

Onboard things were okay except the meal tray and choices were identical to the outbound. Is this standard procedure now?

highpeaklad

Perhaps you should try Mykonos next time. No lounge to be locked out of. Tiny airport.

jerry a. laska

Also see the nominees here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t-airport.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tstations.html

fnl111

Having flown in and out of Corfu for all of my life, I've never been enthused by the thought of it.

af101

I flew out of Corfu last year, and one of the things that most tickled me about that dreadful airport was the lacklustre passport control. All I had to do was proffer a red-covered document roughly in the direction of a passport agent to be waved through.

Same on the way in, tbh. And it's the only airport I've been to where I will make sure I've been to the plane toilets rather than suffer the mindbogglingly horrendous smell that permeates the toilets in the airport.

snuffi

I have a question.

Are you travelling to Corfu because you want to visit and experience the island? Or because of your love of airports, lounges and security procedures? If it's the latter, i would respectfully suggest you select destinations that are major hubs and not small greek islands, your experience will be a lot closer to your aspirations.

If however it is the former you will likely be able to roll with it, the getting there after all being merely a means to an end. Pragmatism and realistic expectations are a key component to travel. Just my 2c of course, but please do take a step back and think about what it is that you really value about air travel.

South London Bon Viveur

Corfu sounds a bit like Heraklion.

I get where you are coming from but in fairness to the OP if you pay for a premium product then it isn't too much to expect that you get a premium product, and that includes, as we all know, not just in flight service, but also pre-flight. It seems as though BA has failed to meet that standard, so the complaint is valid, regardless of why the OP chose to be in Corfu.

HIDDY

Well they did have a CE desk open.

Dodgy security, lack of air conditioning and smelly toilets are the airports fault not BA's. LCY doesn't have a lounge so a waste of time complaining I would say. Anyway, roughing it a bit is all part of travelling.

BravoKilo

Welcome to Greece

I think you will find probably with the exception of ATH and SKG every other Greek airport is as the OP describes.

That said the Greek people are great the sun shines the sea is blue so enjoy your holiday

BK

ACARS

I think only Rhodes has a passably 'Mainland European' Airport, perhaps Heraklion also. In terms of the mainland, Alexandropolis was a pleasant surprise, but otherwise ATH is the only 'real' BA Club offering in the country.

BravoKilo

Speaking from my experience although it's been a year or two the BA Club ground experience at SKG was as good as ATH.

BK

shefgab

Agreed. I flew through SKG in May in CE, and was quite happy with the product. Decent lounge, CE desk, fast track, priority boarding. If you fly on A3 (Aegean), you even get to board straight from the lounge (which is very nice). Incidentally I flew from SKG-ATH-CFU rtn....the domestic part of CFU is not much to write home about either!

Yachtman

It makes BA sound akin to a low cost carrier, which to be honest they have almost reached that level on their intra-european and domestic routes.

rpjs

To be fair, I could say the same about DUB.

snuffi

You probably could, however there are - as we all know - many reasons for wanting to go to Dublin Airport that do not involve visiting Dublin, and Dublin is of course a pretty major hub and thus you would have a more legitimate claim for being aggrieved at lacking standards.
However there are no reasons for wanting to visit airports on Greek holiday islands that don't generally involve visiting the island itself, and as such the expectations as to what the airport is going to offer vs what the destination is going to offer ought be a lot lower.

PS in May I left my swimming trunks in Corfu drying by the window near my departure gate and only remembered once I was on the plane. Green shorts. OP, from what you describe they could still be hanging there today - did you see them?!