Disco Volante

Comedy.

Jimmie76

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!

Genius1

HAL have a well established plan for assisting BA and passengers with disruption, but unfortunately they can only do so much when booking/rebooking/baggage information has to first be provided by BA.

The 3 hour exit from the terminal yesterday was due to UKBF having to clear everybody at the border.

There are regular exercises run to plan for emergency events such as an accident.

deboyzoned

In total agreement with you, I have family who have been with BA for as many years. They too are frustrated with this management ....

Alex Cruz .... your repatriation flight to Bilbao is in Last Call .... please proceed to Gate A18. Wait it may be A12... oh wait .... your flight is cancelled. Please exit the airport and wait kerbside where the lovely HAL reps will not let you enter the building as you do not have a confirmed flight.

You could try try calling the 0800 number ...and get no response. Enjoy your night sleeping kerbside .... oh by the way ... you may bump into a group of 21 elderly tourists from Dusseldorf camped kerbside as you cancelled the last flight out to DUS tonight.

Jimmie76

I do hope that the report into and explanation of what actually happened on Saturday is made public. That will make very interesting reading.

Flyingandserving

LMAO that would be a tiny bit of justice. If only it could happen.

deboyzoned

So far .... tomorrow's 2 scheduled flights to Bilbao are showing on time. Maybe the call centre can prioritise rebooking him on 1 of those flights. Unfortunately there is no availability until Tuesday on BA App. Oh well ... 2 days sleeping on Kerbside .... he can get to meet his passengers in person 😊👍🕺🏽💃🏽

DrBernardo

This is the bit I really don't understand. I almost expect incompetence on the IT front, but BA used to have a world class incident response system. Back when operations lived in the Compass Centre (that blue building to the North of LHR, halfway along the runway, for those that don't know), BA had a custom built room called OCIC to manage incidents like this. Every key department in the company had a desk there, with phones, computers (ha), paper lists of key contacts etc. So everyone did their own bit of communicating, feeding back information to the centre etc etc. Press Office and Comms were key players at the centre, and their mantra was always (learned the hard way from mishandled incidents at other airlines) that the CEO or Chairman had to get out and stand in front of the cameras as soon as possible.

The lack of announcements and misinformation given in the terminal suggests that when Ops was moved out of the Compass Centre, they either didn't bother replacing that emergency facility, or that they don't bother practicing to use it!

And clearly they've got rid of so many of the Comms Team that there is no institutional memory of what needs to be done any more. Either that, or Cruz ignores them the way he ignores his customers and the rest of his staff...

South London Bon Viveur

And if you are dehydrated remember we only accept cards not cash to purchase water. But only if you are in the first three rows of economy. Otherwise you won't get the chance to buy anything anyway.

KARFA

You don't need money for water, it is free.

Phorbas

Brutal!

gtomlinson

Of I do feel your pain and I'd ask any BA customer facing employee to not take offenc. As an old boss of mine once crudely put it. 'You can only urinate with the...you've got'

I don't blame BA staff, for every awful bit of service there's been 10 great ones but more and more it seems hands are tied and although the willing is there, the resource is not. I've never been one to wave status about but it's felt increasingly over the past year that if I didn't, I would lose out. It does seem the staff are increasingly apathetic. No amount of miles makes up for how I was treated this weekend

There is no joy in flying with BA anymore or even dealing with them, it's become a loveless marriage and the divorce lawyers are in.

IAMORGAN

Complimentary*

*time permitting after the retail service has been completed.

RGS5526

Just to nitpick, Cruz is not an IAG director. They are all up for re-election at the IAG AGM on June 14th and 15th (why do the spaniards need two days for an AGM?) and he is not on the list.

Interestingly, the IAG web site makes no mention of the current BA problems.

Any IAG shareholders who happen to be in Madrid on June 15th might care to pop along to the AGM. I'm sure they could think of some questions to ask about the governance of IAG and its subsidiaries.

binman

if they have a plan it doesn't work! Irrespective of the issues it should not take that long to deal with people who were departing passengers and security cleared. That UKBF felt it necessary to check passports shows they are not part of the planning and in any event, in such circumstances just how many illegal immigrants would there be airside getting reading to depart the U.K. Who take advantage of the situation.
To disrupt thousands like they did for the possibility of a couple of illegal immigrants is simply stupid and unacceptable.
BA caused the problem. Heathrow airport compounded it and both need to sort things out. For BA they need to lose the CEO and WW but Heathrow need to show that they can deal with people humanely ( cattle travel better in Europe) and efficiently and yes that might mean taking risks with immigration for those airside and in departures. While the exit via domestic gates, all arrivals could be routed via UKBF.