Originally Posted by itsmeitisss

Since more negative posts are made than positive, there is a lower probability that Londonspotter would have posted something positive in the same high profile a way.

Would the headline have been -

I was a doofer going to the wrong place but BA sorted me out?

Nah, I doubt it. With BA in a PR nightmare, a good way to get hits is to ride the boat in the direction it is flowing. I can get the blogger feeling hard done by. I really can. Taking responsibility for an error is more than just accepting a mistake has been made. The blog is a major moan where the blogger happens to drop one sentence in saying he's made a mistake. He admits the error but doesn't take responsibility for it.

He won't do the same thing again.

Originally Posted by HIDDY

All part of the university of life and long may it continue.

Originally Posted by Dambus

Great. I'll remember this the *next* time I see an amiable senior drop his boarding pass while ambling through T5.

I will follow but wait just long enough before telling him so that he will have no chance of finding it and can learn from the great University of Life.

Originally Posted by nallison

I don't think he's blaming anyone, he accepts responsibility. What they are saying is that on communicating their - let's be frank, very innocent mistake - to BA staff, the staff, on seeing a young passenger in a pretty difficult and upsetting situation, had a choice of whether to do the little bit extra to help them or not, and chose not to.

Maybe I'm biased because I was a plane nut as a teenager, but the way the transit system is set up means that for one reason or another this is going to happen sometimes, and I think a sympathetic response is probably warranted from staff, given that passengers can hardly be expected to know the train they just took from departures doesn't go back to...departures. Would this not have been a good time to waive the change fee, or perhaps just escort them immediately back through?

I don't know why some here are so keen that people should always be punished for innocent mistakes. This was a kid who wanted to take some pictures of planes for gods sake, the level of sancimony and judgement they are getting it's like they had robbed your grandmothers.

Originally Posted by albpenny

+1

Originally Posted by Sealink

As a frequent flyer, I had no idea that you can't take the train from A to C and back again to departures.

I'm also mighty sick of the 'glee' surrounding passengers making mistakes, there must be a better way for clearly superior passengers on this forum to get their jollies?

Originally Posted by paul4040

I think the point is, there are lots of signs at all sorts of airports saying that you should wait at Area A until your flight is called, or that you "should" do X Y or Z.

What would be helpful, and possibly prevent misadventure, are warnings like you get in UK Arrivals, saying "NO RETURN AFTER THIS POINT".

As a contrasting data point to the one in the blog, once, a couple of years back, I went to the wrong "finger" at STN (entirely my fault for misreading the gate) and there was no sterile return. The No1 lounge agent simply picked up the phone and within 20 minutes a car was taking me to the right place. The result was:

- I got my flight
- It cost £0
- Nobody made me feel like an idiot

Originally Posted by nallison

Quite, some really seem to get off on their superior knowledge of the workings of airports and making sure everyone knows it, and anyone less savvy deserves everything they get! Strange what some people need to validate themselves that they lose any ability to empathise.

Anyway, seems a bit extreme to demand that a poor kid who was just trying to get some better shots should be punished and deserved no assistance. Who would it have hurt to have just helped him back through or let him on the next plane? I'm not sure what anyone's principled argument against that is.

Originally Posted by nallison

These passageways have been described for years on here as secret passageways without anyone correcting it. Now for this thread suddenly they are nothing of the sort. Interesting.

Anyway that's kind of by the by, the issue is really whether the airline could perhaps have helped the young lad out, or really had to lay the law down for the crime of not knowing the train goes back to arrivals. There's a lack of humanity in a lot of these responses I'd say. Why so keen to condemn? This is an aviation forum and I'd have thought we should all be encouraging a budding plane enthusiast!

Originally Posted by ahmetdouas

I think the point is simply that BA should have just accepted his getting lost and booked him on the next flight free!

Originally Posted by elitetraveler

BA sadly is following the lead of the U.S. airlines by first cutting back amenities to pax, then nickel and diming them for a lesser product, and then tying the hands of their frontline staff so they are fearful of bending the rules.

While WW has done a great job financially, he has made a mess of the airline from a customer service standpoint.

Originally Posted by ahmetdouas

Funnily enough in the US they have a flat tire rule usually, if you show up less than 2 hours after the flight departure and miss the flight, they put you on the next flight free of charge!

I am shocked to see some replies on this thread saying BA was not charging much, it was only 60 GBP! Shows you how the regular BA fliers got brainwashed into thinking that's BA being fair!

Originally Posted by simons1

Interesting to contrast this with the other case reported today.

1. A hobbyist over-steps a bit, gets caught in the wrong part of the terminal, escorted out, missed flight and told he needs to buy a new ticket.

2. A 'skateboarder' gets inebriated, misbehaves in the lounge using foul language and taking cans of lager. Removed from lounge but gets a BA escort to his flight.

Consistency?

Originally Posted by Tobias-UK

No similarity whatsoever. 1 was landside and missed conformance and 2 was airside but removed from the lounge because of his language.

Originally Posted by nallison

The most sad thing is between BAs complete lack of care and the replies on here, we may lose a budding plane enthusiast. He's hardly going to feel welcomed into the fold is he?

I'm not sure what crucially important life lesson he's supposed to have learned? He was doing no-one any harm and enjoying a passion for the very thing this board should be about, flying. How petty some want to see him punished for that. That some seem to revel in him having been punished for this is very, very sad. Why the need to see someone suffer for absolutely no benefit to anyone? Bizarre.