Andriyko

So it happened. After 18 years flying with BA I got disrupted. And, no, the experience was not bad. I know that many here think of me as a BA apologist but I just wanted to share what I actually experienced. We were flying from Newark to Kiev via Heathrow, and had a 2 hour connection. I chose EWR because it was closer to where we were and I thought that a delay would be less likely out of EWR than out of JFK. Well, it did not turn out that way. We were delayed for 2 hours getting out of Newark. Two things surprised me. First, how calmly I reacted to the delay. I am a nervous flyer, and when something goes wrong I start panicking and think that it's the end of the world. But this time I sort of resigned myself to the fact that we either overnight in London or fly with a different airline and see our bags in a week. The second surprise was how good BA was with the situation. As I mentioned. it was the first time that I missed a connecting flight, and I read many bad things about BA and IRROPS on this forum. But even before we landed at Heathrow that CSD approached us and said that we were re-booked on LH via FRA. Well, that did not mean to be as we did not have enough time to catch the LH flight. When we reached the Flight Connections I asked the agent whether we can be rebooked onto PS from LGW and they said it was no problem. They also offered to fly the next day and overnght in London at BA's expense which I found very tempting as I love London, but I really wanted to go home. We paid for WTP and upgraded to CW and CE with Avios, but BA re-booked us in business rather than economy. I was also concerned about out bags, but after a quick phone call the agent said that the bags would be out shortly. I sent my husband to queue in the slow track immigration line, and after I dealt with the re-booking and we cleared immigration the bags were on the carousel. BA gave us tickets for the bus to Gatwick, and we were there 2 hours before the flight. I was amazed how calm and orderly the experience was. I know that some people did not have the same experience, but since many share bad experiences I wanted to share a good one, especially since it was the first time for me to be in a situation like that, and I think that BA was absolutely brilliant in how they handled it and the assistance we were offered. They even offered to re-book us onto PS at EWR but we were not sure how bad the delay would be and we were seriously thinking about spending a day in London, so we did not want to commit to anything. But we did not have to fight for anything or argue with anyone. We got home 4 hours later with the 4 bags that we had. Also, I found the advice often given here very useful - know which flights you want to be re-booked on to. BA was looking to get us to KBP from LHR and they did not even consider LGW (where UIA flies from). Thanks for reading this.

FlyerTalker688786

Yeah, you are a BA apologist for sure!






But glad that you got home safely.

guv1976

OP: What was the reason for the delay? Weather? Mechanical? Something else?

Flexible preferences

Good you were well looked after and the process seemed smooth. Don't forget to claim your EU261 compensation

nufnuf77

Glad to hear it worked out well for you.

myself being anything-goes sort of flyer I would not have been a least bit nervous but can imagine some of my family members would have been upset and good to hear BA took care of you

Andriyko

I guess I won't ever shake that reputation off... But I will continue to express, and annoy people with, my opinions. What makes this forum great is that we can listen to each other and learn something new. We may agree or disagree on many things, but the one thing that we all agree is that FT is a great source of information. I knew where to go and what to do thanks to many posters here.

I have no idea. They could not get the plane to the gate because it had to cross the active runaway, however, based on what I could see from the lounge the plane was parked not far away and it did not need to cross the active runaway. The captain said that many domestic flights had to come back to their gates as they did not have enough fuel and they waited for a few hours for a take off clearance, so that allowed us to jump the queue. Otherwise we would have been delayed even more.

I don't think I will be claiming any compensation. I don't think I am owed anything when BA got us home the same day or offered for us to stay in London for a day. My conscious won't allow me to ask for money from them when it really cost them money to send us to Kiev with PS. This is my personal opinion and attitude and other people may feel differently. But disruptions happen, they never happened to me before and this was the first time, but I was not wronged by BA in any way to claim anything. I won't use EU261 to make some money. I know you meant well when you suggested that I make a claim, but I honestly can't see how I can in this situation. The only thing BA owes me is money for the Pruner breakfast that we had at LGW while we could have had a free breakfast at LHR First Galleries... And, yes, we did use the excellent No.1 Lounge as we were in business class on PS, but I really wanted smoked salmon so we went to Pruner first. I will ask to be credited Avios and TPs (not that I really need them really) though.

You know, I fly so often - I maintain a Gold card with BA and I will reach Premium status with PS by September, but I panic every time something goes wrong. I don't know how to calmly deal with a situation like that. I never missed a connecting flight before, and the worst I had was a delayed luggage or running like a mad cow to a connecting gate, but even then I am panting and thinking that I will never see my bag again or I will not get to my destination on time. And every time everything works out good.

lost_in_translation

Ah, it suddenly makes perfect sense why you're generally so happy with BA

Andriyko

I just don't think that free food or drinks make a flight great. Or a different kind of seat in business class. I got on the flight from EWR and fell asleep after I had something to eat - I don't see how a different type of seat/bed would have made my flight better. I slept. Comfortably. Flying stopped being glamorous a long time ago. That's my view regardless of the name of the airline. Perhaps I just do not seek the 'experience' when I fly. I only want to go where I need to be. I see flying as any other means of transportation. Also - and this comes from the alleged BA apologist - I think I like PS better than BA, especially in business class (shorthaul). I like BoB. It does give me more choice (if and when I want to eat or have a drink during the flight) - no matter how much many will laugh at this statement. And when BA surveyed me I did say that I would prefer if they switched to BoB. I see no issue with it at all.

Andriyko

Wanted to add and to shame BA - even though we were booked on PS four hours before the flight, after the plane had departed Kiev for London, we had all three choices of the lunch main course available to both of us.

C W

I'm simply astonished that a BA Gold with 18 years of flying could just have experienced IRROPs for the first time. This has nothing to do with BA, it would be incredible luck on any airline flying that much.

T8191

Had a couple of major BA IRROPS, both well handled including overnight accommodation. And a couple on AA, although they were more significant delays due to broken aircraft, rather than "Where's my Hotel, etc". Oh, and one case of bags not making a connection, which BA delivered to the house about 2 hours later.

Stuff happens, but I'm glad Andriyko was satisfied with the resolution.

Andriyko

I had near misses (almost all of them on AA and one on PS), but apart from a couple of delays, this was the first time that I missed a connection on BA. I just remembered that I was downgraded following a flight cancellation on AA last year, but we were put on a flight that arrived 2 hours later so I did not think much of it. I don't know whether it is BA or luck.

I was just surprised how easy it was. It took about 10 minutes to be rebooked (consumed almost entirely by our inability to decide quickly what we wanted) and all options were available to me. I was more surprised with how easy and quick it was to get the bags. I was under the impression from accounts here that it takes forever to get the bags off the system and bring them out, but ours were out within 15-20 minutes. The only reason we were hesitating to go with PS was because we were afraid that it would take a couple of hours to get the bags and we would not be able to make the PS flight so overnighting seemed like a better option if we wanted to get our bags immediately.