So do I hope, but the reason I pose the question is not that I suspect that it doesn’t get cleaned between rotations, but if that had been the previous day for example , one might understand why it wasn’t obvious to cleaners but subsequent obvious to Cabin Crew.

not clutching at anything dear, just asking a genuine question; after all you yourself have called upon the importance of accuracy here, and taking off the Journalist spin, CC found bed bugs, reported it, replacement plane found, crew go out of hours, new crew found. Expensive delay for BA to bear.

I think this is singlehandedly the worst post I have ever read on flyertalk, your hoping for other people to suffer, really?

Thanks Uncle T, I quite agree that they are on the whole separate issues, one that I can see BA can improve upon and one, despite the cries of many on this thread that they need to improve, Little that they can currently do other than what they are doing already, quartine and eradication as and when the issues are highlighted.

That having been said, I can understand why some jump to conclusions the two are related; and it is only natural to question why if one person saw them another didn’t, it is difficult to establish from media reports true substance and indeed there may be a variety of causes for this.

Even a reactive approach would be sufficient as long as it is before the aircraft is handed over for service. That the BA crew noticed the bed bugs just after the cleaners supposedly prepared the cabin does not say much for the cleaners. Unless of course the aircraft was cleaned long before being towed to the stand. However, with BA’s current fleet utilisation I find this unlikely.

So let’s look at what we know.

We know that we hear about this issue more with British Airways than other carriers.
We know that the cabin crew spotted this and refused to take care aircraft out.

The cleaners could well have spotted the bugs, cleaned the visible ones within their allotted time and handed the aircraft over. By which time, more bugs could have come out of the seat and became visible to the crew.

I suspect that the outsourcing and cost-cutting that BA have implemented when it comes to cleanliness means that there’s little penalty for the cleaning company for getting this wrong. Therefore, they’ll do a superficial vacuum and not fix the problem. After all, they have no incentive to, it takes a lot of time, is probably not in their contract, and won’t be penalised for not doing so.

Where as if they send the aircraft out late as the cleaning has taken longer, they will get penalised, and won’t actually deal with the infestation fully either. A lose-lose situation for the cleaners.

You have mentioned this twice so now I am really intrigued as to why you feel this is a point to be made?

As for me the customer is the important part here, even more so as it’s health related, therefore why would any customer be concerned or indeed even need or want to know how much or if at all whether it’s an expensive delay or cost to BA to rectify a problem.

We know the BB problem is pretty rare, as some extremely regular flyers have pointed out, but that for me makes it even more important to rectify and solve this issue despite the cost or time involved. I for one would want to keep the crew and customer content as these are, overall and in the longer term, more important than the cost of a replacement aircraft and delay to the trip plus other parts.

As I said I’m intrigued as to why you point this out...bed bugs would be something I’d try to eradicate regardless of cost, (which BA did thankfully) especially in the hospitality business. It may be aviation but it’s also hospitality in many respects.

i think this is a little far fetched, I don’t think bed bug eradication is in any airline cleaning contract, it is a specialist service.