British Airways not responsible for Stairs to plane?
 

On a recent flight to LHR the ground crew crashed the jetty and left us stranded on the aircraft for over an hour while the Safety Crew did their thing, a second thought was getting a set of stairs for us. Since the jetty is near the front of the aircraft they put the stairs on the aft door and since we were in first we were the last off the aircraft. I let BA know my displeasure with the situation and their response was not our issue so sorry. Any ideas of where we may take this issue, the response we received actually annoys me more and I want to push the issue further. I did not contract the ground crew so they do not owe me anything, my contract is with BA and they are to get me on the aircraft through the air and off the aircraft.

What are you expecting? Compensation or just an apology? How long after the scheduled arrival did the doors open?

The doors opened some 60 minutes after landing and stopping at the terminal. Seat belt light was off and we were lined up when the crash of jetty 1 and jetty 2 happened.

An apology would have helped originally but the sheer arrogance has frustrated me, I have tried to ask for a supervisor to review but got no where.

Airstairs, or a stair truck are provided by the ground handler, whoever that may be. The fact this is LHR puzzles me a bit that BA wasn't responsible for it, but if you were at a spoke station I would totally get it.

As a ground handler this stuff happens sometimes. I have to get 2 pilots onto an Embraer 175. My company has no stairs, we don't need to have them. I rented/borrowed stairs from a company I used to work for, those stairs are for 737 and up (I guess) but they wouldn't get low enough. In the end I told the pilots they'd have to board the plane via belt loader, and they did.

I'm not sure I understand what you meant by the crew "crashed the jetty". Do you mean the bridge agent crashed the bridge into the aircraft?

I'm also confused cuz it seems they told you that it wasn't their issue. Well it depends on who you talked to. If you asked a ramp guy like me why the bridge crashed into the plane I'd say something like "sorry, I don't know I don't have anything to do with it". If you ask a bridge agent where the ramp stairs are, they'd tell you the same thing, because they often aren't interchangeable jobs.

In the end it sounds like you had a little bad luck and are a bit sour about it. I'd just forget it.

What it is that you want BA to say or give to you?

BA is also liable under the Convention for operations in the course of embarking or disembarking the aircraft, which (generally) includes the boarding stairs. Not that it matters much here as it seems OPs complaint is merely frustration.

Sounds like you were held up by an unfortunate accident.

You sound more put out by the fact you were last off the plane which is to my mind highly amusing.....but I'm sure you'll be first next time so let it go.

Well accidents happen but it always helps if posters have a basic idea what they are talking about.

Some schoolboy howlers here.....BAA hasn't existed for a decade, and BA do their own ground handling at Heathrow.

In this case it is unfortunate that disembarking from the back meant the OP left last but by the sounds of it the OP is irritated by the 'pass the buck' approach of BA, well known to people in these parts. As such a decent 'vent' in the circumstances.

If the plane was already very late arriving, and the further hour pushed it over the limit, then these would not be extraordinary circumstances and the OP would be entitled to EC261 delay compensation. It certainly doesn’t sound like that’s the case here.

I’ve not had a delay of that length, but up to something approaching half that when no airbridge operating crew appeared on arrival at the gate - which was on top of an already substantial delay out of BUD thanks to slack ground handling ops in removing a bag from the hold which took far longer than it should have. I was, in the end, about 90 minutes late by the time I left the plane.

It actually caused me (well, ultimately my company as luckily I happened to be travelling on business) real, cold hard cash because the delay meant I missed the last train connection to home and had to take a taxi for the last 30 miles from the then nearest station.

I didn’t bother to complain - whilst annoying, I thought it frivolous at best. The OP has had a relatively short overall delay, exacerbated by an apparently fairly shoddy BA response. I really can’t see anything there that would personally cause me to start making demands about escalation or further action, so it goes to show we’re all wired a little bit differently in spite of our common interest of travel!

Sir, I think they are towing your giraffe ;)

This highlights a couple of points for me - firstly that BA are slow (never?) to offer any apology - although you say they have used the word 'sorry' so that is all you are likely to get and it might be better to relax and save your blood pressure. However, they know when things have gone wrong and a pre-emptive apology, even to F customers who end up de-planing last, might easily resolve the situation. Or, in our case, a pre-emptive apology and maybe some small compensation, when they knew we had paid for CE but there was no catering, would work wonders for their PR. Why is it that you never get a 'Thank you for using BA today, we'd like to ask about your experience' text when these things happen?!

Secondly, is why everyone has the urge to stand up and queue as soon as the seat belt sign is off and before the door is opened. How my inner shadenfruede glows when everyone queues for door 1 and we end up leaving via door 2 - small pleasures! https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cb044dc694.gif

I usually get up as soon as the seat belt signs are off simply to stretch my legs – something even more relevant to hose with longer legs than me. It is also a good time to put my headphones back in my bag and get anything out I may need for my onward journey.

What always puzzles me is those people who actually get up even before the signs have come off or while the aircraft has not finished parking yet. It seems more prevalent on some routes than others…

Also, how on earth did the OP expect F passengers to leave first, via the back door? March them through a cabin where everyone is already frustrated and blocking the isles? It's obvious something unusual happened, and the OP appears most upset at leaving last, which considering the circumstances and logistics seems like an unreasonable complaint. Otherwise, he's just really upset that they didn't say sorry enough, which I fail to see how that could be breaching any contract or eligible for any form of compensation! Compensating for what?

It has taken BA an hour to get BA staff to get BA steps to a BA 767 on T5A before in my experience. It's hardly a stellar experience

Responsibility is just one of those pesky things you cant outsource or offload

Maybe it was someone trying to climb the company ladder!