cameramaker

It was kicking off earlier this morning in GF due to a bit of a breakfast hiccup.
A number of parties were starting to become visibly agitated at the time it was taking for hot items to be served, and we were sat there for a good 20 mins and didn’t see any hot items brought from the kitchen. A slightly elderly woman then started complaining to the Baxter Storey staff and started to make a bit of a scene. One of the Concorde staff was summoned and then the lady started shouting at the CC staffer. She then started shouting BRING ME SOME PASTRIES, BRING ME ANYTHING, ITS NOT LIKE WE’VE GOT A FLIGHT TO CATCH!

The CC staffer then approached our table and apologised for the wait. She explained that the printer had broken in the kitchen and the staff hadn’t realised, so weren’t receiving any orders to process. The problem was now fixed, but there was a backlog of orders.

A gentleman from the other side of the lounge then came marching over to the CC staffer and started shouting about it being unacceptable to wait half an hour and so on. He was then given some croissants and shouted GOLD CARD HOLDER FIRST CLASS, WHO CARES? and stormed off, throwing his 3 croissants down on to an empty table.

carrotjuice

It’s good that the staff explained the issue... transparency in communication normally goes a long way toward soothing the hot tempers.

NWIFlyer

Printing and Breakfast - the gift that just keeps on giving ...

JeffBHD

Tannoy announcement might have been a good idea......

OverTheHorizon

And the kitchen didn't wonder why it suddenly went quiet at a normally busy time of day?

Rather a lack of common sense there I think, sadly this concurs with our own experience of (some) of the GF - and even CCR - staff over the years...

VSLover

i'd imagine there was no downtown to even realize the printer stopped.

its not like any commercial kitchen at the start of the day has any time to take a pause or a break as they ready everything for the entire day!

GGL Flyer

Maybe I had a DYKWIA moment - or something along those lines.

I was flying MAN-LHR-DXB in F last week. The last time I tried to check-in at MAN, the queue was almost an hour-long as MAN no longer have a priority check-in (huffs loudly). With this in mind, I checked in on-line but given that you had to show a negative Covid test result to get a LHR-DXB boarding pass, I elected to do this at the flight connections centre at T5 (bad move) as on-line check was unavailable.

Upon landing, I walked towards the flight connections desk only to be told that it wasn't manned and that I would have to exit arrivals to check-in.

So this, I duly did huffing and puffing as I would now have to go through security once again (first world problem I know).

I checked in at the First wing and one of the Concorde team came over to greet me. "Hello, Mr GGLFlyer, nice to see you again. Ms. XXXX did want to be here to say hello but she is too busy now with someone in the Windsor Suite. Was your check-in okay?"

At this point my mini 'polite' rant started:

a. Why does MAN not have priority check-in any more?
b. Why is the domestic T5 connections desk not manned, at least for arriving flights?
c. Why do the check-in agents need to see my Covid result when they also check it at the gate too?

Concorde Team response - "I'll look into all of your points."

I really hope that they do. Fixing point (a) alone would be a game-changer.

I was also a bit miffed to be told that someone was too busy to see me. Would have been better to say nothing, IMHO.

Anyway, worthy of DYKWIA or a justified complaint?

u01sss3

I think all your points are valid but personally I'd probably do it written. I wouldn't want to put someone who wouldn't have the answers or have played any part in the decision making on the spot.

Flexible preferences

Maybe you are a little DYKWIA - your 'mini-rant' erupted straight after you were told you there was someone more important than you in the Windsor Suite

Anyway, you may make some fair complaints here, although these are exceptional times.

davidcamp6

if you re-read your post, you will have the answer.

RockyRobin

I'm sorry to say it all sounds a little bit like jealousy. We are all a bit peeved off, I should be in Chicago now not Hertfordshire.

When people get over sensitive about someone lowering a mask for five seconds it also infers that they don’t believe themselves that they really are that effective and in fact they are just angry because they have to wear one so they want everyone to play to their own rules. This is what leads to some of the horrendous treatment of exempt people in public places.

GGL Flyer

Ha! Touche!

In all honesty, it had nothing to do with that, my mini-rant started because I was in front of someone who I considered to be empowered and in the right role to feedback to people that could do something about it. My point re: the Windsor Suite comment was it was like telling me what I could have won on Bullseye! I'd rather not know :-)

GGL Flyer

Maybe you're right. In my business, I encourage all my colleagues to treat any conversation/feedback with a client, a gift. At my firm, everyone is empowered and we have a route to get the feedback all the way to the board room so we can do something about it. We're obsessed with the customer experience and removing friction whenever we can. The only way to do this is to listen to the voice of the customer and do something about it.

From reading FT, I believe that writing to BA to complain is all too often met with a standard disclaimer/response. I had hoped that the Concorde Team would feedback more appropriately.

That said, I would never make someone feel uncomfortable and my mini-rant was certainly a polite rant merely stating the facts.

1Aturnleft

Crikey I thought this was dead an buried months ago!

I can assure you that there is/was definitely no jealousy, envy or green eyed hatred over a 6 sector Wizzair flight to nowhere. Just fed up with pointless stupidity of some people, that's all. Some people attract attention for all the wrong reasons. This guy in my opinion was courting attention for some pointless trip but also as a side remark was noted for his conduct by not wearing a mask when he should have been wearing one. Not to mention undertaking the trip in the first place. He also broke his 14 day home quarantine after returning from a country not on the UK approved corridor at the time in order to partake in more aviation related stuff which he went on to tweet about at the time.

When you're pedalling your wares as some sort of self styled "aviation journalist" or blogger and putting yourself out there as some sort of public figure, you need to be extra careful not to damage your personal brand by inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour. At least have the forward thinking to expect others are going to scrutinize your actions when you're putting the content out there and it's not playing in accordance with the rules.
Rules that I've not made I might add but I'm able to follow. What's his excuse?

Worcester

It is due to people not following the rules we now have the new lockdown...