Chris1988

Firstly let me say that i'm not one to complain often, acknowledging that things often go wrong and its one of those parts of life. However, this experience left a particularly sour taste in my mouth and wanted to understand what we 'should have done' in this situation and whether others think it is acceptable.

Flight Details: BA873 LHR-KRK - 05 September - Club Europe

Firstly - The Good:
- Check in - Great. Very busy Club Europe check in so quickly moved to the first wing for speedy check in. We have an 18 month old with us so had our pushchair tagged to go into the hold
- The Lounge - Great - Quite busy but i LOVE what they have done with the QR code food / drink orders. Despite the full lounge, we had food and drinks within minutes of ordering and I personally hope they keep some of this past COVID. Well done!
- Boarding - Great - Picked from the crowd early on to get pre-boarding underway. Ground staff at Heathrow were brilliant and friendly
- The Catering - Pleasantly Surprised - I'd heard a lot of negative reviews about the revised on-board catering but personally found it absolutely fine.
- The Crew - Professional, Efficient, Always smiling and didn't hide away in the Galley. No complaints
- Arrival (onboard) - Upon arrival we were asked to remain in our seats so that social distancing could be carried out on board. Very sensible and while not perfect, it was observed and very orderly.

The Arrival
The first thing to go wrong was that our buggy had been put into the cargo containers for travel rather than the alternative storage meaning that it wasn't available to collect at the bottom of the stairs. No major problem we thought but just slightly inconvenient.

However, the first real 'Face Palm' moment was when we got off the plane. The ground crew crammed us into busses (nose to nose) in order to take us all of about 25 meters to the immigration entrance which somewhat negates the efforts made for social distancing. We were waiting for passengers for about 10 minutes in very close quarters and you have to wonder if there was not a better way of doing this given that there was only one other aircraft parked at the gates.

Upon disembarking of the bus, this is where the real problem started. A Ryanair flight landed about 5 minutes before us and there were approximately 300 people 'queueing' for immigration. The queue inside was so bad that there were approximately 100-150 people all crammed outside on the apron completely unattended as they couldn't get inside and no staff wanted to venture out - For me this was a big red flag as surely unattended passengers in a secure area with direct access to aircraft and other sensitive equipment is not a legal practice?

After about 20 minutes, we had made no progress - There were only two immigration officers on shift and apparently there was some abnormal sensor reading that they wanted to investigate before letting more passengers through. This was becoming a major issues for us as both of us have dodgy backs and anyone who has had an 18 month old will know that they arent exactly lightweight... Throw into the mix that he's a very unhappy 18 month old who's screaming and crying.. we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Out of the blue an assistance van arrived with someone in a wheelchair who got wheeled straight into the assistance queue. As it was the first official we had seen we decided to follow to ask if there was anything we could do given the situation. Upon getting to the desk, we were quite literally shouted at by the immigration official for breaking the law and numerous other accusations that seemed just as petty. This bombardment of accusations went on for a full 5 minutes.

In the end we argued our case and stood our ground until he eventually let us through, but it is one of the most unorganised and some might argue, dangerous experience (through unattended PAX being left outside on the apron) I have experienced through 25 years of regular flying. While I appreciate that these big queues are often found at major hub airports, there have always been officials around to ask for assistance and the passengers are always inside and out of the rain.

I'm trying to wrap my head around whether I'm being too sensitive to this and whether this is acceptable, or whether I should take this up with BA as a concern?

Chris

LondonElite

Sorry you had a poor experience but this really has nothing to do with BA. You may wish to take it up with the airport authorities but I'm confident you'll not even get a response. I've witnessed a similar display of disorganisation at several European airports this summer, including taking a crammed but for a 25 metre drive on the apron!

alex67500

To me this is something you should take up with Krakow Airport and the Polish border force agency. BA did everything correctly from what I read, and it was only once you'd been handed over to airport staff/contractors that things went south (pushchair excepted). You could copy BA in any correspondence but I doubt they will do much about it.

Chris1988

Fully agree that this isn't BA's fault at all. My reason for thinking about notifying them was that they fly to that airport and they may want to know what was going on as a 'customer' of the airport. I do however agree that any 'complaint' should be directed at the airport authorities (although I won't bother as it will fall on deaf ears)

corporate-wage-slave

It doesn't sound a good experience. I have a feeling not a lot can be done about this and I doubt BA can do much either.

KRK has quite a large modern arrival hall for those coming outside Schengen, but despite the size it's not big enough during peak times. There is a zig zag queue leading to a dozen or so desks, staffed by the Straż Graniczna, the Polish border guard. The Straż is, on paper, a civic organisation, so like the police force, but its uniform and heritage are of military origins dating back to the Cold War. There are many reasons why they operate with a certain degree of gruffness, if you are lucky, however customer service would not be a priority for them. So if they only have insufficient staff on duty and there are a few aircraft in front, particularly if any have come from Belorus or Russia, then the arrival process in KRK can become uncongenial. And yes it leads to people queuing outside the building when things get busy, but I'm surprised that KRK is operating at full capacity, so I suspect its actually a staff shortage.

There isn't very much anyone can do about this. You will see how HAL wash their hands of delays with the Border Force, for example and pass the buck to them (this is slightly dishonest of them incidentally, HAL control the waiting area). So I'm sure the airport's management are deeply unhappy about this going on - it has been like this for some time incidentally - but I doubt they have any clout at all against the Straż. All I can say is that my experience of KRK is that you probably have a 25% chance of a long wait (more than 20 minutes say), mostly it doesn't take long. Occasionally it's over 30 minutes. If you are having physical difficulties with this then using the disability line on the end makes sense. As is often the way with the former Communist Bloc, if you have a piece of paper from your doctor explaining the problem - ideally with a couple of stamps on it - that will often do the needful.

LondonElite

A long time ago I would have agreed with you. These days, even if you get someone on the phone about this and tell them your story, they'll say something like "really, you don't say, how interesting, something must one done," while doodling on a piece of paper that will be tossed out when you hang up.

cvm0093

Wow what an ordeal, you are through it though that is the main thing!

The only thing I can possibly see with BA being at fault is how your stroller ended up in a luggage container rather than the back compartment of the aircraft during loading, did you gate check the stroller? Or was it dropped off at checkin.

Everything else on the ground in KRK I would like everyone else, definitley say make a complaint to the airport as they put you in a situation which could have possibly affected your life drastically esp with covid currently going around as well as the low service level you recievd, minus the immgration they can definitley look in to it.

Even though it is not BA's fault per say make a complaint to them also, hopefully they send it to the ground handler over there too who can take it foward encase the airport comes back and says take it through the airline.

Best of luck!

scottishpoet

if you had refused to get onto the crammed bus the ground agent would have sent it away and then would have come back for you.

i agree it is not good everyone is crammed onto 2 busses. I have complained about this before to no avail. the airport promotes its covid safety. i am not sure what sway they have with the handling agents (in ba's case its "Welcome")

there is a temperature check on the way into the terminal when you arrive. If someone gad a high reading I can imagine this would prevent anyone else being allowed in until this has been checked.

unfortunately when flights arrive together passport control gets busy. while not the case with your ba872 (873 you mentioned is the return to london), late evening arrivals seem worst as the whizz and ryanair buzz aircraft based there all come in around midnight before overnighting.

there is not much you can do, but a rant on the facebook messenger to krakow airport may make you feel better.

Chris1988

Thanks all for the replies - I'm glad its not just me at risk of becoming an unintended contributor to the DYKWIA thread.

Will pick it up with the airport just to vent a bit and will report back if they give me anything but a vanilla reply.

navylad

The only way I would attempt to address this is if you are returning through the airport and ask to speak to the BA Airport Manager 59 mention it to them, however they are often not at the airport and often cover multiple airports and I wouldn’t try too hard, as frustrating as it is, I’d rack it up to experience and perhaps adjust any future travel plans accordingly.

Glad thr CE experience was ok and hope you have a good trip otherwise.

warakorn

What you were describing, is the norm at KRK.

TPJ

There is no BA Manager in KRK. The girl wearing a BA uniform in WAW (and looking like a local Manager) is outsourced. The closest surviving BA Airport Manager might be in BUD (unless he was recently fired).

cvm0093

This is the ground handler that BA use over there: Contact - Welcome AS

It has their contact info if it helps you in finding someone.

smartytravel

Is there a way to decline being transported by the bus?

I imagine they practice no social distancing on those buses.

wythy

Not sure what you expect, but I suppose you could except that life comes with an element of risk. Having just been on an aircraft before hand, not doubt less than 2m from the next person, I find it strange that people would then be concerned about traveling on a bus.