BA duty of care to the elderly
Jul 30, 2022, 1:15 pm
#16
Join Date: Apr 2007
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But why is it inevitable? It's not as if a sudden catastrophe that is totally unpredictable occurs....these issues are all predictable, some at least a day ahead even. Posts above indicate there is almost no BA staff after something like 10PM..that is just not on and especially not on when you know you have a plane full of people that will need some sort of direction/assistance. Many different types of companies have these sorts of situations and they don't just dump several hundred people, late at night, to their own devices...at least have someone hand out information about possible hotels, have someone try to get a language service on the phone for those that don't speak English. It would be a great customer relations boost!
Jul 30, 2022, 1:37 pm
#17
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I've been thinking what would be an efficient way to handle this sort of problem. And the best I can come up with is if one of the larger Heathrow hotels, such as the Renaissance (part of the Marriott group) can be called on. So they would send a coach, or a fleet of taxis, around to T5 to collect everyone and bring them to the hotel reception, and then they would sort out accommondation at their hotel, other Marriotts and further beyond if needed. Then send the bill to BA. In that scenario even the captain of this flight could ring the nominated rescue hotel and they would do the rest. Where this idea may fall down, though not on this particular night, is that very occasionally, during Wimbledon and during London Fashion Week, pretty much every hotel room really is taken. But if this hotel had the coach and driver on standby they could ship people off to Reading / Slough instead.
Jul 30, 2022, 2:13 pm
#18
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I've been thinking what would be an efficient way to handle this sort of problem. And the best I can come up with is if one of the larger Heathrow hotels, such as the Renaissance (part of the Marriott group) can be called on. So they would send a coach, or a fleet of taxis, around to T5 to collect everyone and bring them to the hotel reception, and then they would sort out accommondation at their hotel, other Marriotts and further beyond if needed. Then send the bill to BA. In that scenario even the captain of this flight could ring the nominated rescue hotel and they would do the rest. Where this idea may fall down, though not on this particular night, is that very occasionally, during Wimbledon and during London Fashion Week, pretty much every hotel room really is taken. But if this hotel had the coach and driver on standby they could ship people off to Reading / Slough instead.
216 sears on a 787? Some will go home, but at that time of night , for many that will not be possible, never mind those that did not start in london.
so what, 3 50 seater coaches to the rescue hotel, with, what , two thirds of the people being accomated there and other third being distrubuted to other hotels.
Not sure I'd be happy if i get bused to a hotel and then an hour later i find there is no room for me in that hotel and the bus to my hotel will not leave for another 20 minutes while they figure out where the remaining 20 people go.
Logistics of this are a nightmare
Last edited by scottishpoet; Jul 30, 2022 at 2:19 pm
Jul 30, 2022, 2:22 pm
#20
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Now, if there was some way for people to allocate themselves to hotels using the self checkin machines in t5 departures. That way you can process lots of people at the same time, reducing the requirement for onsite staff which seems the key bottleneck.
They could also offer service in multiple languages
Last edited by Prospero; Jul 31, 2022 at 4:26 am Reason: combine three consecutive posts
Jul 30, 2022, 9:54 pm
#21
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7,237
But why is it inevitable? It's not as if a sudden catastrophe that is totally unpredictable occurs....these issues are all predictable, some at least a day ahead even. Posts above indicate there is almost no BA staff after something like 10PM..that is just not on and especially not on when you know you have a plane full of people that will need some sort of direction/assistance. Many different types of companies have these sorts of situations and they don't just dump several hundred people, late at night, to their own devices...at least have someone hand out information about possible hotels, have someone try to get a language service on the phone for those that don't speak English. It would be a great customer relations boost!
Sometimes, though, there's no room availability. I mentioned a while back the day I was supporting disruption in T5 and the BA54 returned from airborne. I had to go downstairs to tell the passengers that we had no hotel rooms... and that was because, in an area between Hounslow to the East and well beyond the M25 to the West, we had no more rooms to book at any hotel. And there isn't much you can do to give out info about hotels but to say that BA had been giving out thousands of rooms during the day and there were no more rooms in the neighbourhood.
I do agree about languages though. There's this idea that everyone speaks English, but that's not the case.