Gengy

Just saw this on an unofficial British Airways Facebook page ."BRITISH AIRWAYS COMPLAINTS ADVICE" They are not getting the response that they hoped.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/7363...eric&ref=notif

The text of the post is here in case they delete the post.

"Hi everyone, I issued the complaint below to BA in Jan and have no correspondence from them aside from the generic we’re looking into your complaint email (these have now stoped as of 3rd Feb). Can you have a read and let me know if it’s worth pursuing? Thanks in advance and sorry it’s so long -
On the 21st of December, we returned to London from Jamaica. during a flight, a passenger directly to rows behind us, passed away in the most horrific way, giving us the most traumatic experience during a flight. The flight itself was just short of three hours delayed which was very frustrating in itself as we were travelling with a total of five children (13 (on a separate booking), 7, 6 and 4 (x2) year olds) along with my sister who is six months pregnant. Whilst we was given vouchers for food, it was a limited amount which just about got a meal. It was also very late into the evening which meant that the children and my sister were very tired, frustrated and hungry and ruined their routines. We were told the delay was due to the flight, leaving the UK later than expected therefore causing delays in Jamaica. By the time the flight arrived everything was extremely rushed in order to get passengers onto the flight and the flight itself was very dirty. I’m not certain it was even cleaned properly before we were asked to board.
Around 3 and 1/2 hours prior to us landing in the UK we was awakened by commotion, going on by the airline staff, and a passenger two rows behind us regarding a passenger losing consciousness. Whilst the airline staff responded quite quickly, it was extremely traumatic to witness. My nephew was moved from his seat during his sleep into the row ahead of us onto my lap in order to prevent him from witnessing what was about to occur (still only three rows ahead of the ordeal). The passenger that was losing consciousness was then placed in the aisle beside us in order to perform, resuscitation CPR and attempt to save her life; the entire experience went on for over an hour. I’ve never in my life witnessed someone being shocked or having CPR performed and never would’ve expected that to happened on flight returning home. Over the Christmas period we have been extremely sad and I’m traumatised by this experience and it is something that neither myself and my immediate family including the young children have been able to stop talking or thinking about and have had many sleepless nights and stress and worries about the events that occurred during the course of the flight. We also have been led to believe had the flight not have been delayed and this poor lady had been able to eat on time and not had the chaotic experience leading up to and boarding the flight, her life may not have been wasted, and she may still be here today.
Naturally, during the course of this experience, it meant or flight services were halted and aside from the initial meal, drinks and flight mills were discontinued, so we did not receive a thorough flight experience that we had paid for. I am extremely infuriated by British Airways handling of this situation, following the flight because I would have expected some sort of communication from yourselves to those of us that have been on the flight, particularly close enough to have been impacted and witnessed the whole experience to check on our well-being, apologise for the experience and offer some sort of compensation or counselling following it. I have left it a considerable number of days to allow yourselves to get in contact but there has been nothing hence me reaching out in this way now.
In addition to this leading up to the holiday, there were a number of changes that were already very annoying such as flights being cancelled and not flying directly into and from Montego Bay, which is where our initial holiday was booked for and our hotel was which meant that we ourselves with the minors and my pregnant sister had to travel to and from Kingston, which is a 3 1/2 hour journey by a car and incurred an additional out-of-pocket expense of over £400.
I would like to hear from British Airways, what you plan to do in order to compensate your passengers that had to deal with this ordeal and what will be done to improve your services going forward in no way is this acceptable and they should not be normalised or swept under the rug for the family that had to go through the audio of all the passengers that had to endure it."

SilverChris

TLDR: Passenger dies in-flight, Karen is unhappy she had to witness that and didn't receive inflight service beyond the first meal, asks whether she is due compensation from BA for this ordeal.

Silver Fox

I think that she sums it up quite nicely:

Jenna Claire Watson
No wonder BA stopped replying to your emails. You money grabbing cretin.

xenole

Don't think it's just about meals and service.

Seems to be more about the "distress" caused and no-one really seemed too bothered about anyone's feelings after experiencing what they did.
Not saying the crew may be just as, if not more distressed by goings on, but at the very least, someone representing the airline could have spoken to the passengers to see how they're feeling (assuming they didn't?). Expect someone would have done this with the crew?
Sure travel insurance would cover costs at the end of the day, but they seem to have been left to their own devices by BA and out of pocket etc.

Would expect some sort of lawsuit here from her

It's probably no worse to be honest than attitudes in say London where someone throws themselves in front of a train and causes shutdowns for hours, preventing you getting to work etc. I'll put odds on it that a lot of people don't necessicarily think "oh that poor person", but treat them as inconsiderate.

T8191

IIRC, BA dropped the MBJ route in 2013 and subsequently only served KIN.

Something smells fishy. If you want to go to Montego Bay, you fly VS not BA.

PAL62V

Well at least they had the decency not to die in J.

*Completely tongue in cheek. I’m taking the p*ss out of the original post. Makes you wonder about priorities though.

corporate-wage-slave

I have to say CPR - in real life - is absolutely nothing like what you have have seen in Casualty, and certainly not Baywatch. I'll spare you the graphic version, but It is pretty distressing stuff. I would say to the complainant, in respect of their stress about this, that when someone ends up under CPR, and accepting something has to trigger it, the reality is that almost certainly the patient would have been in a very bad way for quite some time, and if they didn't survive CPR then this unfortunately was the unlikely to ever be any different. It is the very last roll of the dice. I wasn't there, so I'm not going to judge, but yes it's unfortunate for the complainant, but rather more than that for the deceased and their family. The request for counselling is sensible, but their GP Practice Manager can signpost them to specialists in this area. The following link may be a good start point:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsu...ouve-given-cpr

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsu...ng/counselling
[They did try to re-run MBJ in October 2020 onwards, didn't last long, so that bit does make sense].

wutlol

I feel like the author in the OP just got the location wrong, as 2262 is indeed the KIN-LGW flight.

markmac

I think MBJ returned as a seasonal route in 2020.

T8191

Thanks, CWS and markmac! Missed that bright spot.

jamestg

There definitely should have been some form of follow up (phone call/letter) and signposting to any services available, but absolutely no more than that. What she posted was unbelievable and unforgivable, and I hope that post doesn’t make it to the papers in case the family of the deceased sees.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

OMG. When you consider how many people are in the air at any one time, deaths are unfortunately going to happen on flights. The complainant seems much more concerned about their feelings and those of her family than the poor individual who died or her family and friends travelling with her.
Naturally it’s distressing and particularly so for children but these things happen. The whole story is an exposition of self centred behaviour. I’m sorry they had a bad day but somebody else’s was much worse.

visit14

Sounds like an horrific experience for all involved. I don't agree with shaming the OP. An opportunity to de-escalate was clearly missed shortly after the flight, when speaking to/contacting passengers seated nearby to 'validate' their distressing experience and let them feel heard may well have been all that was needed.

Greenpen

No.

dougzz

I largely avoid social media as I find it can exaggerate the absolute worst traits of human behaviour. What I find slightly disappointing is the re-posting of SM here. Mostly it’s just piling on, and just like the recent spate of posts in the DYKWIA thread it adds nothing to the BA board.