NickPowell77

All, I appreciate the responses. I know many of you on the forum are loyal BA travellers and have also had your fair share of issues.

I feel as though I've hit the end of the road after:

1. BA spolit our honeymoon flights
2. Catering fiasco with Gate Gourmet
3. We were bumped from 1st Class to Business (when I was Gold)
4. Our bags were lost whilst in NYC and we weren't even warned

I was fairly compensated for 1, 2 & 3 but feel that BAs compensation for 4 is a kick in the teeth. I now have asked BA for my complaint to be escalated or to give me contact details for the Head of Customer Service. If I don't get a satisfactory reply then I will be auctioning of my airmiles and giving the money to charity.

I want to do it properly so may be asking for advice. Who knows it may even work it's way to the press and give BA some further bad publicity.

Keith Flyer Maven

how about finding the biggest lout you can find at the airport and upgrading him? a few of these in a row in front of the BA desk seems like a great revenge!

Ex Amex Card

Did you complain verbally or in writing?

Talking to the people on the phone is OK, but quite often all they can do is read from their standard script parrot fashion and they have no discretion to really sort things out.

Don't waste your breath on them, you are much more likely to get some success if you complain in writing. Send the letter to the head of customer services and get a "Signed For" sticker from the post office to really grab their attention.

In the letter, ask them for a copy of their complaints proceedure in case you want to escalate the problem further.

Good luck!

Smirnoff

What exactly happened to the bags, out of interest?

Smirnoff

And, subject to no objections from the Mods, I sense another Silver card auction coming soon.

NickPowell77

My first letter to BA:

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Once again we are writing to complain about a recent trip. Before I begin, the details of our flights are as follows:

Flight: BA0113
From: Heathrow (London) T4
To: John F Kennedy (New York) T7
Depart: Fri 29 Dec 2006, 15:05
Arrive: Fri 29 Dec 2006, 17:50
Duration: 0745
Class: Club World Flight: BA0182

From: John F Kennedy (New York) T7
To: Heathrow (London) T4
Depart: Mon 1 Jan 2007, 22:30
Arrive: Tue 2 Jan 2007, 10:15
Duration: 0645
Class: Club World

We were travelling to New York to visit friends and to attend a business function on New Years Eve. Our trip ended up in disaster.

When we arrived in LHR T4 on the 29th December 2006 it was pandemonium. We were refused entry to the Terminal even though we were flying Club World. After a great deal of persuasion we were allowed into the Terminal and checked-in for our flight. When we checked in, the baggage belts were working fine. We spent most of our time in the BA lounge before boarding the flight.

When we arrived in New York, we proceeded towards the baggage reclaim and heard our names called out over the public address system. We went to the BA baggage services office on the other side of customs only to be faced with a 100 person queue. After a length wait the service we received from the desk was appalling, there was no compassion, no apologies.

We were sent on our way with a reference number (JFKBA30729) with no bags and only the clothes we were stood in. Needless to say I was furious.

Our bags didn’t turn up in New York, they weren’t in JFK on our way home and weren’t in LHR when we landed. It’s now 8 days later and we still haven’t got our bags.

Our trip to New York has been a complete waste of time. We have been unable to see our friends because we were running around trying to buy cosmetics, toiletries and clothes to last the trip. We were also forced to find a new suit, shoes, shirt, coats, dress etc etc for the New Years Eve Business function.

Moving on to a fundamental question …

“Why weren’t we told at anytime that our bags weren’t on the flight?”

It’s clear that the check-in desk had no idea that our bags wouldn’t have made it to the flight but BA made no attempt to let us know whilst we were in the lounge, whilst boarding the plane or before takeoff.

We can quite honestly say that if we had known that our bags weren’t on board, we would have cancelled our trip. There is no excuse for not letting us know, every flight has a list of the bags that are onboard a flight for security reasons (I’ve been on enough flights where bags have been removed from the hold because the passenger hasn’t been onboard).

We really want the above question answered because it feels as though BA didn’t want to make it their problem in LHR and have instead made it our problem at JFK.

Our short trip in New York has been ruined, what was meant to be a relaxing break has turned into a highly stressful disaster. We have incurred a great deal of expense considering the wasted trip.

I feel so strongly about this matter that I’m considering approaching the press to explain my story in full. I’m expecting a full and comprehensive response from BA with an adequate level of compensation, which reflects our wasted trip, expense and distress caused.

I look forward to your reply



Their response:

Dear Mr Powell

We go to great lengths to look after our customers' belongings at
British Airways, and this certainly includes getting every single piece of luggage to the right place at the right time. This is small comfort,
I know, for the situation we put you in after your own flight.

I am extremely to sorry to learn you were not advised about your baggage.
Due to recent problems with the baggage belts at London Heathrow, it was not possible to load baggage on to the aircrafts on departure.

Please be assured throughout this situation, our great concern was for our customers and the effect that it was having on you. We know you did not receive the standard of service you would expect from British Airways.

To recognise the inconvenience this caused you, I have credited your and
Mrs Powell's Executive Club accounts with 25,000 BA Miles each. These will be added to your balances shortly and will also appear on your next Executive Club statements. Please accept this gesture with our very sincere apologies.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us about this. I hope this will not affect your decision to fly with us in the future. Once again, please accept my sincere apologies.



My next letter

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Many thanks for your standard response to our letter; however our questions have not yet been answered. Your response to my letter misses the key point of my complaint and I'm extremely disappointed. Your email comes across as a standard response and I don't feel my compliant has been given a measured response. To re-iterate, I have two complaints:

1. My baggage was delayed and not returned to us until after our trip
2. At no point before takeoff, were we told that our bags weren't on the flight. This includes being in the lounge of 2-3 hours. If we were told that our bags weren't on board, we would not have flown

In my letter, I specifically requested a response to point 2, which you have failed to acknowledge.

I'd like to stress the point that we would NOT had travelled to New York had we known that our bags weren't on the flight. It was a short trip to visit friends and without our luggage it was a pointless trip. This was proved by the amount of time it took us to replace basic items. Our trip was a complete waste of time and we incurred significant expense, including:

• Hotel Costs: xx
• Airline taxes: xx
• BA air miles: 100,000

In addition to the above, we incurred costs for toiletries, cosmetics and clothes, which we are perusing through our Insurance Company.

British Airways' Customer Service fundamentally failed when we weren't told or even warned that our bags may not arrive in New York. This resulted in us having a completely wasted trip and I'm expecting, as a minimum, that the above costs are compensated and the 100,000 air miles are credited to my account.

We eagerly await your response.



Their response:

Dear Mr Powell

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to learn you remain unhappy with my email and our telephone conversation.


I have certainly looked again at what happened and taken into account everything you have told us, but I'm afraid I cannot increase the amount we have already offered you or refund your hotel and flight costs.

We do all possible to carry checked baggage, whenever possible on the same aircraft as the passengers, but sometimes this may not be possible due to various operational reasons and therefore carry it on another flight to your destination.

As mentioned in my previous email and by my colleague Siobhan, unfortunately we are unable to advise you why no information was given to you before departure.

I know this will not be the news you hoped for. I can only say how sorry I am - and express the hope that it will not permanently undermine your good opinion of British Airways.



I'm awaiting a resonse to:

You are quite correct, I am unhappy and remain unhappy following our telephone conversation.

I am aghast that all BA are able to offer in compensation is 25,000 air miles each.

You mentioned in your email that "We do all possible to carry checked baggage, whenever possible on the same aircraft as the passengers, but sometimes this may not be possible due to various operational reasons and therefore carry it on another flight to your destination." - I understand this statement completely but our luggage never arrived nor were we warned that our luggage may not arrive.

You also state in your email that "As mentioned in my previous email and by my colleague Siobhan, unfortunately we are unable to advise you why no information was given to you before departure." I can't understand why you aren't able to tell me why no information was provided prior to departure. Is this a breakdown in process or communication? Is this not normal practice? I would like to understand this point further.

In addition, your email states that "the hope that it will not permanently undermine your good opinion of British Airways." I can quite honestly say that if this matter is not resolved to my satisfaction I will never fly BA again, I will tell my friends, colleagues and family never to fly BA . In addition, I'll also gladly donate all my air miles (100k) to charity and cancel my Executive Club account.

I insist that my communications are escalated within British Airways and my complaint is reassessed. If you are unable to escalate my complaint any further can you please provide me with the name and the address for the Head of Customer Relations.

Please do not close this case reference until this matter has been resolved.

SchmeckFlyer

Although there is no excuse for losing bags, especially of premium passengers and for that long, and there should be some goodwill gesture of compensation, I have never known any airline to inform passengers their baggage is not on the flight until after the fact (the flight). Myself, I always ask at the gate for someone to check the status of my bags using the baggage stubs, so that upon arrival I can just go straight to arrival services if my bags indeed did not make it.

But they also always tell me at the gate that baggage is still loading (so there is the chance the baggage will still make it), which seems to occur right until after the last passengers have boarded the flight. So there really is no way for any airline to inform passengers before the flight of missing bags, because they will endeavor to load them right up until the final moments. My last BA long-haul was delayed slightly in order to load the last cargo/baggage containers.

As it is not usual (in my experience) for either BA or most any airlines to actively track baggage and inform passengers proactively of their baggage's status (consider for a moment the complexity of such a system), I would not expect more than the 50,000 miles already received (which already seems quite generous: enough for a return in economy). The assumption before a departing flight is always that until the doors are closed and engines started, loading will continue.

NickPowell77

With the chaos is LHR T4 that day, BA must have known that there was a high likelihood that the flight would be without most of its bags. The queue for the BA baggage desk in JFK was hundreds of people for my flight alone.

There should at least of been a warning in LHR and I could have made my own decision - there is realy no excuse.

Smirnoff

I don't want to appear unsympathetic, but I don't see how BA could have possibly informed you before the flight whether the luggage was loaded - (a) the luggage is often loaded up until the last moment, so they may be no way of knowing until the doors are closed, and (2) imagine the logistical nightmare if people starting routinely offloading themselves from flights, as it was about to go, on the basis of their bags not making it, which would lead to delays and inconvenience to those travelling.

Where you have grounds for complaint is the way it was dealt with at JFK. Having to wait hours to file a report is bad. I would ask - I think it is reasonable - for J and F passengers to have some priority in filing the reports in the baggage office. But being delayed for hours on arrival is not nice, especially if it is only a short visit. Personally I would have (and I did this in the Summer) put the OH in a taxi to the hotel, and wait by myself to sort out the paperwork.

Secondly, were you offered the $400 debit cards? These seem to be offered randomly. You did not mention if these were offered. If not, you should ask for compensation at these levels. Did you have travel insurance - were you able to recover the cost of all your purchases while in NY?

And the main complaint is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to be reunited with your bags.

If you got away with $400, an insurance claim, and 50k miles, I think you should be happy.

But the morale of the tale is take anything that is essential and would be hard to replace on arrival, in carry-on. And good insurance of course.

aristoph

I also have a lot of sympathy but, having been placed in a similar situation by BA last August I am jealous of the personal response and compensation you got to your complaint. You were lucky to be on an eight day trip to New York where (let's face it) shopping to replace missing baggage is pretty easy and for some a pleasure. We were in South Africa for exactly 60 hours. We flew to JNB but had to transfer to BFN, some 400km away. My partner was visiting his aunt who was on her death bed. We had to waste 4 hours of this very short and difficult trip in a mall in JNB buying essentials, which was no shopping pleasure I can assure you. As in your case BA did not tell us the bags had not been loaded but at least they didn't leave you waiting at the carousel for an hour until the last bags came off, as they did us. Yes they gave us £300 debit cards each but that was the last help we got from BA. The desk at JNB didn't answer the phone and the UK EC line could only tell us that the whole baggage system was in chaos. Thankfully we were reunited with our bags as we left JNB after we queued for an hour. I wrote to complain to BA and received a standard claim form for lost items together with a covering letter stating that their liability was strictly limited. I wrote back saying that I didn't want cash because I had insurance but I wanted some recognition from them that their incompetence had made a difficult trip even more stressful. No reply. Then got a follow up survey asking how I felt about the response by customer services where I let them have it. Again no response. Result. I now know for myself exactly what BA thinks of its Silver members travelling in Club World and will factor this into my future travel plans. Unfortunately as I have said elsewhere I cannot practically abandon BA given my travel pattern but I will certainly not be bothered to renew my silver card next year and long to be able to move to a different alliance/airline.

NickPowell77

Aristoph, that is a truely bad story you have my sympathy.

We were only in NYC for 3 nights (not 8 days). One of which was taken up waiting to fill in forms at the baggage desk. Yes, NYC is an easy place to shop but we were due to attend a function and therefore had the hassle of replacing wifes dress (hardest part) and my suit etc etc etc

The trip was to see NYC by night and to spend time with friends. We ended up shopping during the day and crashing our during the night.

I'm glad American Express Insurance is so good.

NickPowell77

We did have Amex Travel Insurance so that was a lifesaver. The claim is currently being assessed. When travelling in the future all essential items are staying with me!

aristoph

Apologies - misread your 8 days later still no bags. So my sympathy is even greater then. These cock-ups are worse now that hand luggage is so restricted. We were travelling during the period of very small bags only. Now we would stuff enough for a weekend into the standard hand luggage though it is not so easy with just one bag each thanks to BAA.

LH_Fan

On my two recent CW flights in January (FRA - LHR - SFO and back), I inquired about the status of my luggage at the Terraces services desk at LHR before leaving the lounge. They checked, and told me my bags were on the plane on both occasions. Obviously, I have no idea whether that information was accurate - but the bags did make it to my final destination both times.

Halo

Sadly its not just BA this happens on. I flew VS UC to MIA Xmas 2002 and our luggage never made it on the flight. I was travelling with my wife, DD of 2, and DD 6mths at the time. We were kept waiting 2 hours or so at the luggage reclaim and only informed when we sought assistance that our luggage hadn't made the flight, something they knew before we took off. Its a sad fact of travelling that sometimes luggage doesn't make flights. What is appalling though is how this is handled. We had limited hand luggage and I simply had the polo shirt and shorts I was wearing. My DD2 whom I was carrying then proceeded to upchuck over me 7 times (the delights of parenthood ), so there I was with my only clothes covered in infant puke, by now 3 hours later than we should have been. I was a sorry dishevelled sight picking up our hire car. (And yes I had washed my clothes off in the restrooms!) We were driving up to Orlando - but because of all this I had to break the journey enroute and book in to a motel because it was so late and I was so tired. Luggage turned up 4-days later. Anyway, back to your quote - since then we have always travelled with a change of clothes for every family member in our hand luggage.

On another occasion I also had to buy a suit etc. in NY once when we had tickets for a Broadway show and returned to our highrise hotel to get changed for it, only to find our hotel on fire and the block sealed off... but that's another story .......