bigguyinpasadena

It is all semantics-no such beast as British Air in some folks minds.

Bar Operator

BGIP,

Thanks for the comparison with LH ground-handling - I think the poor ground experience at LHR is well-known to the powers higher up at BA; unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem, and you obviously suffered it first-hand.

We can only hope the solution is forthcoming before too many premium folk give up flying BA for good, and render the new First Class cabin redundant.

I suppose the one positive is that your expectations were met once on the plane.

serfty

It's too late now, but ...

Of course, there is a way to get from T5B back to T5A without needing to come back through security:

Cheetah_SA

And only the most avid (rabid?) readers of FT know about it. To my mind that was BA's most unforgiveable fault in this sorry tale: not escorting (or at the very least giving directions to) F pax on what is not at all an obvious route.

PUCCI GALORE

Sweetness I loathe the habit of creating words when there are perfectly acceptable exisiting words. As aviation took everything from the maritime world - it is only comparatively recently that they stopped calling Right and Left - Starbord and Port (there are days when I wonder if they can tell which is which). We say Galley, - even Heads in the old days rather than Lavatories. You do not Emplan - you embark or board 9most common). Why you do not deboard or disembark I cannot tell - but deplaning - no I hate the word. Now that changes nothing but I can understand why it gets on some people's nerves.

A friend of mine who used to work at the Ford research centre at Worley years ago told me about this trend and a new word had been coined. Sticktion. It meant how well the car stuck to the road (on my honour that is true). Adhesion had apparently been overlooked or -I suspect - was beyond the vocabulary of those who concern themselves with such grown up matters.

Anyway, this has little to do with being escorted to gates. My husband used to escort people to the gates of aircraft at one time in his illustrious career. Mostly they were in handcuffs (No, I never did that thank you for asking, he knew better than to ask) and had Personna Non Grata stamped in their passports.

matthewuk

Indeed - and the impact of a 747 load of pax coming back through security (assuming they were all misdirected as thew OP was) will have been significant and to be fair to BAA security for once, probably unexpected.

Mr H

I’ve had the odd trip in F of late, but never with BA. Some of the dreadful experiences I’ve had include:
Gosh – I wonder how I manage sometimes.

adrianjc32

Well actually that is the only sign posted route from B to A. If you follow the signs for A gates (see what they have done there) you end up taking the lift back up to the area behind the Southern Customer Service Desk. The route that takes customers on the track transit is not signed at all. I appreciate that some would say that the signs are not obvious, but they are large illuminated yellow ones hung from the ceilings. I am not sure what more they can do other than have them Vegas style in flashing neon??

adrianjc32

No, you are mistaken, nothing goes wrong on other carriers or at other airports ever!!

PUCCI GALORE

I DEMAND that the cute dishy hunk who has Adrianjc32 on his badge escort me personally to the gate and show me aboard. He can drive me in the company Jaguar if he likes.

If he does not - what compensation shall I be entitled to throw a full blown Heathrow-stopping, jaw dropping, tried and tested tantrum over.

adrianjc32

Trust me I suspect you have mixed me up with some other hunk. You most certainly would not want me driving!! I remember when working for another carrier driving some customers in a transit bus to a connection, we stopped at a junction ,having driven for about 10 minutes. As I pulled away the stewardess sat beside me said "you have left the handbrake on", to which I replied "I didn't know it had one, but I thought it was sluggish"!! Oh how we laughed, oh how the customers screamed!!

Raffles

The bottom line is that it wouldn't cost anything substantial to have a personal escort for EVERY fare paying F pax who would be waiting for them at F check-in, who would personally go with them through security into the Concorde Lounge, would hang around in the lounge until their flight was boarding and then walked them to the plane.

We are talking, say, 3 hours maximum per passenger, using a BA staffer who is being paid (all in, with pension, NI, amortised uniform and training etc) £20 per hour. Total cost per pax = £60 (£30 each if a couple) out of a fare of £6,000.

Don't say it can't be done, because obviously it can. You can add the £60 to the fare and no-one will notice. However, BA (in general) whilst it has no problem spending £60m on LHR lounges is paranoid about anything that involves headcount.

Similarly, it wouldn't be a killer to get a group of staffers at the gate of every long-haul arrival to meet the F pax individually, whisk them through immigration, load up their bags and take them to the taxi rank etc.

Schultzois

Reminds me of parking attendants with a certain Italian vehicle I have... we shall have to add "handbrake training" to the list if ever an ubercarrier were to take over AZ and offer personal transfers in Italia's finest.

Nevertheless, for the time being, I don't care what you're driving, and whether the handbrake is on or off - I'm sure it would be an improvement over the current LHR ground experience...

bigguyinpasadena

Perhaps then it would have been a nice gesture if the receptionist at the B gates lounge would have told us of this route instead of telling us that we had to take the tram back to A gate and leaving us at that.
Or,as suggested in my OP there would have been a BA rep available to escort us through this this route.Cheaper than flashing neon?Perhaps not.But it is something a great airline would do for premium passengers.
Of course BAA cannot even get that one pixel in "the cloud"to work correctly so flashing neon would prove a real challenge

Cheetah_SA

I believe it was GB Shaw who said: "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred".

It scarcely matters that there are signs. Based on the evidence of any number of threads here, pax simply do not see them or respond to them. And we are talking about pretty airport savvy pax at that. All the more reason for an escort or for more pro-active assistance than "you'll have to find your way back to the the A terminal".

I have been escorted by QF at SYD from international arrivals through to domestic departures. Also from the kerb to the lounge. I have been escorted by TG at BKK from arrival to the kerb or to the lounge and later to my gate for an onward flight. I have been escorted by BA at JNB from check-in desk to lounge!!

It really isn't that unusual a service.