aristoph

On BA94 YUL-LHR last night I opened my White Company bedding and noticed that there was no seal on the bag and no cardboard strip around the duvet; and the duvet and mattress topper both looked badly folded and crumpled. I spoke to the flight crew who couldn’t explain it and apologised that there was no spare set on board - one per seat loaded on a full flight - but did find me a duvet from the crew section that I could use as a mattress topper. As a reasonably frequent flyer in CW I at least knew it wasn’t right, but a newbie would presumably know no better and settle down in used bedding…

So a word of warning to always check your bedding on BA - you never know who has been snuggled in it before you!

scottish minnie

On a recent flight from Tampa to Gatwick we were told that there are no spares loaded - much to the frustration of the crew. We had asked if there were spare as ours had “disappeared” from the overhead lockers above our seats (row 4) . The crew were mystified at where they had gone until they saw that the family in the centre of row 4 had no less than 5 sets of bedding across 3 seats. When challenged they said they needed one set to lie on and one set to cover them as the seating was ridiculously uncomfortable. Thankfully there were 2 empty seats in the centre of row 2 and a senior crew member located the bedding for those and gave them to us.

it did seem strange that there were no spares but I guess it all adds to load weights so understandable.

mikeyfly

I’d say cost far above weight on this front

kdhurst380

It never ceases to amaze me how utterly selfish people can be.

Blackteletubby

Some people just have that "dog eat dog" mentality. As long as I'm comfortable, doesn't matter what happens to others.

Freddorick

Some people also might assume that BA loads a few extra sets to make the hard seats more acceptable. It takes a few times flying CW before realising that you cannot really expect much from BA.

aristoph

Indeed! The CW seat really is remarkably uncomfortable, especially when the stool keeps collapsing. On this flight I slept well but woke up maybe 3 times with pain in the side I was lying on and had to shuffle to the other side while desperately trying not to put any weight on the bottom of the bed/stool!

veron689908

It always baffles me why BA scrimp and scrapes with stuff like this. It's not as if half the plane will need a spare set of bedding. Maybe 2/3 spare sets stored somewhere just in case. And if there is an instance where it is required, it gives the crew an opportunity to speak to and bond with the customer, apologise, maybe get the service manager to come down, perhaps offer a free beverage, G&T or something. The benefits of something like this goes a long way in improving the customer experience with minimal cost to BA. What's an extra duvet or 2 from The White Company in terms of the overall cost of 1 long haul flight! In fact, it may not be needed for several flights.

Statistics show that if you are treated well as a customer you'll tell 5 people. If you are treated badly, you'll tell 9.

OuterBanks

Sadly statistics also show that BA don't need to give a toss.

Cruz did his best to destroy the brand, and yet sufficient lemmings continued to fly BA, either due to misguided blind loyalty or mere convenience.

BA also have a monopoly at Heathrow and so have an almost guaranteed pipeline of willing victims.

So even if someone tells 9 people and those 10 people vow to never fly BA again, they will be replaced with alternative self-loading cattle in no time, probably even before the unhappy guy has finished emailing the 9th person.

That's the problem with BA. They can afford to be complacent. We can but hope that one day their luck will run out, but for now, it is what it is.

astra19e

I had no bedding for a CW flight from SFO late last year. They found me some from economy as there were no spares. I got 7,500 Avios for the inconvenience after complaining, which was fine. Though I more recently had a slightly broken seat on a FLUB and have got 80,000 Avios as compensation so I feel like 7,500 wasn't that great!

CXYYZ

Flying from YUL in December, I also got dirty bedding at my seat. Asked for a replacement and was given another dirty set. Crew disappeared and ignored the call button but I eventually got a clean set. By then though, I had become quite restless and couldn’t sleep for the remainder of the flight.

That, along with the rather underwhelming National Bank lounge at YUL made for a very poor experience all round!

aristoph

Oh wow, I got off lightly then! I do wonder how it happened that I was given dirty bedding. My theory is that an inbound passenger re-packaged their used bedding in the little bag and the ground crew failed to remove it when they changed everything for return? It does make you wonder however whether they also overlooked changing the pillow, which would be even more gross

Yes the National Bank Lounge was pretty poor. We visited for one drink but fortunately I had researched in advance so we had bought access to the really rather good AirFrance/Premium Plaza lounge. As both AF flights had left it was pretty empty; the seating was great; the staff were super nice; and we drank our entry fee in Nicholas Feuillate! (The sparkling in the BA lounge was some horrendous acid at 9% vol.)

So there you have the BA premium CW experience in a nutshell. Pay to use another airline's lounge and check your bedding for someone else's stains!

SkyLich

Is BA bedding not supplied in sealed plastic, thus ensuring it's been cleaned?

aristoph

No. For ecological reasons (reminds me of Fr Ted; "that would be an ecumenical matter" lol!) it is no longer in a plastic bag. It is in a reusable cloth bag, which I think is supposed to have a breakable tag on it (not sure) but inside it is supposed to have a cardboard strip around the duvet to show that it has not been used. My set had neither of these and moreover was clearly crumpled and folded in an uneven way, which is how I knew it had been used.

CXYYZ

I’m jealous of your AF lounge visit - sounds like it’s a good hack to improve the ground experience! I tried to visit but bad weather meant AF were delayed and the lounge was at capacity so they weren’t allowing others in.