Donna Matthews

Tag: British Airways

  • My First Trip of the Season Update

    I know I left you hanging with my last post as you still don’t know how the rest of that leg of my journey went. Well, it did not get any better. As the time approached to start looking for my gate information I received an email from the airline that “due to operational constraints” my flight to Dallas would be delayed by 2 hours. The technologist in me was impressed because the email and text landed before the airport departures board was updated. Great job BA on your real time technology solution. However the traveler in me was thinking this already long day ahead of me just got longer.

    Finally onboard and settled in the captain comes on over the PA system to explain to us in some detail why we had been delayed for nearly 3 hours. According to him the plane had arrived from South Africa earlier in the day and the staff were unable to open the waste system to empty it. Which lead to Engineers being called who guess what? You got it they couldn’t open it either. Which meant a part had to be requested and eventually fitted. We could not complain that we were not well informed, if not a bit nauseated.

    Landed in Dallas, and did the mad dash to reclaim our luggage, go through Customs and re-check our luggage for the 45 minute flight to San Antonio. On the last segment of this trip and counting down the minutes to that shower that was in my very near future. Nope…

    …a passenger decided that she was more important than anyone else on the plane. She attempted to “place her bag in the overhead locker”, that was already full so it only went in about 6 inches. She left the bag sticking out saying loudly “they will have to figure it out”. When the flight attendant started closing the lockers he gets to this one with an ugly pink suitcase sticking out. He asked “whose bag is this?” Several helpful passengers pointed the woman out. He then asked her to please come and get the bag so it could be checked. The poor man had no idea what chain of events he just kicked off .

    The woman flatly and rudely responded that she would not be getting her bag down and no one was going to check it. The flight attendant walked over and calmly explained that she could not leave it there and that it must be checked. After calling him a “jerk” and a few other unpleasant things she asked to speak to the senior crew member. Then 15 minutes later it was the ground staff supervisor and finally 40 minutes later, when we should have been starting our descent into San Antonio, it was the pilot!

    By this time everyone was asking for the airline to check the bag, and her suitcase!

  • Incommunicado

    BA, no one will ever accuse you of over communicating! Once we figured out our plane was delayed the fun really started.  I went to the desk to find out why we were delayed and the agent said “something to do with the weather in London”  He then asked if we had eaten anything. We said “yes we just had a bite to eat at the cafe”. He then advises us that if we take our boarding pass to the same cafe they would feed us for free.  That’s helpful since we just ate at the same place and paid a fortune because there was no announcement of any kind to inform you of this offer.  The gate board now showed that our scheduled departure time was changed to 2045 with a boarding time of 2005. Back to the lovely, comfy, freezing, metal chairs in the non heated boarding area. At 2000 we checked the gate board to see that our BA info was gone and a flight to Algers was now departing from our gate. Up to the desk again to find that they moved our flight to the next gate over.  The info on this board still displayed the same boarding time of 2005, since it was now 2003 our confidence was and patience were hitting an all time low.  Finally at 2050 we saw movement and the forming of a queue near our gate. No announcement yet again but there was definitely something happening.  As we pass under the gate board it stills reads departure at 2045 or 5 minutes ago! One major item was missing from the gate…a plane. Instead of a plane at our gate there was a single bus.  Onto the bus and we have to wait again. This time in below freezing temperatures.  A good 10 minutes goes by, Pam has lost the feeling in her extremities and I have lost the will to live! At last the doors close and we are whisked just over 500 feet away to our plane.  All we can think about is regaining the blood flow to our vital organs. Off the bus, up the first step and progress has ground to a halt. The BA staff are greeting each person at the door and pointing out their seats like it is a balmy day in June, not a sub zero night in Rome.  Using my cane to climb the last few stairs I have visions of wrapping it around the head of the first person who tells me to have a nice flight!