Me and my luggage - a world apart
I flew from Barcelona to Edinburgh last Friday after a long conference and meetings. After receiving an ominous text from BA (my first said that bad weather was on the way - lovely day on arrival!), I noted that no bags came off the plane in London!
On boarding the next plane, we were told that there were bags from Milan still on board (they stayed on!). On arrival, the baggage support crew were clear - there was no way I'd get my suitcase (conference clothes, presents and casual gear etc..) before I headed-home to Australia.
As advised by my knowledgeable man at Edinburgh airport, early Sunday (no sign of bag) I attempted to change the delivery of my 'delayed baggage' to my home address. Of course, the BA system refused to update this and my suitcase (according to the delivery company) is still sitting in a warehouse in Edinburgh (a world away).
I wonder how many other people have bags being 'delivered' to somewhere they are now not? Hilarious if BA think that 100% of people are travelling home and/or will still be at a place a week after their bags disappear. I'm certainly going to charge BA for sending my suitcase back to me if and when it ever turns up - certainly not via their network!
I've travelled the world for 30 years or more and had more than a few travel disasters. Congratulations BA you've made my top 3 (only missing being on one of the 9-11 planes by chance and then struggling to get home thereafter occupying numbers 1 and 2!).
Given the lack of consideration, communication and general lack of care for their customers, I do think a class action/or something similar, for all the inconvenience and expense suffered by presumably thousands of people worldwide, is worth considering. Of course, BA will simply say - not our fault and look at the conditions of carriage.
My final thought is this - if I were an airline with many years of flying and experiencing disruptions, is it even possible I might have suffered a similar event previously, learned from my mistakes, developed an operational plan and then communicated that plan to my customers? Might I ensure phones and messages were answered, my plane crews given up-to-date information to pass on to passengers and my systems strengthened to cope with increased accordingly? Of course not, the tried and true BA (bugger all) care-factor plan and response has been applied - hence the horror stories now haunting this page.