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Anonymous
The trauma that I have experience today at the hands of your airline is incomprehensible. I am still in shock. And when I say trauma I mean that I will remember this day forever as not only the worst travel experience I’ve ever had but one of the worst days of my life. The incompetence, and it’s rampant in all directions. Do not be fooled by this airline. Absolutely god awful. Where to begin: 1. Flight was booked first class and they added my infant but neglected to actually issue a ticket to her. We didn’t know any better, when we booked initially we trusted the process not anticipating the ball being dropped by the airline in such a massive way. So we nearly missed the flight but, luckily we devoted 3 hours of our vacation to customer service where some nice ladies in ticketing were able to recover this massive error and save the flight for us. Onto the next error… 2. This one is minor but still highlights the incompetence and is a piece of the story. On its own; its minor but connected with the rest of our experience it is significant. So - our baby’s stroller was gate checked and we were told it would be at the bottom of the flight when we de boarded. But instead of bringing it to us like they said, I waited outside on the tarmac for it until they determined that they actually sent it through to baggage claim. I love holding my baby but she is 10 months and pretty heavy for my after a while. Going through customs and waiting on bags added up to 45 mins to an hour of straight holding her while juggling bags. I almost dropped her several times because my arms were simply giving out. It was beyond difficult. I didn’t plain to use her carrier or anything because, again, we trusted what we were told and we thought we would have the stroller. 3. Next - 1st flight was booked from NYC to LHR, but our connection to final destination was from Gatwick airport. This was organized by the airline and we trusted what was sold to us and their process again. So we took a $190 transfer taxi to the other airport after we landed only to find out they canceled the flight. So we arrive to the airport with no flight but we’re rebooked with my husband leaving tonight and me and my baby leaving tomorrow…. So our family was separated? Mind you both flights were set to leave from the airport we just came from. 4. We go to agents to ask for help and spent 2 hours there to ultimately be told “youve been helped” ie flights listed above, which would clearly be unacceptable for parents traveling abroad with a infant under a year. Plus at that point we were offered no hotel accommodations, no vouchers for food, no transfer service, nothing) and we’re told “my shift is ending so I’m leaving” and we were just dumbfounded. So we took another $200 transfer back to first airport. Mind you all long this entire time we’re calling the help line, where for the first hour we were told it was closed (automated recording saying it was down). It finally worked, but we were hung up on - and i counted - 9 times. Not like out of anger - but maybe just laziness, or not knowing what to do, or maybe their phone service and technology is that unreliable. Each time we called back only to go through the tortuous exercise of retelling the situation), only to no avail and to just be hung up on mid-conversation. 5. We get back to LHR and were told we could fly standby, but earliest we could get on a flight was tomorrow. The agents there offered food and hotel. And when we said we were going to lose our car rental and lose a night of prepaid hotel, we were just told to “submit a claim” with no real details or reassurance or timeline for refund or that it actually worked. 6. We agreed to try for standby so we waited where we were told for 2 additional hours. We stayed within eye sight of agents in standby area, and kept checking with them every few mins and came back each time we were told to see if there were any updates. At the final closing chance, they told us they had gotten us seats. So we pack the baby all up and set up our bags only to find out “oh sorry I was looking at tomorrows flight - you’re booked on that one”… 7. Then another girl came out sometime later and said “actually they’ve just told me we can get you through tonight” so we check all our bags and rush to security only to be denied entrance because it was “too late”. The left hand clearly does not communicate with the right hand around here. And to top it off, Ironically, they had already sent all our bags through. 8. That above was at 7:45pm and it is now 10:45pm and my infant has been here all day and we have still not been able to claim our bags back. My baby has no food, no formula, no more diapers because the rest of what she needed was in our checked luggage which we were supposed to already have access to by now. SOMEWHERE between the millionth errors of this incompetent airline they have actually LOST our luggage even though we have gone NO WHERE. 9. In addition to the above, just to drive it home, when my husband went to baggage inquiries to try and retrieve the missing luggage initially, he had our carry-on bags with him. As one would. When he got there, they told him that they had to individually search our carry-on luggage for whatever reason that no one will explain to me. At the time, I was waiting at a coffee shop with my baby because she was sleeping (finally). But I soon got a call from my husband telling me the agents told him that if I didn’t come down there to get my items that they were going to “destroy the bags”. Something about him not being allowed to go through where he needed to go to pick up the bags (that they sent in error) bringing our carry on luggage… even though it had already passed security 3 times this experience. I’m still at a loss and truly shocked that I would be told my things were going to be destroyed. Why would that language be used, especially considering the context of the situation. 10. The luggage is still lost and it is 11pm. We have spent far too much money to have an experience like this and for no one to be accountable to make amends and fix it in a way that feels fair and appropriate to the damaged caused. This was my first ever flight with my baby and I feel like this airline stole something extremely significant from my life. 11. Update - they finally found our bags and it’s 11:10pmBut naturally, in seemingly true BA fashion, the shuttle they gave us a voucher for to the hotel had its last run at 11pm.
1 year ago
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British Airways has a 1.7 average rating from 289 reviews

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