Delays IV

My much delayed flight to Stockholm finally took off at 18:00 (almost 4 hours late).

I finally got to the bottom of the reason for the delay. It seems that a combination of heavy snowfall and a lack of de-icing equipment in Frankfurt caused the delay.

Whilst BA cannot be held responsible for the weather or probably the lack of de-icing equipment, BA should have communicated the reasons for the delay to their customers.

On board, despite that fact that it was well past "teatime", afternoon tea was served.

The reason?

Catering is now provided by DHL who, so I am advised, aren't very good at "customer care".

The two finger sandwiches were an inadequate repast, and were of poor quality (total lack of taste and frozen bread).

That is what you get when you hire a logistics company to provide the catering!

www.baisshite.com the latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline. This site contains updates on the ongoing strike action, and dispute between BA and Unite.

BA Scraps Short Haul Meals

The BBC reports that British Airways is to scrap all free meals, except breakfast, on its short-haul flights to save £22M a year.

Passengers on flights after 10am, which last less than two-and-half hours, will only be served drinks and snacks. They will not have the option to buy food.

A BA spokesman claimed that:

"When you fly with British Airways, the in-flight catering is top-class."

Piffle!

I draw BA's attention to my experiences with their "top-class" catering, as outlined on this site in earlier articles and on my Restaurant Review site as well.

As ever, when a company runs into financial difficulties, it is the customer who suffers.

The Flight to Beijing

I took my flight from London to Beijing today, regrettably many of the issues that I had raised before with Britsh Airways had not been addressed:

• The "passenger infrastructure" on the plane was worn and dated. Seat 2F near to my seat needed two crew members to physically perform a mid air repair, in order for the head rest section to work.



• The menu offered soup, yet none was actually available. Why? Seemingly the soup was never delivered to the plane, as it could not get through security in time! This is more than a little odd, as the plane was 30 minutes late for boarding.



• Again, despite telling BA before about this, there was no chutney onboard for the curry. I made do with marmalade.



• The cabin temperature was too cold.



• The crew were helpful and courteous. However, those that I spoke to confessed that they were fed up with having to apologise to customers for the failures of the company to meet the expectations of the customers.



• I understand that the much lauded "roll out" of the new cabins and in flight entertainment systems has hit a snag. Seemingly there is one British Airways plane crossing the Atlantic that has an in flight entertainment system that does not work. That must make an "amusing" six hours for the hapless customers onboard that particular flight!



• The inflight entertainment system was good 15 years ago, but now looks dated and well past its prime. The roll out of the new system needs to be completed with haste.

BA need to understand that the customers, and indeed the staff, are fed up with the ongoing quality issues.

London Beijing March 2007

Text of a letter sent to Willie Walsh CEO of BA on 17 March 2007

"Dear Mr Walsh,

I would like to provide you with a few observations about my recent “first class” return trip (London-Beijing) on BA (8th March-12th March):

· The standard of the Heathrow lounge was not what I would expect for first class; it does not compare favourably wrt the facilities, or indeed size, of lounges offered by other airlines eg Virgin.

· There were only two Internet workstations in the London and Beijing lounge. In the Beijing lounge, one of the Internet workstations was out of order.

· The theory of the London lounge, as best as I can make out, is that customers sit down and are served by BA staff. Unfortunately, those customers who did not sit in the immediate vicinity of the bar were not able to attract the attention of staff for service, as there weren’t any staff in the non-bar area. I had to go to the bar to find anyone willing to serve me.

· The entertainment system on both flights did not work that well. The outgoing flight could not show the safety video, as the system had a malfunction. The quality of the picture on both flights was poor, and on some of the channels (outgoing and inbound) the video didn’t work at all.

· The remote control in the armrest on my outgoing flight was stuck, and had to be extracted by the cabin crew with a butter knife. Very high tech!

· In trying to manually extend the footrest on my seat, I managed to impale and cut my finger on a sharp piece of metal that was protruding from underneath the edge of the footrest.

· One member of staff, who was so ashamed by the quality, told me with head bowed in shame that the system was “out of the ark”. I would concur, as other airlines, such as Singapore and Virgin, used to have the same systems back in the early/mid nineties; they have long since upgraded them. I was advised that that the systems will be upgraded, but was also told that this same message has been repeated for quite some time. Having paid £6K for my ticket, hearing of future plans is of little interest to me.

· On both flights a curry was served, yet no chutneys were available. I improvised with marmalade. BA makes great efforts to tell me in the menu that the recipes are designed by world-class chefs. That being the case, why did I have to resort to using marmalade?

· The quality of the staff on both flights, and their customer care/attention, was good. They were all embarrassed by the poor state of the technology and equipment on board.

BA’s last remaining asset that has not been tarnished by strikes, security delays, delays in general and out of date entertainment systems, would appear to be its staff. However, if they are embarrased and ashamed of their company I wonder how long you will retain their loyalty?

Reputations are hard to earn, but easy to lose.

In brief, I do not think that the “first class” description equates to the price I paid, or the competition that BA faces. I will be travelling on a more regular basis to Beijing over the coming months/years, but will be (subject to schedules) looking to other airlines to get me there and back.

In my view, there are a number of issues that you need to address if BA is to retain the much tested “loyalty” of their customers, whether they travel economy, business or first.

I would be interested to hear you views on the above, and what steps BA will be taking in the short term to address these issues.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Frost"