BA...No way.

[Darrell]

I am back at my sisters due to the incompetence of BA.

My flight was at 2140 and I arrived at LHR at 2015. As I had already checked in 24 hrs earlier I went straight to the bag drop. I showed them my boarding card on my tablet, the guy scanned the bar code and everything was hunky dory. I had a quick beer and a fag and went through security at 2100. I had to go through no later than 2105.

The barcode scanner at security could not read my barcode on my tablet so I was told to go to a check in counter to get a printed boarding pass. I did this asap. The lady made a couple of calls but was told because it was 2109, I was late so they wouldn,t let me on the flight.

I asked to speak to someone higher up the chain so a guy came along, made a few calls and then told me that as it was now 2120 I could not get on the flight.

I have never been late for a flight in my entire life and now have a very upset wife and 8 year old daughter who were expecting me home in the morning.

What to do next?

 

[NDFR]

Buy the wife flowers the daughter an ipad and give yourself a little more time next time.

edit* I do feel for you though.

 

[st13phil]

I understand your frustration, but if flights are to stand a chance of getting away on time the gate has to close at a specified time. While your circumstances were not entirely of your own making, you did have the opportunity to go to the gate earlier but you chose not to. Arriving late and being let on the flight would almost certainly delay the other 150+ pax, so your gain would have been their loss - which is hardly fair.

So... flowers for your wife, a small gift for your daughter, and a resolution to go to the gate a little earlier next time should sort it.

 

[renault12ts]

Better 30 minutes early than 1 minute late. Live and learn, next time make room for the unforeseen.

 

[paul73mt]

Totally agree you could of gone 'through' much earlier and in all honestly leaving it till the last 5 minutes is utter madness as you would of been cutting it fine even if you did get through. I see this every day at the airport i work at. It's even more critical at Heathrow as the plane 'slot' to taxi and then takeoff leaves very very little time. So if they did wait for you they may of missed there slot would you be willing to pay for the costs involved of the flight ?????

I know its very upsetting, but just learn from it and if you get to the airport 2 hrs early then have a quick fag then go through, after all theres plenty of places to get a quick beer airside

 

[geraldrobins]

Sorry Darrell. Everyones sympathetic but flight issues with timing are well publicised etc. Dont think BA were necessarily incompetent either. The systems are in place for a reason.

 

[SL350_SWINDON]

Don't take this the wrong way but there is a saying "bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine".

 

[Smatt]

"I had a quick beer and a fag...."

 

[jaymanek]

I agree... I would have aimed to be there latest 19.40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRDSj62tlvQ

 

[Darrell]

But I wasn, t late. That is my whole point. The amount of faffing by BA staff caused me to be late.

 

[markjay]

But I wasn, t late. That is my whole point. The amount of faffing by BA staff caused me to be late.

I think that the reason you missed the plane was due to a fault on the security scanner.

This is down to airport equipment failure, and not BA's fault.

You say that your first point of contact with a BA employee was at 21:09, which is was already four minutes late.

So at this point it seems that airport security equipment failure is the primay cause for you missing your flight, though I imagine that the airport will say that their guidlines recommend that you 'give yourself ample time' rather than assume that there will be no delays at Security.

As for BA, your complaint is really that they could have been more flexible with the rules, or be more efficient in their attempts to find a resolution, or both.

While I agree that providing good customer care means (among other things) making an effort to assist in such circumstances, it is difficult to eveluate from your post if BA indeed made every conceivable effort short of delaying the plane, or were they indifferent and inefficient.

So the question to my mind is whether you missed your flight in spite of BA's best endeavour to help, or was it due to a combination of last-minute arrival at security, faulty airport security equipment and disintersted BA staff.

 

[markjay]

Just to add... I do feel for you.

 

[flango]

But I wasn, t late. That is my whole point. The amount of faffing by BA staff caused me to be late.

I stopped flying BA because of their incompetence they really are useless. I had this exact same thing happen to me in Frankfurt, security scanner could not read bar code on my Blackberry, fortunately there was a self service kiosk a few hundred yards away so managed to print a boarding pass with my frequent flyer card and they let me back down the priority line, so made the flight since then I have never used an electronic boarding pass again.

The sign of a good airline is how they put things right when they have got it wrong, the 2 that stand out head and shoulders above the rest are Lufthansa and United, I'm sure others may have had bad experiences on these airlines but when they got it wrong they treated me like royalty. If you are a Brit flying British Airways they treat you like sh*t even when like me one time the first class ticket cost over £10k, never again.

 

[IanA2]

Who's scanner was it Darrel. It is the owner/provider of the scanner who is responsible for this @4%&-up. Had it worked you would have been on the plane. Are people really trying to say that passengers should anticipate equipment error when planning a journey?

 

[AMGeed]

Understandably annoying Darrell and I sympathise.
BA often get it wrong, but in this case perhaps leaving it so late wasn't your best call.
If there is a problem, you left no time for it to be resolved, so maybe making your way to the gate 30mins earlier would be wiser.

I would however be letting BA know that it was the fault with their scanner that caused your non boarding and I'd be looking for some kind of recompense by way of at least an upgrade to keep you happy.

 

[markjay]

...I would however be letting BA know that it was the fault with their scanner that caused your non boarding and I'd be looking for some kind of recompense by way of at least an upgrade to keep you happy.

it was not BA's scanner that failed, it was the airport's.

 

[markjay]

....Are people really trying to say that passengers should anticipate equipment error when planning a journey?

No... but the thread's header says 'BA... no way', and it seems that it wasn't actually BA's fault?

 

[grober]

TABLET v PRINTED CARD = the latest cutting edge imaging technology a couple of years old at best V paper print technology tested for half a millenium ----- what could possibly go wrong?

 

[flango]

No... but the thread's header says 'BA... no way', and it seems that it wasn't actually BA's fault?

The initial problem wasn't BA's but it was the peeing about by BA staff when he returned to the check in desk that caused him to miss the flight, thats how I read it, so clearly BA's incompetence ? I've experienced it on numerous occasions.

 

[Rory]

I'd love to have the balls to cut it fine but would never dream of doing it intentionally. How far was it from security to gate?

The annoying thing is I can't imagine why they couldn't have printed the boarding pass - IF they wanted to. What did they do about the checked bags - did they offload them?

I got to SFO very late off a delayed transfer and BA just laughed when I presented myself at the desk. Then I said my bags were through-checked and suddenly they were able to reopen the flight and get me on.