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British Airways - The World's Favourite Airline?

Posted on 15th August 2022

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"The World's Favourite Airline" used to be BA's advertising slogan (it wasn't justified or true even back then), but now it seems to be "To fly, to serve."

This story on This Is Money shows that customer service is most definitely not part of BA's culture or business model.

A couple were flying first class back from a vacation in Mauritius to London, via Johannesburg. The flight was with BA, and their partner airline, Comair. Their bags did not make the flight, and when the bags arrived 3 days later, items to the value of £3,000 (a MacBook Pro laptop, various items of jewellery, two pairs of sunglasses and a first aid box containing some medication) were missing. BA declined to compensate them.

The letter in the story lists a number of complaints:

  • Extensive and targeted security checks of the man's partner in Mauritius by airline staff;
  • On the plane, the man's partner was directed to use the economy toilet even though she was seated in first class;
  • BA's refusal to compensate the travellers for their loss.

The author of the letter states that he had "been an extremely loyal BA customer for many years, spending tens of thousands of pounds with the company, and [had] been a shareholder for 25 years." He says that he won't use the airline again. The most obvious question is why? I personally have been refusing to fly BA since the dreadful incident in 2007 (see here).

BA states that valuable items such as laptops and jewellery should not be put in hold-luggage, and as a frequent flier I agree; if things do not get stolen, they may be damaged. This is most especially true when flying via Johannesburg, where theft from luggage is an epidemic. Even so, I find it bizarre that BA would take zero responsibility, considering that these were first class passengers (where the cost of the tickets is enough to defray the costs of some compensation).

The other complaints are also incomprehensible, and put the lie to BA's claims to be service oriented.

I hope people reading about this incident have the good sense to also boycott British Airways.