BA British Airways - www.britishairways.com Review

“This was my first time flying British Airways, and I...”

Written on: 02/08/2012

This was my first time flying British Airways, and I had a TERRIBLE experience. I had gone to Poland with my aunt, and on our way back, British Airways in the Warsaw airport incorrectly tagged our bags. They tagged mine as my aunt's and my aunt's as mine. This was only the beginning of our issues. When we reached the Heathrowe Airport in London, my aunt got held up at security because the Warsaw Duty Free store hadn't vacuumed-sealed her alcohol. The security there insisted I continue to my gate without her. I asked the man, "What happens if I get there, and she's not there?" His reply to me was "She'll be there, she'll be there." Well, after bolting to a different terminal, I barely made the boarding line for my flight, but my aunt wasn't there. When I got to the front, I inquired about her, and they knew who I was speaking of, and told me that it was too late for her to make the flight, but they did allow me to speak with her over the phone. She told me to go ahead without her, however, after we all BOARDED the plane, we sat on the plane for ONE HOUR as the plane WAITED FOR OTHER PASSENGERS TO BOARD, AFTER THEY SAID THEY COULDN'T WAIT FOR MY AUNT! I had no information about what flight my aunt was going on or anything. When we finally landed in Chicago, IL, U.S.A., at least about 25 people from our flight had missing baggage, and many people from our flight had missed their connections, and British Airways had to put us up in a hotel, however, back to the missing baggage. Because we had missing baggage, we had to get into the "missing baggage" line, in which the lady who was assisting with this line was very rude to everyone in line, including me. She even kind of "kicked me out" of line, only for me to lose my spot, and have to get in the back of the line to get my questions answered. I actually confronted her towards the end (because I was one of the last in line at this point) about her rudeness, and told her that British Airways had treated me very poorly all day, and I didn't appreciate her being rude to everyone, including me. She claimed she was only trying to help, but then she just made fake apologies like, "I'm sorry you think that." That just upset me more, because she should have had a more professional response such as "I'll try to be aware of that in the future," or "I didn't realize that I was sounding rude." Seriously, her tone had been so rude, that people had been talking to each other about it in the line. As for the flight, two other girls stated that one of the flight attendents took a medically-needed medical brace from a passenger and put it above, despite the elderly lady telling them it was necessary for her to wear it, but even if it was necessary to be put up, these girls said they could've waited until closer to take-off to put it above, especially since we sat on the plane for an hour before take-off. The ONLY positive things I can say about this airline is that they did put us in a hotel because it was their fault that a lot of us missed our connecting flights, and they have a good selection of movies on the long international flights. Other than that, the overall feel is that the staff is rude, and does not seem to care too much about its passengers. They should have done more to help my aunt get to the flight under the circumstances, or should not have waited for the other passengers.