My British Airways strike experience at LHR (incl. photos)
My British Airways strike experience at LHR (incl. photos)
On Friday 12/08 I had a evening flight with British Airways to Budapest.
On Thursday afternoon: I quickly heard about the Gate Gourmet strike and didn't think it would spread to BA staff. I was wrong and on Friday one of the world's busiest airport looked like a refugee camp.
During that whole day I was following the news closely and was hoping that my 20:25 flight would be ok. The end of the strike had been moved from 18h00 to 20h00 which made me a bit nervous. Still decided to go to the airport despite negative press and radio reports of "all flight cancelled, disruption to last days..."
I arrived at LHR Terminal 1 and saw dozens of BA staff outside the terminal building asking every passenger where they are travelling to, what to do if delayed/cancelled...
BA told me that I should for the time being wait in the tents they had put in the car park as my flight was 1h30 hours delayed but so far they were confident it would be leaving LHR. I was told not to go to the check-in area as the airport was overcrowded. I was not too stressed and was guided towards the tent where I could collect my food for my flight as I was told there would only be water and tea on-board. In the tent I overheard people's different stories including those who spent the night on the tent's hard floor whilst waiting for their connecting flight! The tent had blankets and bottled water, this is when I realised LHR T1 looked more like a refugee camp than an airport.
I finally was told I could enter the terminal building to check-in as for now they were 90% sure we would be taking off. From the picture above you can see a line that stretched about 500m in the terminal building for people waiting to negotiate a refund or to see if there was space on another airline or BA flight. I normally use the self-service check-in but all these were switched off (as was the online check in that day) and was guided towards a check-in area that had a mixture of people flying long-haul to Tokyo, San Francisco as well as European destinations. It was crazy as people for the long-haul flights were obviously taking longer to check-in with their huge bags and people like me were just trying to get a boarding pass for hand luggage. I saw lot's of people shouting to staff and people sleeping on the floor!
Finally made it to my plane and when the aircraft left the LHR tarmac towards Budapest I could fully relax even though we departed late! A lot of people I saw are angry with BA and with the recent often harsh press coverage, BA's reputation will most definitely suffer for the month's to come!
On Thursday afternoon: I quickly heard about the Gate Gourmet strike and didn't think it would spread to BA staff. I was wrong and on Friday one of the world's busiest airport looked like a refugee camp.
During that whole day I was following the news closely and was hoping that my 20:25 flight would be ok. The end of the strike had been moved from 18h00 to 20h00 which made me a bit nervous. Still decided to go to the airport despite negative press and radio reports of "all flight cancelled, disruption to last days..."
I arrived at LHR Terminal 1 and saw dozens of BA staff outside the terminal building asking every passenger where they are travelling to, what to do if delayed/cancelled...
BA told me that I should for the time being wait in the tents they had put in the car park as my flight was 1h30 hours delayed but so far they were confident it would be leaving LHR. I was told not to go to the check-in area as the airport was overcrowded. I was not too stressed and was guided towards the tent where I could collect my food for my flight as I was told there would only be water and tea on-board. In the tent I overheard people's different stories including those who spent the night on the tent's hard floor whilst waiting for their connecting flight! The tent had blankets and bottled water, this is when I realised LHR T1 looked more like a refugee camp than an airport.
I finally was told I could enter the terminal building to check-in as for now they were 90% sure we would be taking off. From the picture above you can see a line that stretched about 500m in the terminal building for people waiting to negotiate a refund or to see if there was space on another airline or BA flight. I normally use the self-service check-in but all these were switched off (as was the online check in that day) and was guided towards a check-in area that had a mixture of people flying long-haul to Tokyo, San Francisco as well as European destinations. It was crazy as people for the long-haul flights were obviously taking longer to check-in with their huge bags and people like me were just trying to get a boarding pass for hand luggage. I saw lot's of people shouting to staff and people sleeping on the floor!
Finally made it to my plane and when the aircraft left the LHR tarmac towards Budapest I could fully relax even though we departed late! A lot of people I saw are angry with BA and with the recent often harsh press coverage, BA's reputation will most definitely suffer for the month's to come!
- B744skipper
- Posts: 1509
- Joined: 21 Apr 2004, 00:00
News just it in: as a British Airways Executive club member, I received an email from BA with lot's of excuses about the strike and the disruption I faced last friday.
They have credited my air miles account with 50,000 miles which means I can now fly to North & Central America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and southern Asia. I only have to pay for airport tax
The same thing happened to me with my SkyTeam account when I flew out of CDG after their 10 day strike before the 1998 World Cup. I was given double miles on each trip I did: BRU-CDG-JFK and back so I pretty much had a free trip anywhere in Europe. BA's offer was more generous though.
They have credited my air miles account with 50,000 miles which means I can now fly to North & Central America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and southern Asia. I only have to pay for airport tax
The same thing happened to me with my SkyTeam account when I flew out of CDG after their 10 day strike before the 1998 World Cup. I was given double miles on each trip I did: BRU-CDG-JFK and back so I pretty much had a free trip anywhere in Europe. BA's offer was more generous though.
Just a bit of advice for anyone who may face such a situation in the future:
* Keep any receipts you have from that day (i.e food purchases, taxis, hotel, etc.) Anything which may allow you to get compensation.
* If you have an Air Miles account with the airline, always make sure you bring it to their attention if you are writing a complaint/compensation letter. I know of people who have had extra air miles added to their account for minor incidents (i.e. a lost baggage that was eventually found but the guy was also angry at customer service, etc.)
* Don't fully believe what a person or the media say about the event. I nearly gave up going to Heathrow when the a lunch-time printed newspaper said all flights were cancelled until 10 and only a few would take-off after that.
* Last but not least, be nice with the check-in and airport staff. This works wonders (i.e I travelled with a friend and we were still angry but kind with check-in staff and they managed to get seats together on the plane despite separate reservations and the chaos that day. They also thanked us for being cool under this stressful situation.
Captain
* Keep any receipts you have from that day (i.e food purchases, taxis, hotel, etc.) Anything which may allow you to get compensation.
* If you have an Air Miles account with the airline, always make sure you bring it to their attention if you are writing a complaint/compensation letter. I know of people who have had extra air miles added to their account for minor incidents (i.e. a lost baggage that was eventually found but the guy was also angry at customer service, etc.)
* Don't fully believe what a person or the media say about the event. I nearly gave up going to Heathrow when the a lunch-time printed newspaper said all flights were cancelled until 10 and only a few would take-off after that.
* Last but not least, be nice with the check-in and airport staff. This works wonders (i.e I travelled with a friend and we were still angry but kind with check-in staff and they managed to get seats together on the plane despite separate reservations and the chaos that day. They also thanked us for being cool under this stressful situation.
Captain
Aye - this Gate Gourmet thing is getting a lot of press here at the moment and it looks to me that BA is a pretty innocent party here. Believe me - I won;t even fly BA if it can be avoided because of some particularly poor customer service a few years back - but it looks to me that Gate Gourmet are 'at it'. All of a sudden they have to go into administration tonight?? Yeah right. This is high stakes poker and the workers will lose - they almost always do....
- Vinnie-Winnie
- Posts: 955
- Joined: 01 Jul 2004, 00:00
- Location: London