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My wife and I were flying back BA business from Menorca to Gatwick on Monday afternoon.
No access to the lounge as it had reached capacity. Called up to board as group 1 but stuck in crowd with rest of passengers,no priority boarding for anyone.
The plane had apparently been changed and supplied from a Lithuanian charter company with their crew. This resulted in everyone standing corralled for approaching an hour whilst each ticket was manually checked and altered to fit. The plane was filthy and the crew poor.
Despite being in row 1 they only managed to serve cold sandwiches and one(1) drink.
In context a very first world problem but is this the ongoing future for BA?Lodge a complaint with BA, you should at least get a chunk of avios for not having lounge access and the poor F & B service. I know some readers consider this approach to be greedy, but IMO just accepting it won’t exactly deter BA from dropping standards!
The catering being afternoon tea is correct – Menorca is a “band 2” and so that is what gets served between 2 & 4.59pm. Should have managed more than 1 drink as it’s not a particularly short flight though!
But it’s worth a complaint re lack of lounge, filthy plane, unexpected sub charter etc. I’ve also seen mentioned some generous evouchers.
I noticed they’ve extended Avion into October after increasing them into Sept so they must still be short of crew/aircraft. Hopefully something resolved before next summer
Did you try using the call bell and asking for a second drink? Crew should respond. Even those on Avion Express.
I have found that constructive complaints seem to net a decent haul of Avios or sometimes an e voucher. Make sure to include everyone on your booking.
eg. It was very disappointing that the lounge could not accommodate us, when this happens a voucher for 25 euros to use in the terminal should be supplied.
I understand that planes can be changed for technical reasons, but in this event please ask ground staff to call customers to the desk by group number to reallocate seats preventing the uncomfortable scrum that ensued in this instance.
etcI would expect at least drinks service after take-off and again with the meal/afternoon tea.
If there is just no lounge at an airport, not much you can do about that, but if one is clearly listed on the booking/OW website, lack of access should at least get you a F & B voucher, as ZoeB says.
CE flights to the Med can be eye-wateringly expensive (just have a look at prices for next week half term dates!) so this kind of experience is disappointing, to say the least.
Having done pretty well from a few complaints I do try to send in a ‘this crew member was extra good’ form at least once a year.
Thank you for the responses. There is a lounge but it apparently only accommodates 50 people.
I’m told that there were 30 business class seats on our flight alone. A request to the duty manager went unanswered. I will follow advice and complain.So who determined who got one of the 50 seats in the lounge? The lounge front desk on a first come first served basis? Or BA check in agents on an unknown basis?
@ZoeB, I do that as well! Though I think they sometimes wonder why I’m craning so hard to see the name badge, lol.
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