Absolutely Unbelievable!

Today while working in Terminal 5, Heathrow i got a real sense of how the BA passengers are feeling.

Just two days after “the hottest day of the year so far…,” i woke up to a town that wass totally white. Snow imbedded on the pavements, rooftops and neatly settled on the hedges and cars. I could not believe it… snowing in April…this is unheard of.

This ‘freak weather’ has heavily disrupted the BA flights with almost half of their flights today being cancelled. This was so unfortunate for BA making their reputation drop even lower downhill. Over the tannoy from British Airways customer desk, i repeatedly heard : “This is a BA passenger announcement. All passengers who’s flights have been cancelled must leave the airport premises’ immediately and  rebook for a later flight with British Airways by telephone or via the website…”

This is unbelievable and maybe one of the rudes announcements I’ve ever heard… that is not way to publically talk to customers after you have just cancelled their flights.

I served an elderly man in T5 today called Fred, He explained his frustration with BA and how they had messed up his travelling arrangements. He and his wife were travelling to Athens. They had tickets for the 11:40am flight and had been in the airport since 7am. However, their flight for 11.40am had been cancelled according do the boards. Fred called up and rebooked for tickets for the 9pm flight. Later in the afternoon he saw on the board that the gates for the original flight that he had booked for were closing. When he asked if he could board the flight he was refused. So poor Fred waited in the terminal for 14hours.

This is outrageous!

 

If you have any experiences with T5 please feel free to comment.

dmoz.org

Disaster or Not…. Definately a Diaster.

Exactly one week and 2 days after the launch  of Heathrow’s newest terminal, hell has broken in out in T5, BA and BAA both havebeen subjected to a load of bad publicity, and the BA Cheif Executive was forced to apologise to the passengers and public on behalf of BA and T5.

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1311302,00.html

 

BA may even be forced to pay conpensation to hundreds or stranded passengers.

The luggage system has broken down, leaving over 17,000 passengers without their baggage. The north-side staff security search area does not work and the majority of flights are delayed.

This was not a very good move following the bad reputation BA already had, now by opening an airport exclusive to British Airways flights… you’re asking for trouble.

I interviewed a BA customer service desk worker (who does not want to be named for obvious reason), who said tha she beleives “Terminal 5 was opened 3 months too early.”

Now lets assess this quote… as a member of staff working in terminal 5 I have experienced everything that is said in the media. I have seen witht my  own eyes that T5 i still underconstruction with workers still building inside the terminal. I have witnessed the broken down equipment. I have been late to work because of the poor running of the newly extended heathrow express trains, which runs every 20 minutes. Considering it’s a new airport you would think they would make the trains run more fequently for connecting passengers or staff at least.

If there is anyone out there who has flown via T5 or who has been working in the terminal, please feel free to comment. It would be great to hear your ideas.