There are a host of bad stories at the moment surrounding both British Airways and Heathrow Airport. BA have just been fined £125million by the Office of Fair Trading after it admitted price fixing of fuel surcharges on long-haul flights, this was also a joint investigation with the US Department of Justice who are going to announce their fine for BA today.
The Mayor of London has said Heathrow is shaming London with its poor service and lack of investment and it doesn’t help that Tony Douglas, the CEO of Heathrow quit last month after saying the airport was ‘bursting at the seams’ and was ‘at times held together by sticking plaster.’ According to The Independent story, BAA the company that runs Heathrow has also lost four other senior executives and a host of middle managers from their Heathrow team.
The travelling experience at Heathrow is getting so unpleasant that it could be effecting business travellers choosing to come to London. The vice-chairman of one company, Standard Chartered Capital Markets, says using it ‘is an experience so unpleasant that many international executives I meet will do almost anything to avoid travelling through Heathrow.’ Airlines are also pressing the government to break BAA’s monopoly on control of London’s airports and let different companies own individual terminals. Baggage restrictions, tougher security checks and the summer crush of families going on holiday won’t help the situation there in the short term.
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While in Ecuador I had a medical emergency necessitating a change to my ticket. I called BA and they said they would CONSIDER it, only after I sent them a letter from the HOSPITAL. I was under a doctor’s care, require surgery, and want to return to the US for hospitalization, but they would not accept that. Further, they said that Section 14.1 of Executive Club Terms and Conditions, availabe online, states that no travel can be changed once the trip has begun. I have been a member since 1997 or earlier, and NEVER in the past 10 years have I received any notice of changes to Terms and Conditions of award travel. And I have my original welcome packet which does not have this statement. In fact, I was told the change occurred June of 2008. Publishing your Terms and Conditions online does not constitute legal notification - even an email of the changes would have been acceptable, but just obscurely posting them to a web site does NOT. And the eticket I received, which IS a binding contract, does not reference the Terms and Conditions of Executive Club award travel. In fact, there is a clause that says “where applicable, if you wish to change the date or time of your flight, the cost of doing so will generaly be lower on ba.com. But when you go to ba.com, it does not allow you to make any changes.
BA is unlawfully denying me the right to change my ticket (with all applicable change fees, of course), and I intend to hold them accountable for any adverse action that results from my not being able to return to the US for life-threatening medical treatment.
I have read all the complaints and comments regarding British Airways, understand all the frustration, anger and hopeless here…..we are with all of these bad experiences….just some suggestion with the bottom of my heart:
(1)BRITISH AIRWAYS stole our luggages! !@#$%
(2)Don’t ever fly with British Airway again.
(3)Can we stand together and sue British Airways?
(4)Can American Embassy do something for us, please?????