BA overbooking - a bad experience

A bad experience ...
I flew back from Bangkok to London on BA0010 last week.
At Bangkok's new airport, I arrived 3.5 hrs before my flight and
joined an existing queue to check in.

About three hours before my flight, BA opened up one check-in counter
and asked for Qantas passengers to come forward for check-in. Since
this was a BA flight it puzzled me. Clearly something odd was going on
as BA passengers were not being checked-in at all.

One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*).

It was not until this fiasco unfolded that I realised my flight to
London had in fact started in Sydney/Australia and stopped in Bangkok
only to refuel and pick up additional passengers. Too bad my agent
(Expedia online) don't make this info available when booking as it
might have influenced which flight/airline I booked with. I am never
happy to board a flight which originated elsewhere.

It took me a total of three hours to get checked in and I was
subjected to severe pressure by check-in staff to take the alternative
package or to go on a Qantas 'standby' list. I explained this was
unacceptable to me.
I insisted that I wished to fly on the flight I booked and finally got
my boarding pass 25mins before scheduled flight departure, so had no
time to visit duty free since the boarding gate is 20min walk from the
check-in counter.

When I arrived at the boarding gate, there was a small delay before
boarding. Sadly, my seat assignment turned out to be next to a foreign
guy who was obviously too large and unable to limit himself to one
seat, so he overflowed into my seat space and that of the young woman
next to him. I spoke to the cabin bossman before take-off and asked if
I could be reseated but he said "unlikely" because the flight was 100%
full. This proved to be accurate - not a single empty seat to be seen.

We then sat in this BA 747-400 for two more hours before take-off
while 35 other passengers were processed through check-in/immigration
etc. According to the captain, they were late arrivals but we later
learned that these were people who had been bumped off the same
flight the previous night following its cancellation and had spent the
night/day in a Bangkok hotel while BA ran around like headless
chickens trying to find alternative seats for them to London. One of
these passengers was on my BA flight but his wife had been put on a
Qantas flight!

Unofficially, the previous night's flight was apparently cancelled as
it had developed technical problems soon after leaving Sydney and had
to put down in Bali, hence the number of Bangkok passengers stranded
and BA's attempts to roll-over the problem to my flight to avoid the
24hr disruption rule on compensation. I have no idea what happened to
the previous night's passengers who were dumped in Bali.

We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.

Is this modern day air travel?

You want to read Richard Branson's Autobiograpy Part One. It has some
interesting British Airways 'tactics' in there that were used to try and
stop him from ever starting Virgin Atlantic.

Stick to Qantas, give BA the flick I say!

"hummingbird" wrote in message
...
A bad experience ...
I flew back from Bangkok to London on BA0010 last week.
At Bangkok's new airport, I arrived 3.5 hrs before my flight and
joined an existing queue to check in.

About three hours before my flight, BA opened up one check-in counter
and asked for Qantas passengers to come forward for check-in. Since
this was a BA flight it puzzled me. Clearly something odd was going on
as BA passengers were not being checked-in at all.

One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*).

It was not until this fiasco unfolded that I realised my flight to
London had in fact started in Sydney/Australia and stopped in Bangkok
only to refuel and pick up additional passengers. Too bad my agent
(Expedia online) don't make this info available when booking as it
might have influenced which flight/airline I booked with. I am never
happy to board a flight which originated elsewhere.

It took me a total of three hours to get checked in and I was
subjected to severe pressure by check-in staff to take the alternative
package or to go on a Qantas 'standby' list. I explained this was
unacceptable to me.
I insisted that I wished to fly on the flight I booked and finally got
my boarding pass 25mins before scheduled flight departure, so had no
time to visit duty free since the boarding gate is 20min walk from the
check-in counter.

When I arrived at the boarding gate, there was a small delay before
boarding. Sadly, my seat assignment turned out to be next to a foreign
guy who was obviously too large and unable to limit himself to one
seat, so he overflowed into my seat space and that of the young woman
next to him. I spoke to the cabin bossman before take-off and asked if
I could be reseated but he said "unlikely" because the flight was 100%
full. This proved to be accurate - not a single empty seat to be seen.

We then sat in this BA 747-400 for two more hours before take-off
while 35 other passengers were processed through check-in/immigration
etc. According to the captain, they were late arrivals but we later
learned that these were people who had been bumped off the same
flight the previous night following its cancellation and had spent the
night/day in a Bangkok hotel while BA ran around like headless
chickens trying to find alternative seats for them to London. One of
these passengers was on my BA flight but his wife had been put on a
Qantas flight!

Unofficially, the previous night's flight was apparently cancelled as
it had developed technical problems soon after leaving Sydney and had
to put down in Bali, hence the number of Bangkok passengers stranded
and BA's attempts to roll-over the problem to my flight to avoid the
24hr disruption rule on compensation. I have no idea what happened to
the previous night's passengers who were dumped in Bali.

We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.

Is this modern day air travel?

"hummingbird" wrote ...
One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*.
[snip]
We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.


An obese guy sitting next to you can happen everywhere. Further, Ia delay of
1h40m is not that huge... The alternative offered for the overbooking isn't
that bad etiher; I think I would have taken it. I don't see what's the "bad
experience" at BA's fault here. You wrote you arrived 3h30m before scheduled
departure time to the check-in, so why you mention that again is beyond me.
Greetings,

-tada!

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:38:58 +0100 'Thur'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:

"hummingbird" wrote ...
One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*.
[snip]
We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.


An obese guy sitting next to you can happen everywhere. Further, Ia delay of
1h40m is not that huge... The alternative offered for the overbooking isn't
that bad etiher; I think I would have taken it. I don't see what's the "bad
experience" at BA's fault here. You wrote you arrived 3h30m before scheduled
departure time to the check-in, so why you mention that again is beyond me.

If you can't see the bad experience I described here, I'm sorry for
you...perhaps you aren't aware of what a nightmare flying is becoming
these days: 3-4 hours to check-in, ineffective security checks, shoes
off at LHR, personal items in plastic bags, inadequate seating, flight
delays, damaged luggage, lost luggage etc etc.

Yes, I arrived 3.5hrs before my flight time but *not* to stand in
a queue waiting for BA to get their act together. I intended to look
around the new Bangkok airport before my flight.
It's quite likely that if I'd arrived - say - only two hours before my
flight, I'd have had no choice but to accept the BA offer as I'd have
been at the wrong end of a long queue.

Yes, obese people can appear anywhere it's true. But surely the point
is that if I have bought and paid for a complete seat, I should get
it - not 2/3rds of it - on a 13hr flight. Is it not time for airlines
to bite the bullet and insist that obese people buy two tickets?;
something which already happens in one or two US airlines afaik.

No, there was no way the BA offer was acceptable to me.
Firstly, I flew out to HK four weeks earlier and didn't want to go
back there (flight time 3h40m). Secondly, I needed to get home asap
as during my month long absence my father was taken into hostpital
and suffered two heart attacks.

True, a 1h40m delay into London was not too bad as you say, but that
ignores that BA had overbooked the flight, allocated me a seat next to
an obese person and kept us on board for two hours before take off.

....I'm grateful that BA managed to get my luggage on the right plane.

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:30:39 GMT 'Bobs your uncle'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:

You want to read Richard Branson's Autobiograpy Part One. It has some
interesting British Airways 'tactics' in there that were used to try and
stop him from ever starting Virgin Atlantic.

Yeah, I heard about some of those tricks at the time.


Stick to Qantas, give BA the flick I say!

I suspect that my personal experience is not unique to BA these days.
I hear that overbooking flights is quite common in the US.



"hummingbird" wrote in message
.. .
A bad experience ...
I flew back from Bangkok to London on BA0010 last week.
At Bangkok's new airport, I arrived 3.5 hrs before my flight and
joined an existing queue to check in.

About three hours before my flight, BA opened up one check-in counter
and asked for Qantas passengers to come forward for check-in. Since
this was a BA flight it puzzled me. Clearly something odd was going on
as BA passengers were not being checked-in at all.

One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*).

It was not until this fiasco unfolded that I realised my flight to
London had in fact started in Sydney/Australia and stopped in Bangkok
only to refuel and pick up additional passengers. Too bad my agent
(Expedia online) don't make this info available when booking as it
might have influenced which flight/airline I booked with. I am never
happy to board a flight which originated elsewhere.

It took me a total of three hours to get checked in and I was
subjected to severe pressure by check-in staff to take the alternative
package or to go on a Qantas 'standby' list. I explained this was
unacceptable to me.
I insisted that I wished to fly on the flight I booked and finally got
my boarding pass 25mins before scheduled flight departure, so had no
time to visit duty free since the boarding gate is 20min walk from the
check-in counter.

When I arrived at the boarding gate, there was a small delay before
boarding. Sadly, my seat assignment turned out to be next to a foreign
guy who was obviously too large and unable to limit himself to one
seat, so he overflowed into my seat space and that of the young woman
next to him. I spoke to the cabin bossman before take-off and asked if
I could be reseated but he said "unlikely" because the flight was 100%
full. This proved to be accurate - not a single empty seat to be seen.

We then sat in this BA 747-400 for two more hours before take-off
while 35 other passengers were processed through check-in/immigration
etc. According to the captain, they were late arrivals but we later
learned that these were people who had been bumped off the same
flight the previous night following its cancellation and had spent the
night/day in a Bangkok hotel while BA ran around like headless
chickens trying to find alternative seats for them to London. One of
these passengers was on my BA flight but his wife had been put on a
Qantas flight!

Unofficially, the previous night's flight was apparently cancelled as
it had developed technical problems soon after leaving Sydney and had
to put down in Bali, hence the number of Bangkok passengers stranded
and BA's attempts to roll-over the problem to my flight to avoid the
24hr disruption rule on compensation. I have no idea what happened to
the previous night's passengers who were dumped in Bali.

We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.

Is this modern day air travel?

On Feb 26, 10:13 pm, hummingbird wrote:
On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:38:58 +0100 'Thur'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:





"hummingbird" om...
One hour later it became apparent from a BA memo circulating along
the passenger queue that BA had overbooked this flight by 90 seats
and were asking for BA passengers to accept an alternative travel
package to London (overnight hotel in Bangkok, flight on China
Airlines to Hong Kong [3h40m] the following morning and a flight from
Hong Kong to London on BA the following evening - plus a card worth
£250 which BA claimed could be used to w/d the cash in *many ATMs*.
[snip]
We were scheduled to take off at 00.10am but eventually got airborn
at 02.15am, arriving back at LHR at 07.30am instead of 05.50am local.
A total of 15 hours on the plane plus 3.5 hours to get checked-in.
An obese guy sitting next to you can happen everywhere. Further, Ia delay of
1h40m is not that huge... The alternative offered for the overbooking isn't
that bad etiher; I think I would have taken it. I don't see what's the "bad
experience" at BA's fault here. You wrote you arrived 3h30m before scheduled
departure time to the check-in, so why you mention that again is beyond me.

If you can't see the bad experience I described here, I'm sorry for
you...perhaps you aren't aware of what a nightmare flying is becoming
these days: 3-4 hours to check-in, ineffective security checks, shoes
off at LHR, personal items in plastic bags, inadequate seating, flight
delays, damaged luggage, lost luggage etc etc.

I disagree with you completely. Thur was right. For the record I fly
over 100,000 miles a year, every year and have for a couple of
decades. So I'm well aware of what flying is like. I would *not*
describe it as a nightmare. I think you've over-reacted.

There was a cancelled flight. That is going to create seating
problems. It's a reality in flying. It happens. Be prepared for it.

Some of your complaints are "off the board". Examples:

Inadequate seating: You asked for a small seat. You bargained for a
small seat. There are bigger seats available but you chose not to pay
for one. People have complained a long time about small seats in
Economy, but when given a choice between slightly larger seats at a
slightly higher cost in Economy the vast majority choose cost over
comfort. So you get what you pay for.

As Thur points out, obese passengers are a fact of life. I sympathize
with you. Qantas should make people pay for 2 seats if they can't fit
into one.

Agent information: You complained that your "agent" (Expedia) didn't
give you enough information. Expedia is *not* a travel agency. People
use Expedia so they can save the cost of travel agents. You chose to
do that then complain because they didn't give you the service that
you chose not to pay for. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Flight delays: Come on. 1 1/2 hours on what amounts to a 24 hour
flight (roughly). 3 continents, 2 days. You don't think that's a bit
of an over-reaction?

Lost or damaged bags: In 3 million miles of air travel the worst
damage to my luggage was a couple of broken handles. In each case it
was cheap luggage. Never lost a bag. A couple of times there were
delays, but no losses.

Yes it does happen sometime. But considering the volume of luggage
it's pretty rare.

3-4 hours check-in: I just don't get that. It rarely takes me more
than 15 minutes. But I can see that some flights do get long lines at
check-in. No where near 3-4 hours, but an hour at least. However
that's in the Economy line. Again, this is a choice you made. You pay
for reduced service, you get reduced service, what is the complaint?

Yes, I arrived 3.5hrs before my flight time but *not* to stand in
a queue waiting for BA to get their act together.

Many airlines don't open their check-in counters more than 2 or 2 1/2
hours before flight time. So you did, in fact, ask for an extra hour
or more wait time.

In my opinion it's worth it. I always try to get to the airport early.
Don't like surprises. But if you get there early plan on accepting the
fact that you are there early (!) and thus will have to kill some
time.

hummingbird wrote:
On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:30:39 GMT 'Bobs your uncle'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:

Stick to Qantas, give BA the flick I say!

I suspect that my personal experience is not unique to BA these days.
I hear that overbooking flights is quite common in the US.

It is *very* common. Whenever I catch a US domestic connection, there's a
mild riot at the gate as anxious people line up hoping for a seat, or they
ask for volunteers to let their seats go. The compensation is miserable,
too. It is only worth taking if you live in the town as there's no offer of
accommodation or anything.

If they tried that in Australia, there'd be an explosion.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

On 26 Feb 2007 16:52:42 -0800, "Tchiowa" wrote:

Inadequate seating: You asked for a small seat. You bargained for a
small seat. There are bigger seats available but you chose not to pay
for one. People have complained a long time about small seats in
Economy, but when given a choice between slightly larger seats at a
slightly higher cost in Economy the vast majority choose cost over
comfort. So you get what you pay for.

Especially as it was a BA long haul flight, so there was going to be
an Economy Plus seat available without paying the full Business class
fare.

Jim.

"hummingbird" wrote in message

A bad experience ...

(cut)

I've had a bad experience with Air China a month ago

"Sanja" wrote in message

I've had a bad experience with Air China a month ago

Oups ... I've clicked "send" unintentionaly.
Sorry guys. :-(