Poor Customer Service on British Airways
 

My flight from Chicago to London scheduled to leave at 8pm on 6/19 was delayed for 7 hours--finally leaving Chicago at 3am on 6/20.

By way of compensation, the airline offered a $20 food voucher; we were told to go to the ticket counter, outside security, and waited over an hour for the voucher, which was finally provided by very grumpy and rude staff at the ticket counter. After all this, I discovered that there were no restaurants (other than fast food) in the International Terminal, and we then had to go through security again. By way of consolation BA served us dinner at 4am, and breakfast at three the next afternoon.

Obviously, I missed the first day of the program I was attending. I wrote a complaint to the airline upon arrival in London on 6/20. I suggested that by way of compensation they upgrade my return ticket for 7/4, but I did not receive any response until 8/4; it took them 5 weeks to respond to my complaint, and they have declined to offer any type of compensation at all.

I am going to phone customer service tomorrow to discuss this further. I hope that I can speak with someone who understands that this is completely unacceptable and is willing to do what it takes to rectify the situation; please watch for a further posting.

You should claim under EU regulation 261/04. You are entitled to €600 compnsation. A recent Court ruling has found an extnded delay (yours is certainly in that category) is to be treated like a cancllation. You can look this up on wikipedia. You can also ask EU claims to make a claim on your behaf for a fee. You can also file a letter of complaint to the following givt. Agncy and ask them to intervene on your behalf:
Complaints
Civil Aviation Authority
Room K401
CAA House
45-59 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6TE

A cautionary tale and note of assistance to all those who have suffered the misfortune of travelling with British Airways and experiencing their unique brand of so-called Customer Service:

BA are an unmitigated disgrace when it comes to customer service and they totally ruined our wedding and honeymoon travel.

My wife and I suffered an appalling trip at the hands of this company and Mr Keith Williams, CEO, and his management could not be more disinterested.

We suffered rubbish on the floor, rude and ignorant BA staff and no food in the Lounge at Gatwick. We had no working entertainment screens, broken seat tables, faulty seat controls, rude and ignorant cabin crew, burned food, an hour wait for dinner and another hour delay being served at breakfast; not to mention the insects, yes, insects, in the seat arm compartment. All this in First Class.

I suggest writing to the following in the hope you have better success than we did. We found emailing them daily was the fastest way to elicit a response. Start with an email to Mr Williams, copied to all. That should provide some response. Good luck.

keith.x.williams@ba.com
americas.communications@ba.com
amy.clasper@ba.com
andy.lord@ba.com
ben.marshall@ba.com
company.secretary@ba.com
Glenda.Midson@ba.com
gsrreplies@contact.britishairways.com
helen.blenkinsop@ba.com
Helena.Flynn@ba.com
international.media@ba.com
investor.relations@iairgroup.com
james.hillier@ba.com
Lynn.McClelland@ba.com
Mary.George@BA.com
media.relations@ba.com
media.relations@iairgroup.com
michele.kropf@ba.com
michelle.parker@ba.com
prensaintl@iberia.es
press@oneworld.com
radhika.raikhy@ba.com
Sanja.Simeunovic@ba.com
sarah.marzari@ba.com
shareholder.services@iairgroup.com
silla.maizey@ba.com
steve.sheterline@ba.com
tehreem.ashraf@ba.com
tobias.klitsch@ba.com
willie.walsh@iairgroup.com