Questions and Answers

Lovely people of OMAAT!

To be honest, seeing there are so many frequent travelers/fliers around, I am very insecure about how to share about my recent experience with BA. I’m not a frequent flier and I don’t travel often in general.

Anyway, I would like some opinions and maybe suggestions on how to deal with this situation (Should I contact BA about it? Can I get any sort of compensation for being downgraded or the whole thing in general?)

If that’s alright, I’ll try and post the whole scenario in sort of a list.

Please be gentle with me! The whole experience was awful enough for me.

[LIST=1]
[*]I had booked an intra European short haul flight in business class from London Heathrow to Hannover Airport in the evening
[*]Hannover Airport was shut down
[*]My BA flight was canceled while I was already waiting in the Terminal
[*]I was booked on a replacement flight the next morning
[*]I was downgraded on the replacement flight
[*]I accepted the replacement flight
[*]BA service personnel twice confirmed that I would NOT have to take care of my already checked in luggage (I’m by no means a frequent traveler and I was exhausted, so I decided to trust the BA service people!)
[*]After I got food and hotel vouchers, I left the terminal to go to the hotel
[*]While passing through the baggage hall I was surprised to find my checked in luggage (which I was told that I had not to take care of!) sitting there next to one of the carousels
[*]When I tried to drop off my luggage the next morning it exceeded the allowed baggage allowance (of course, as I had initially booked business class and packed accordingly)
[*]after practically begging one of the only two service personnel at the baggage check in/drop off, I finally got help and he checked in my overweight luggage free of charge
[*]BUT he also sealed my duty free bag (as duty free did NOT seal it the day before) with a luggage label and told me it would pass security just fine (please, be gentle with me! I was exhausted and would have believed anything if only i could get home!)
[*]Security (of course) did not let me pass with the BA staff “sealed” bag, I got the embarrassing liquids talk and my items were confiscated and thrown away (my Nutella! I’m still very emotional about my Nutella!)
[*]When it finally came to boarding (I was in group 4! FFS!) the BA lady forced me to check my hand baggage as it was supposed to be a full flight

[*]On board then the flight attendant also took my handbag away from me to stow it in one of the (half empty, btw!!!) overhead lockers
[/LIST]
I suffer from PTSD, so the whole ordeal, especially taking aways my hand luggage, did not go lightly on me and almost sent me into a panic attack.
It took the remainder of the week (my flight was on Tuesday/Wednesday) to get back into a working state.

So, yeah… that was my recent experience with British Airways.

Any suggestions?

Should I contact BA?

Ask for compensation?

I’ve always enjoyed the usually calm and smooth flights with BA, but after this experience I won’t fly them again.

Hi, sorry you had a rough experience! Unfortunately, cancellations tend to bring out the worst, not the best.

Are you familiar with EU 261 regulations? They pretty clearly outline what compensation you are due. I would recommend starting there..

[URL]https://onemileatatime.com/eu261-compensation/[/URL]

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 59525, member: 1436″]Hi, sorry you had a rough experience! Unfortunately, cancellations tend to bring out the worst, not the best.

Are you familiar with EU 261 regulations? They pretty clearly outline what compensation you are due. I would recommend starting there..

[URL]https://onemileatatime.com/eu261-compensation/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Thank you for your reply!

From the looks of it, BA have done everything they had to when they provided food/hotel vouchers!

Which means I basically paid almost 200 Euros for an economy flight on which I was treated like dirt by staff with an attitude that made me feel helpless, unwelcome and worthless.

So, I’ll be looking into another airline for my flights to/from London then!