DebConf 2003: BA Farce!

My FLight to Oslo was supposed to be 16:20 on Friday 18th 2003. Gates due to close at 16:00. Well, British Airways staff had a different view. I checked in at the Paddington check in desks (soon to be closed down -- how silly) and got my seat allocation. and then purchased my return ticket for the Heathrow Express train service.

Arriving at the airport, I went through security to the departure lounge, to see plenty of time for me to look around the shops, while the information screen told me that my departure gate was 'please wait'. Various other flights starte dto show 'Delayed 16:30' or various other times, while flight BA768 to Oslo was still 'Please Wait'. Two hours after the supposed gate closure time, this changed to 'Delayed', as did every other flight on the screen except a few non-BA flights.

During this time, there were no BA staff on the 'Customer Service Desk', no P.A. announcements, no staff giving drinks to thirsty passengers, no information on the large TV screen or the departure information screens. Earlier there had been a handful of BA staff, all of whom only indicated 'watch the screens'.

About 3 hours after the start of this mess, an announcement was finally made, but then all flights turned to Cancelled, and passengers were advised to go to the arrivals lounge and retreive their luggage. Passengers were indicated to phone 0800 727 800, which of course was constantly engaged.

I returned home (on my return ticket) and tried the number up until 2:00am on Saturday morning, when I finally didnt get a busy signal, but a staff member in the USA who couldn't give any information on the next flight departures or re:route me, despite the PA announcements at Heathrow saying passengers would be transferred to other airlines.

Realising there was nothing I could do until local (UK) staff returned to answer the phone,I went to bed, and tried phoning the 0800 number around 10:00am. Luckily I had someone rebook me on the 12:30 pm flight, so I rushed once more to Paddington, however by the time I got there (around 10:30 am) they had stopped checkins and cancelled all flights until 15:00.

Now I ran for the payphone, and dialed the 0800 number repeatedly, and luckily got though, and got rebooked for a SECOND time onto flight 768 at 16:20 on Saturday 19th July. Returning to the check in desks, they said they wouldnt start checkins until 15:00, so I waited for about an hour (sitting in the cafe zone high above the checkin desks), and returnedto find the shutters down and only 3 or 4 staff sayign that all domestic flights were now cancelled for the rest of the day.

And so ended my hopes of getting to Oslo for DebConf.

BA: a lack of information while we waited, a lack of staff to answer questions.And you should have tried to get your customers onto other airlines as soon as possible.

My costs: 25 pounds for the Heathrow Express train, 5 pounds for dinner, 2 pounds for a drink while I waited. 100 pounds now in Norweigan Kronas. 4-5 hours at Heathrow on Friday. 3 hours at Paddington on Saturday. Plus wasted time travelling to Paddington (around 2 hours all up for four trips).

PPS: The times of my camera is out 2 hours: the time is correct as shown on the departure screens.