OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

Can you just imagine it! you have arrived at the two airports looking forward to your longed for Bank Holiday weekend away, or maybe you are attending a wedding, (or even getting married abroad) or desperately wanting to get where you are travelling to for one important reason or other, and what happens? Hundreds of British Airways (our so-called national airline) are not going anywhere!!

Now we all know what it is like at airports don't we? I personally hate airports now. What used to be the start of the fun time of flying off somewhere is now nothing short of an ordeal for passengers. From the long queues to check-in, then the ordeal of security, the toiletries and drinks that you paid good money for so you don't have to pay inflated prices in other countries, are taken away from you and binned, then you have to endure the indignity of taking your shoes off, belts removed and everything put into a tray whilst if one is unlucky enough to set the alarm off as you walk through, the added indignity of being body searched!! but..... we put up with all of this to ensure our safety...... as long as we can get on that plane and fly off for our destination.

How sorry I felt for all those people who were treated like ruddy cattle this weekend by British Airways. Not one bit of information other than to say that all BA flights were cancelled. No looking after them at all. It's bad enough when the poor souls have to wait 2 or 3 hours, but two days!!!
And the nearby hotels should be absolutely ashamed of themselves too, charging triple the norm for all rooms for people who must have been so bitterly upset at what was happening.Yes, they can claim hotel costs back from BA eventually but it's all in the small print---hotel costs must be reasonable... try telling that to the greedy hotels!

Mr Cruz, the Spanish Boss brought in to cut costs such as no more food served to passengers, no more paper towels in the toilets for staff, sacked 700 IT personnel and moved IT to India

Well done ! the biggest PR disaster to-date

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

There is always some delay at bank holidays I always wonder why people bother trying to go abroad listening each time to disasters. But this did seem off the scale for stupidity.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

I agree Julie. the staff seemed to go into hiding, the BA phonelines were closed for the Bank Holiday, people were desperate to know what was happening and all they could get were screens showing cancelled cancelled cancelled. What a shower! I certainly would never ever again fly with British Airways as they have become a second rate organisation since they joined up with Spains Ameria Airlines.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

It would really defy belief that the mainframe computer of such a huge organisation didn't have surge protection, sounds rather a tall story to me I'm afraid.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

Me too Barry, also, an organisation as huge as British Airways working out of Heathrow, the busiest airport in the WORLD! would not have a back-up power system in case the other goes dow, which it did! and then the idiot moved the IT over to India, no-one left to get in there quick and fix the problem.

I really think there is more to it than meets the eye. It is very worrying - first the airports - what next? BA plane computers!

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

Fortunately the aircraft flight computers are all self contained within the individual aeroplane, so they cannot be contaminated by an external source.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

I don't know how true it is but someone told me they still use Xp. Nothing wrong with that it was the last good edition of Windows IMO but it's not exactly modern and what I'd expect a company such as that to use.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

Watch out for the invasion of lawyers wanting to get on the compensaqtion bandwagon.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

Personally I don´t think British Airways have ever been wonderful, I´ve had a couple of problems with them in years past. 16 years ago when coming to Spain from Kenya, our two very small dogs were booked with BA, booking made 3 months in advance. Two hours before we were due to leave BA called and told us they couldn´t get the dogs from Gatwick to Alicante so they had cancelled the booking for the dogs. I won´t go into the stress and worry this caused, but a good friend came to our assistance, I was going to cancel our flights too, no way I was leaving without my dogs. We left our dogs with our friends, they organised for our dogs to come the next day with Lufthansa. Lufthansa actually telephoned us to check the dogs had arrived safe and sound and assured us that every care had been taken of them during their long journey, Mombasa to Nairobi, Nairobi to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Barcelona and Barcelona to Alicante. The dogs were not in the least bit stressed and had been groomed during their short stay in Frankfurt. Not one apology did we receive from BA, neither did we get the air fare we had paid for the dogs refunded.

Two years later I booked a round trip back to Kenya with BA. I had to fly into Gatwick, then travel to Heathrow, on to Nairobi. I landed in Nairobi at 6 a.m. There are flights every hour from Nairobi to Mombasa, BA booked me on the 7 p.m. flight ! I went to the internal flight desk and booked and paid for the next flight.

I would never travel with BA again, Kenya Airways in conjunction with Dutch airlines is so much better and much less hassle.

It must be dreadful for all those poor people stuck at the airport.

Re: OMG! Those poor passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick

they deserve every penny - must have been a few days of hell for anyone.