"We have rules. The flight can not be changed."
"I am willing to pay to change it." (Flights on most other airlines can be changed for a change fee.) But apparently not British Airways. Mark had to tough it out in Nigeria, which mind you, had been declared unsafe by the British government, because British Airways has rules. So there.
Then there's the issue of "the captain has turned on the seat belt light, please return to your seat and fasten your seatbelt". And if you don't, the flight attendent will pound on the restroom door and tell you to return to your seat. Seriously? Do you think I'm in the restroom for fun? There was a reason I went in there and I'm staying in until there is no longer a reason to be there. Beating on the door and shouting at me does not help. At all.
And now we have another thing to add to the list. We arrived at Heathrow early. We got up early (5 am) and left Manchester at 6 am. We got to Heathrow around 10:30 am for a 2:30 pm flight. Plenty of time. The problem was, we couldn't check our bags. We tried but every time we scanned a ticket it told us the bag was over the baggage limit before we even put a bag on the conveyor. Then someone pointed out to us that we couldn't check in for another hour. The British Airways limit is 3 hours before a flight. If you arrive before that, you just need to sit around with your bags somewhere - no food, no drink - just sit down somewhere and mind your bags. British Airways cannot be bothered to take them until three hours before your flight.
And then, when the three hours are up you can check your bags. I scanned my ticket and once again before I put the bag on the conveyor, I was told that it was over the limit. I did say somewhat loudly that "it's doing it again and I haven't even put the bag on". At that point, one of the BA agents came down on me like a ton of bricks. Mind you, I was speaking to an inanimate machine. She was speaking to me - demanding to know why I was so rude. (I know how to be rude - she didn't see it.) I decided to let it go because I just wanted to get my bags checked after having been at the airport for over an hour. And we hadn't had breakfast, etc. I should have demanded to know why she was so rude.
We were sent to another area where they could check our tickets only to find out that we had inadvertently purchased tickets that had zero baggage allowance - hand baggage only. Bottom line? We had to pay the cost of the flight again just to take our bags. And the young lady said, "This happens all the time!" Does it, indeed? If this happens all the time, it's because your website is designed to trick people into buying what they think is a bargain ticket only to extort money from them when they are at the gate with their luggage and nothing they can do but pay. I've worked for companies that designed their statements so that customers often overpaid. Don't play dumb with me. You're doing this on purpose because it's a really easy revenue opportunity. Just a bit shady, as far as I'm concerned.
So, I think we can sum this up as 1. crap customer service 2. extortion and 3. surly employees and 4. really crap customer service.
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