Journey from hell

[InTheBlue]

My 75 yr old parents booked a ticket from Bordeaux (via Heathrow) to Singapore however they decided to drive to London and catch the plane there. They informed BA France (call centre in Germany) and off they drove to London.

My father had the foresight to call BA a day before as he couldn't check into the London to Sing flight and was informed by some jobsworth that if they didn't get on the Bordeaux - London flight then the Sing leg would be cancelled. My father asked to speak to someone more senior upon which he was told that there was no-one and that was the end of it.

They got an Easy jet flight (took off on time, nice staff) flight back to Bordeaux and then got onto BA flight back to London and transfered from Gatwick to Heathrow.

THEN they were kept on 747 at Heathrow for 5 hours (at 11pm) whilst engineers tried to fix hydraulics which they couldn't so they transfered to another plane which finally took off 7 hours late.


However, BA staff on flight to Sing were brilliant and more than made up for the other individuals in the organisation that can't think outside of the box - well done BA flight attendants.

[InTheBlue]

Why would BA care if someone doesn't get on one leg seeing as they didn't check in? BA could resell the seat to standby or at the very least the plane would be lighter and less fuel hungry!

[ScoobyDoes]

Why would BA care if someone doesn't get on one leg seeing as they didn't check in? BA could resell the seat to standby or at the very least the plane would be lighter and less fuel hungry!

The ticket would have been issued with a departure in France. If the segment is not used then it is viewed automatically as a no-show and all subsequent sectors are cancelled for security reasons.

It is possible to board in London only if the Bordeaux-London sector is on a separate ticket.

It is also a pricing issue since tickets from France would have a different price as the flights from London.

[InTheBlue]

So they mess people around for fear of arbitrage on their ticket prices?

[ScoobyDoes]

Sorry..... it's not 'messing people around'

If you have a single ticket for Bordeaux-London-Singapore, you start in Bordeaux. Job Done. London is a transit point, not a starting point unless you pay extra for a pre-planned stop-over. I mentioned the fares only as one reason but there are several, including security.

If this was all routed on a single ticket without stop-overs then driving to London was a mistake, live with it, learn from it and move on. Sh!t hapens.

Taking a stop-over usually involves higher ticket prices because the airports impose landing and handling charges for passengers and luggage that arrive, and then departure and handling (security etc.) charges for each passenger that leaves.

The only thing you might accuse BA of in this case is being impolite in their call centre, but if it was based in Germany anyway.......sorry, then, that's just the Germans for you.

The 5hrs on the tarmac is a common issue with all airlines and the choice to change aircraft is not taken lightly because it can screw up the airline system/schedule for a few days after. The only benefit in this case is that it was a BA flight from its hub so there were probably a few spare aircraft..... not like taking a BA flight from somewhere like Moscow where they would have had to wait for a replacement aircraft to arrive first.

[JR8]

So they mess people around for fear of arbitrage on their ticket prices?

They are certainly protecting against people arb'ing their tickets.

Back in the day you used to be able to buy a return ticket from A>B, flip the date on the return coupon and use it as a B>A round-trip. You will understand how that denied airlines regional 'pricing power' and so is no longer possible on all but full-fare ticketing.

p.s. Sorry to hear of the tale though. I'll recount my latest SIA horror story some time when I get around to it...

[InTheBlue]

JR8 - SIA horror story! You must be one of the few to have one of those! I have not even been delayed on SIA in the 4 years I have been travelling around the region on Sing airways. Most people I talk to to say the same.

[JR8]

Alright then

Munich>SG>Frankfurt


Outbound left at about 2-3pm. We got on had lunch. The two people next to me were considerably ill, coughing and sneezing, with her holding and blasting into a hankie about each 2 minutes for the entire flight, and there was nowhere to move to. (I appreciate that is not the airlines fault, though not what you want when flying off to begin 5 weeks intensive diving!)

The guy had to get his main course replaced as it had bits of shredded plastic in it. The girl rather gave up on hers as both her yogurt and coffee creamer were frozen totally solid (explanation 'Oh our apologies sometimes the top trays in the trolleys can do that').

Worse still, the crew seemed to immediately adapt to Singapore time. So after lunch, say 11pm SG time the service shut up shop, and they dimmed the lights. They staff disappeared and they buttoned down curtains at the front and aft of our cabin area. That meant you had to wrestle through a buttoned down curtain to even access a toilet. Extraordinary. Any request from the galley opposite the loos (at what was say 6pm your time was met with horrified looks and 'do not disturb' disdain).

Plus only one side of my headphones worked, and it was the sockets and so not resolvable.

Flight back, left at about midnight. This time they stayed on SG time, got out some food, then lights off and that was that. Worse though the whole section of maybe 30 people I was in had no A/V at all for the entire journey.

I could go on!

I paid a premium for SIA for premium service. What a joke!

[ScoobyDoes]

Alright then
Plus only one side of my headphones worked, and it was the sockets and so not resolvable.
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Worse though the whole section of maybe 30 people I was in had no A/V at all for the entire journey.

Unfortunately there seems to be a lot more cases of faulty equipment on SQ, shown up most recently by the flight to Munich that got turned back because of smoke in the cabin. Most likely an electrical fault in the galley.

The pricing from SQ should point to decent equipment but their continual profits even in these difficult times then make you question whether it is because of the high prices only or some severe cuts in service as well. Unfortunately I believe it to be both.

Having said all that....... I'm glad i don't have to fly Qantas

[Barnsley]

JR8 - SIA horror story! You must be one of the few to have one of those! I have not even been delayed on SIA in the 4 years I have been travelling around the region on Sing airways. Most people I talk to to say the same.

SQ963 from Jakarta to Singapore is delayed every single time I have been to meet someone off it.

Doesnt matter what day it flies either its always delayed at least 45 mins.

[InTheBlue]

Been on the Jakarta flight several times and must have been v lucky as I've never been late in.

SQ do have more 'equipment' for the back of the plane than most airlines so are more likely to get issues.

[Barnsley]

They have a couple of evening flights from Jakarta SQ963 and SQ961 I think, SQ963 gets delayed and SQ961 doesnt.

There are some stats on the JKT airport website which show that SQ963 is on time 20% of the time

[longstebe]

Has anyone flew Bi-man?

Now thats an airline

[InTheBlue]

Now that's an airline.....that I've never heard of!