British Airways, shame on you.

Question

My kid is stranded in London along with other 45 University of Evansville students. I just need to vent a little bit. British Airway cancelled all flights last Saturday.

First, they told the kids that it was snowing hard in Chicago. We were in Chicago waiting and not a single flake of snow was falling.

Then they say that the problem was in the airport in London, but it wasn't snowing there either.

At this time, my son is still there and they are getting nothing from BA. They are sleeping in the floor, and some are already getting sick because of the cold.

They will be lucky if then can be back before Christmas. At this time they have no flight scheduled.

British Airways has done absolutely nothing for them. They closed the desks at the airport and they have nobody helping and supporting the kids.

• Sorry to hear about this situation Guillermo. - amykay Dec 19, 2010
• I am guessing your son is Ezequiel. I was his instructor for American Government at Harlaxton. I have been following their issues with getting home. All of the faculty are very concerned about their situation. - piggej Dec 19, 2010
• You are right. He is. I only blame BA for this. Thanks for your concern. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010

Answer 1

Hi Guillermo,

I am sorry that you are going through this distressing situation, especially so close to Christmas. If you come up from Indiana again and end up getting stuck at O'Hare, we're in Morton Grove and always have an extra room.

My husband and I have a philosophy that has served us well over many unexpected situations. We have come to believe that if something goes wrong, at least you have to have enough control over the situation to get a good story out of it. So, do what you can to get him home in an expedited manner, but realize also that he hasn't been kidnapped by terrorists. He is safe. And that's what's most important. The rest of this goes under the category of "inconvenience". It will pass. Her WILLL eventually get home, and I daresay that, being resourceful and young, he has found a way to amuse himself in this situation. It is an opportunity to meet folks who you had never met before, it is a way to see how people react when under stress. It is, actually, a good life lesson, and one that affords him no physical danger. The worst that will happen is that he'll jump on the tube and will find a hotel that will end you up with a hefty, unexpected bill. That, too, will pass.

At least in your conversations with him, focus on being postiive and looking at the bright side of this situation....if he plays his cards right, he'll have great stories to tell for years to come. One of them might even include a story contrasting the stress that his parents were under vs. the amount of fun he had at his unscheduled "sleep-in".

I was in Houston once when they got 1/2 inch of snow. I'm not exaggerating...the entire city shut down. The "loop" highway was closed. The airport was closed. They don't even have snow removal equipment. They can't afford huge capital expenditures for a situation that only happens once every 5 or 10 years. No doubt Heathrow is in the same boat. You don't want your child going out on a plane that has not been properly de-iced. Then he WOULD be in danger. So, take a deep breath, figure out what you have control over and what you don't, and go from there. This will no doubt be a memorable Christmas...it's up to you if it will be a Merry one.

• I'm with you, Echoline, an excellent attitude towards setbacks! - Gocika Dec 19, 2010
• Thanks for your concepts and offer. We'll probably laugh in the future, but right now it's not a pleasant situation. He's lonely, cold, starting to get sick and with no schedule to be back home. Is hard to find a positive way to look at it. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010

Answer 2

This is absolutely unacceptable. Heads should roll. At the very least, the University should be making a lot of noise about this.

I feel your pain. Every parent who has had a child study or travel overseas has a glimmer as to how you feel.

Answer 3

Guilliermo said:

I'm blaming BA for their lack of support, not for the entire European problem.

Yes, you should blame BA for not providing rooms, food, etc., for its stranded passengers. The airline certainly makes enough money to do this in case of emergencies!! What a shame.

• Yes I agree Marianne :) But, tongue-in-cheek aren'y you forgetting that all their directors need to have their bonuses come what may ? Customers they say...what customers ? We come first! - FELIZ77 Dec 22, 2010

Answer 4

He's finally home. He was able to get in standby flight (don't know exactly what that is) and got in a plane yesterday morning. All previous flight to Chicago and all flights after that were cancelled. Only 8 out of the 59 were able to get back. BA had nothing to do with this. It was all the travel agency's doing. They worked and are still working so hard to have this solved. I only wish all the other kids can get home soon and their parents can be as relieved as we are now. I want to thank all the kind words ans support from almost everyone. To those trying to justify BA, I can only say that I don't understand you, and sincerely I hope you'll never be in a similar situation.

• I'm glad your son is finally back Guillermo2 I know how bad does it feels to be worried about your son. - lovely_lovel Dec 22, 2010
• I am so glad for your son. - margaretbl Dec 22, 2010
• hope you had a good christmas - nizhoni1 Dec 26, 2010

Answer 5

Do you think the airlines want this situation?

Who told you it was not snowing in London - it was.

It is costing the airlines £ millions $

Don't blame the airlines.

Heathrow was expecting to expedite 400,000 passengers and couldn't. A few planes will take off in the next few hours and some may even be able to land.

• I'm blaming them the lack of support, not the weather conditions. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010
• Do you know if the other Airlines doing better? - ian-hill Dec 19, 2010
• No, and I don't care. My son has a ticket from BA. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010
• I'm sorry, but your son is one of millions there right now. - Gocika Dec 19, 2010
• I guess same comment was probably made by somebody about the concentration camps during WW2. I can see you are not a parent. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010
View 4 more commments >>

Answer 6

Airlines don't create the weather, nor should they apologize for it. Weather delays are unfortunately part of flying and therefore carriers don't usually put people up because of them. If they did, they would all go out of business. The fact that London's weather was at or above minimums is beside the point. The destination weather at the expected time of arrival is what makes the difference.

Now if a carrier is negligent in other issues, this is a different story. Below is a true story that I wrote a while back for a world culture site.

                      MY LUFTMARE

When we travel internationally, we usually concentrate on passports, visas, impending lack of sleep, and possible diarrhea. And so when I was to make what would be my final return trip to Russia in 2004, I thought I had all eventualities covered. What I would find to my detriment, however, were incompetent immigration officials in the country that produces the world’s finest motor vehicles.

I left Russia with visa in hand – all in order. After having spent a few years there, it seemed they wanted me to stay. So I procured, at the state’s demand, a combination exit visa with a one-time re-entry visa – all on the same piece of paper.

When I went through passport control at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, one piece of my visa was removed, as is the usual case, and a bunch of stamps were indiscriminately pounded onto the remaining visa, which was the re-entry portion – blam, blam, blam!

The rest of this journey went surprisingly well and without incident – without incident until Deutschland.

For the return flight a couple of months later, I was to fly on United Airlines and then connect in Frankfurt on Lufthansa Airlines for the final leg to Novosibirsk, Russia. Even though it was not United’s responsibility, they inspected my visa at San Francisco before checking my bags. There was obviously no need for this check since Russia had issued this visa two months prior, but rules are rules no matter how anal they may seem.

Frankfurt is an extremely busy airport and first class. It seemed like the center of the world with flights to absolutely everywhere and quite understandably, it is Lufthansa’s main base.

It took some time, but I found my gate just in time for boarding. When I handed the agent my documents – boarding pass, passport, and visa – she looked at the visa in a manner of confusion and told me I could not board the airplane because my visa was not valid. Now, this woman was an “inspector of international documents,” hired by Lufthansa. Apparently, Russia had refused entry to many of Lufthansa’s passengers in the past and forced the carrier to return them to their departure point, so now Lufthansa was responsible for the identification of improper visas into Russia. This is the excuse I was given; although, I didn’t believe it for a second. In Russia, if you have a problem with your documents, it’s your problem alone. The state is not about to make life easy for anyone – at least for anyone residing outside the walls surrounding Red Square. It was abundantly clear that this dullard didn’t understand Russian visas at all, so I pointed out to her that it was an entry visa only, and that the missing page was the exit part of the visa that had been torn out when I exited Russia. Then she went on to comment about all the stamps on the visa to which I replied, “It’s nothing; in Russia, they simply go a little crazy with their stamps, but it clearly says in Russian, ‘Re-entry Visa.’” My explanation wasn’t good enough for her, so she directed me to a Lufthansa boarding agent at the podium next to her while denying me boarding.

The boarding agent then told me in a very matter-of-fact way that he would have someone retrieve my checked bag and that I would not be going on this flight. He then started questioning me about my visa and I basically told him the same as I had told his “inspector of international documents.” By now I was starting to feel a bit heated with all the incompetence at the gate, so my speech started to reflect my feelings – just ever so slightly. This jerk, while stranding me in Frankfurt, had the edacity to say to me, “Let’s be polite.” I responded by, “To hell with politeness! You don’t understand Russian visas at all, you’re denying me boarding on the flight I have paid for, and you have the gall to talk about politeness!”

This guy was very methodical – as Germans are. He wasn’t about to give even one millimeter. He then called a couple of Lufthansa customer-service girls to escort me to an operations office to resolve the mess.

Once inside this office, which was just behind one of what seemed to be hundreds of Lufthansa check-in counters, a seemingly very pleasant German woman listened to my sad tale of woe and then offered her phone for as many international calls as necessary. She then presented me with a food voucher for the outrageously-expensive food court that lurked close by.

While calling Russia to advise of my situation – people meeting me at the airport in Novosibirsk were now forced to change their plans as well – it was suggested to me that Aeroflot Russian Airlines probably had flights in and out of Frankfurt. I asked the Lufthansa woman about this and she said they did, and directed me to the Aeroflot counter with the understanding that Lufthansa would pay for my ticket on Aeroflot, should the carrier allow me onboard.

After showing the Aeroflot agent my visa, she said, “Of course this visa is valid, but I will check with my supervisor, just to be sure.” After about twenty minutes, she returned and then sold me – or should I say, “She sold Lufthansa” a ticket. The only catch was that this flight had already departed and the next one wasn’t until the following day. I knew I could count on Aeroflot to understand; it was just like being back home again.

I then returned to the Lufthansa office – which now was occupied by a different woman, as the first one had finished her shift – and explained the whole sorted affair yet again. She seemed to understand and even gave me a tip on which hotel would be the least expensive, as I was going to have to spend the night in the city of the Frankfurters. But even though she understood that Lufthansa had made a mistake – she mentioned that Lufthansa had made similar mistakes in the past – she refused to foot the bill for the hotel.

The next morning I waited for the elevator from the second floor to the hotel lobby only because I was dragging along a bag that didn’t do well on stairs. When the lift stopped and the doors opened, a guy was standing inside, permeating it with his cigarette smoke, so I immediately turned away and took the stairs. As I was waiting outside the lobby for the van to the airport – the same guy was now polluting the first floor – he got into a cab, lit up another cigarette, and off he went, giving the poor cabbie a dose of lung cancer by proxy. It then occurred to me in its entirety: “Oh yes, I’m in Deutschland.”

A couple of weeks after my return flight to Russia, the demand for hotel compensation in my e-mail to Lufthansa was denied.

---

Is there an agenda here? Possibly so.

Will Lufthansa ever be revisited by this author? Absolutely not.

• An amazing but tragic story of official incompetence Julian I was saddned to hear of your story and wonder how and if the said officials ever improved their knowledge and skills - FELIZ77 Dec 21, 2010
• Feliz, I have no idea. I'm sure you know the expression, "Burn me once, good for you - burn me twice, bad for me" - JulianChivi Dec 21, 2010
• audacity :) - Kiwi_Girl Dec 22, 2010
• sordid:-) - nizhoni1 Dec 26, 2010

Answer 7

It is quite distressing to hear that some people are becoming sick and others are simply frustrated because of B A's incompetence at communicating honestly with its passengers about the current fiasco over the weather, And why can they not provide a warm room for people to wait?

How long will this go on before people have a chance to return to their families?

I do feel very much for you Guillermo and your family and of course the hundreds if not thousands of other people stranded at airports in England. I do hope and will pray that your son will still be able to join you for christmas this year

As a person with British nationality who has lived here for over 40 years I never cease to be amazed that we cannot seem to cope with the weather despite the experience we have of cold weather our country seems to come to a standstill when faced with cold weather ice snow etc...

If the banks care so much about our economy why can't they help finance a back to work initiative by paying for some more grit on the roads and for subsidisiation of public transport ???

Answer 8

sorry to disagree but it is british airspace taht has made decision to stop flights not BA, airlines are unable to help majority of stranded passengers due to sheer numbers of stranded passengers, whilst i sympathise thisnk it is important to understand that it is saftey f passengers that decides wether flights can leave or not, snow is of such a density that although runways are being cleared ice has reformed before a plane can takeoff meaning it is not safe for pilots, airstaff or passengers. unfortunate but it happens.

I have experience of this, was stranded for a week by airline due to icelandic eruptions earlier this year, airline did what they could as in everyday rescheduled flights for those at front of queue, but was hundreds of displaced people and limited space so all we could do was get in line wait our turn and reschedule when we got to front. had two cancelled flights so in total spent about 20 hours in line and days at airport but was not airline staff, they did best they could in awful situation.

hope your kids get home soon and hopefully in time for christmas but take it easy on airline staff, this is not thier fault

• It is British Airports Authority B. A, A. - ian-hill Dec 22, 2010
• Their fault is not being there at all. - Guillermo2 Dec 22, 2010
• Is yous son a minor? I think he's not. Adults can take care of themselves. This was a bit of an overreaction in my opinion. Anyway, I'm glad he's safe and sound now. - Gocika Dec 22, 2010
• I'm glad the majority of the people do not agree with you. When you grow and have children you'll probably understand. It's called love, nor overreaction.. - Guillermo2 Dec 23, 2010

Answer 9

There has been a lot of criticism over here about the handling of the situation, especially since it hasn't snowed at Heathrow since saturday, but the problem is more than just a dump of snow - we have record low temperatures here at the moment, so every morning the whole airport needs to be defrosted again. Many planes have been literally frozen to the ground! As usual in England we don't learn our mistakes from previous years and invest in more grit, de-icer, plows, etc and it is chaos here. Roads are snowy and often blocked by abandoned cars, trains are very sporadic of that, and well we've seen the plane situation. A lot of the situation at Heathrow can be blamed on BAA which operates the airport, rather than on the individual airlines - but there has definitely been a lack of support. I have had two flights cancelled, and the next available flight to see my mum is on the 27th, so for the second year in a row I won't be able to see her for Christmas! I hope your son gets back ok!

Answer 10

Important part is over 400,000 people stranded in heathrow alone, millions arond europe, have symapthy for your kids but airline can do limited amount for something of this scale, no plenes taking off, eurostar is full and cancelling services intermmittantly as well, time and a change in wether is all taht can happen. not airlines staffs fault, if no alternatives available they close windows and provide updates via screen and announcement as nothing else they can do other than open window to be screamed at by peiople who they can do nothing for.

• So they do nothing? - Guillermo2 Dec 22, 2010

Answer 11

sorry to disagree but it is british airspace taht has made decision to stop flights not BA, airlines are unable to help majority of stranded passengers due to sheer numbers of stranded passengers, whilst i sympathise thisnk it is important to understand that it is saftey f passengers that decides wether flights can leave or not, snow is of such a density that although runways are being cleared ice has reformed before a plane can takeoff meaning it is not safe for pilots, airstaff or passengers. unfortunate but it happens. .

.

Steve45, you don't know what happened there. They closed the desks and left all people with no answer nor information. The gave rooms to the first in line until the time was up. Next day, the press wanted to talk with the kids. They didn't let them in at first. They took some time to give the kids some blankets, rubber pads for the floor, etc. They also gave the kids water and sandwiches, and then they let the press in once they have the show set, to look how supportive they were. After the press left, they were on their own again.

Do you think that's right?

And again, you and several others think I'm blaming BA for the weather. Please read the entire thread.

• I'm so glad to hear that your son made it through this ordeal safely and in time to share the holidays with you. :) - Izanoni1 Dec 22, 2010
• This is a bit late - but there is no way any airline can prevent the press from entering any airport. - ian-hill Dec 26, 2010

Answer 12

This situation brings back memories. In 1979 I was a junior in college and a part of a study trip with a college (not mine, I had cross-registered in order to be a part of this trip).

I was 19 years old and the first person in my family to get a passport or travel internationally (not counting Niagra Falls, Canada).

I flew from Cleveland to NYC to meet the group at La Guardia Airport. It was an Air India charter. The weather turned bad. They delayed and delayed the flight until the early hours of the morning. The Cornell Glee Club, who was traveling to London on the charter sang for us to keep our spirits up. Little Indian children and grandfathers with turbaned heads alternately clapped for the singers and dozed off.

Eventually, they put us up in an airport hotel and we left the next morning. I learned from this experience to be able to sleep on the airport floor using my carryon luggage as a pillow and to always travel with toothpaste and a toothbrush.

For anyone who has experienced travel disasters (I once was snowed in to Chicago's O'Hare Airport and used my suit bag as a mattress, sleeping in my bankers suit and heels) I recommend the movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles with John Candy and Steve Martin.

• Gets my vote for the "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" reference....another great Christmas movie - Izanoni1 Dec 22, 2010
• funny movie! - nizhoni1 Dec 26, 2010

Answer 13

I understand the fury that you're feeling.....British airways to be honest, in my opinion is useless....I mean I'm british, living in London and I've never had a great experience with them either. So, what exactly was the delay in getting the plane off the ground if there was no snow problem in Chicago.... and in London, last Saturday there was no snow? It's slightly stupid on BA's part. Maybe there was engine trouble or something similar to that. However, the situation now, is extremely different with London having more snow than it has done for the past decade. It seems that we can't cope with snow as well as other European countries or countries across the world for that matter, a few snowflakes bring the country as a whole to an abrupt stop.

By the way, out of curiousity, what's your son doing in London?

• I have ! - ian-hill Dec 19, 2010
• I guess you were the lucky one. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010
• I wasn't the only one on the planes. - ian-hill Dec 19, 2010
• You are right. I should have said you were in the lucky plane. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010

Answer 14

By the way, out of curiousity, what's your son doing in London?

He spent 4 months studying at Harlaxton College. It is an exchange program they have at University of Evansville

• Ok....what's he studying? - Seb79 Dec 19, 2010
• Mechanical Engineering - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010

Answer 15

Wow, so sorry Bill, that is so dreadful - it is much, much worse when it is your child. Like A-F says, call constantly and hopefully with many, many calls your kids will be prioritized when they start flying again. Good luck, hang on.

• Thanks. We are doing everything we can. Believe me. - Guillermo2 Dec 19, 2010