From BA..d to worse!

Over the years, British Airways has seen some turbulent times ranging from the Freddie Laker and the Virgin Airlines competition debacle through to the more recent staff uniform and crucifix saga.

Amongst other events, the recent summer terrorist scare in which thousands of passengers were severely disrupted amply illustrates problems within BA regarding it's ability to respond to the needs of it's customers.

The recent disruption to service caused by severe fog resulted in thousands of bags going missing; two weeks on, and many passengers are still affected with up to 15000 items waiting to be reunited with their owners.

The fact that there is still such a big problem is bad enough, but it now appears that BA are actually profiting from the misery caused.

Passengers who wish to find out about their missing property are being made to ring a premium rate number which sees BA getting up to half of the 3p-a-minute cost of calls, and some desperate callers say they have been on the phone for up to ten fruitless hours, trying and failing to recover bags which in many cases are filled with long-overdue Christmas presents.

BA admitted it did make money from calls to its baggage number, but insisted the charges were necessary to offset the cost of running a call centre in Newcastle.

BA are solely responsible for the loss of passengers luggage and as such all costs should be picked up by them.

The sheer arrogance shown by so many of today's big businesses towards their customers is staggering and would make shocking reading were it not for the fact that such arrogance is commonplace in the public sector and within Government at all levels.

Fortunately it is quite easy to show BA what we think of their attitude, take your business else where. As for the public sector, despite the era of so called "choice", would that it were so simple.

BA profits from lost luggage debacle