treated bad by BA any advise

harrysmum03_2

my husband 5 kids aged 3-13 and my self arrived at alicante airport in the week to catch our 16.45 return flight back to this miserable weather to lgw.
we'd planned out our day, had lunch in murcia (midday) wondered round primark and ikea and we arrived with plenty of time 45 mins before check-in even opened so waited patiently in the queue.
at the check in desk were advised there was a delay of just over an hour, a bit annoying but an hour isn't long.
went through security and wondered round the shops to kill some time and we all had a drink with the last change we had.
checked departure boards and yep you guessed it delayed even more till 18.30 so at 18.45 i went to the information desk and asked for the meal and drinks vouchers i presumed we were entitled to, only to be told that BA had informed them not to give out vouchers till we'd been delayed for 3hrs. we were finally called for our flight at 19.45 and departed at 2030. so by this time we were all rather hungry and were waiting for our meals.
the steward finally got to us and gave us a sandwich! nothing else just a sandwich which consisted of 1 half a chicken and stuffing and the other ham tomato and mustard which my son wouldn't eat. by this time it was 9pm and he hadn't eaten since midday when we had our luch. My husband asked if there was a proper meal to which the steward replied, if we'd waited to replenish the food we'd have been delayed even more then on realising what he said rephrased it to this is all we would have got anyway. now i've flown with ba on a few occaisions and if it's a cold meal you'd usually get a roll some meat and cheese a cake or biscuit ect which would comform to some sort of meal not just a measley sandwich. to say i was fuming was an understatement.
we finally landed at 2215 and after catching our trains home arrived at 2315 by which time my poor son hadn't eaten a thing since midday almost 12hrs. luckly our local sainsburys at the train station was still open and we managed to buy milk and bread and they had toast when we got home.
I will not be flying with them again and will stick to the buget airlines whom i have never had any trouble with what so ever and you know where you stand with them.

can anyone please advise me on how to go about successfully complaing to BA.
i'm still fuming now!!!!!!!!!!!

exel1966

By all means complain, but what are you hoping for in return. An apology, Compensation ?

I know you'll get the apology and nothing else as you are not entitled to anything else ! You were fed on the plane so I don't see your problem.

Would you have preferred to get your voucher at 1945, have a leisurely bite to eat at the airport and delay the flight even further ?

Should they have taken an order for a speciality sandwich to your sons liking ?

Why would flying budget have been any better ? You would have had to pay extra for the said sandwich !

All flights get delayed at some time, [EMAIL="S@@@t"]S***t[/EMAIL] happens ! Get over It !!

mystic_trev

You could have just as easily been stuck in a traffic jam on a motorway for that lengyh of time.I really can't see what your compliant is. Try being stuck in Airport for over eight hours and see what it's like - meal or no meal!

Voyager2002

Last time I flew BA (to Zurich and back) the only food was a little sandwich. The days of full meals in the air for economy passengers are long-gone, unless you are flying long haul.

Why didn't you eat in the airport, keep your receipts, and then ask BA to refund what you spent?

dzug

I've known budget airlines run out of food.

SCOYA

I fly regularly with BA from LHR/LGW to Faro, and you only ever get a sandwich on the afternoon/evening flights to the UK, they do normally offer a vegetarian sandwich option. The only "full" meals I've known BA to provide on shorthall is a breakfast on early morning flights.

Donnie

My advice is; First of all you have to decide on the outcome that you want and then go for it. Make sure that it is reasonable. It is all too easy to reject an unreasonable claim.
It would certainly help your case if the delay was the fault of BA.

MarkyMarkD

Why didn't you ask for your food vouchers at 19.45 when you were still in the airport but delayed by 3 hours?

MarkyMarkD

I'm sure BA point out what the catering is on their short-haul flights, if you read their website.

KittyKate

I have to agree with the other posters. Last year returning from Reina Sophia airport my plane was delayed from 9pm until 1am! Rather than demand vouchers (when the time of the plane had not been finalised, and us all leaving for a paid meal would have no doubt delayed it further) we nipped to the bakery and got sandwiches and water (we already had a bag full of chocolate from duty free! haha)

BA gave you free sarnies and your little boy didn't like them - you can hardly argue they starved him purposefully!

Rather than avoid a whole airline in the future why not accept the fact you have young kids who can be picky and prepare yourself a bit better when travelling? I've yet to see an airline not allow us to take on sarnies and snacks, and buy a bottle of water when in the departure lounge.

BigNige

I happen to agree with the other posters and if you write to BA you will get short shrift.

I had a bad experience with BA when flying to Israel in June. They screwed up the seat allocation, seperated me from my girlfriend, didnt provide the speciality meal as requested, and we were 2 hours late in arriving. On and my in flight entertainment didnt work.

However the flight attendants were magnificient, giving us goodies from business class, plying us with free alcohol including champagne.

I still complained when I got home and received a £100 BA Travel Voucher to spend.

Little tip for you... join the BA Executive Club. If they see you are a frequent flyer they try to help you out a little more