After I wrote to BA's CEO I got contacted by their refunds department asking for some additional information and then again there was complete silence. Read my Open Letter to Willie Walsh: http://vaishwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-letter-to-willie-walsh-ceo-of.html

Last December I was caught up in the snow delays and cancellations in London. My Easyjet flight to Zurich was cancelled so I booked a flight with BA for the next day. When I arrived at Heathrow the board said that flight too was cancelled. BA staff told me it was due to "weather" and to queue up to get in the queue for rebooking. Eventually a roving staff member booked me with Swiss Air the next day but said I had to pay for my own accomm etc since the problem was weather related. I spoke to my daughter at London City Airport to find that her flight to the same destination as mine was fine and my nephew in Zurich rang to say the weather was fine there. As I, very upset, walked out to find accomm I looked at the board again and my flight was there - departing on time. Stunned I spoke to another BA staff who phoned someone only to be told that the flight was full and my seat had been given away - within 5 minutes of me being rebooked. I admit, I lost the plot and demanded my seat back - upon threat of calling the media. Another staff member said they "would try" - to which I replied that if they didn't I was heading for the nearest phone. Within minutes I had my seat back and was shuffled through the gates (away from phones I guess). I was already angry but this doubled when the captain on the flight apologised for the delay as it was due to "technical trouble". In other words BA lied through their teeth to save money! How many other ppl from my flight had to pay for accomm etc, missed connections and so on, just because BA has no respect for its customers and only cares for saving themselves money. I will never use or recomment BA to anyone.

I am a victim of racial discrimination. In all my years of traveling, I have never experienced
such blatant racism. I am appalled that British Airways employs such individuals as
representatives of the company.

I had booked a roundtrip flight ( 3A7KMG) through an online travel agency. However, on the night of July 13th, when I was scheduled
to leave, I had arrived at LAX in time for my 9:20pm flight departure and was turned away
immediately. The representative was a middle-aged white woman with shoulder length
dirty blonde hair and bangs. As soon as I walked to the ticket counter, the representative
was unwilling to check my luggage and refused to check me in, saying that I was going to
delay the flight. There was a white gentleman who was waiting in line in front of
me for the same flight, and he not only had carry-on luggage, but she let him go to the gate,
knowing that he still needed to go through passenger and baggage screening. I was in the
same position, where I was able to take my luggage as carry-on, but was still turned down.
This was clearly an act of racial discrimination. Moreover, I had no way to reach my travel
agency as they were closed for the day. I asked the representative at
the counter to help me find an alternative and see if she would help me find a seat on the next
flight, but she neither attempted to listen to what I had to say, nor did she try to check other
options. She simply stated that I needed to contact my travel agent the next day. She was
completely aware that I would be marked as a "NO SHOW" and made me miss my flight.
As this was a very important business trip, this event was not only an economic loss for my
company, but also a complete disappointment in British Airways. I was thoroughly disgusted
by the representative and the experience. DO NOT FLY WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS.

I booked a flight from San Francisco to Berlin via London on 04/24/10. This was around the time the volcano blew up. BA requested that passengers cancel or delay non-essential flights so that other passengers who were stranded around the world could get home. BA offered full refunds on their website for cancellations.

When I called my booking agent to cancel they told me my flight had already been cancelled, and that although I was entitled to a full refund, the refund process would take 6 - 8 weeks.

By now it's been nearly 10 weeks, my booking agent says they haven't received the money from BA yet, and BA says I need to contact the booking agent. BA hasn't even responded to my complaint via e-mail.

What's up with these people? BA is holding $1000 of mine for nothing and I can't pay my rent. I want my money back, I want an apology, and I want people to know how rude and unprofessional BA is conducting itself. In my opinion BA deserves a good spanking. I also wonder if other people are in a similar situation.

My mother-in-law was scheduled to fly from LasVegas, NV to Istanbul, Turkey on February 28th, 2010 - Flight # BA0274. Her first flight apparently arrived in London at 15:15 in the afternoon, and her connecting flight to Turkey left at 16:29 in the afternoon.

She does not speak English at all, and needed assistance. Before we sent her through the security in Las Vegas airport, we told the person taking her to the plane that she needed assistance once she arrived in London. We also wrote a note for her to show the flight crew, explaining the reasons that she needed assistance. She apparently asked hostesses for help once they landed in London, but they told her to wait. They made her wait until everyone else in the plane left. Thus, she was the last person to leave the plane despite the fact that her flight was delayed and she had only a very limited time to make her connection. The staff did not even look at what time her next flight was departing, however. Therefore, even though there was more than one hour remaining to make her final connection, and the fact that both her arrival and departure flight were in Terminal 5, she still was not assisted to reach her connecting flight in time.

After this incident, they called me from London on March 1 at 10:30am Pacific/6:30pm London time, and said that they would put her onto another flight the following day at 9:50am, Flight# 676. They told me that they would give her a bus ticket to get to the hotel where they reserved a room for her, with the idea that she was going to somehow take the bus back to the airport next morning. However, this ignored the fact that my mother-in-law does not know her way around in London and cannot speak English at all. I asked them if someone could take her to the hotel, so that she would not get lost, but the representative told me that they could not do that. The result was that she was stranded in the airport for nearly 24 hours waiting for the next flight after taking an all-night flight from Las Vegas to London.

This was most disappointing to us, for she is a 64 year-old woman that suffers from high blood pressure, which is triggered by stress. When I was able to talk to her on the phone, she was worried and scared, and said that she would rather wait at the airport until her flight left the following morning. It is shocking to us that a person of her age, who was not fully capable of looking out for herself, had to be left sitting in an airport for this length of time without proper care, especially given that it seems highly likely that a lack of attention on the part of the airline led to her missing her connection in the first place.

However, what was most galling about this situation was that the authorities at the airport insisted upon charging her extra $54 for one of her carry-ons when they did finally get her on a flight the next day, which would never have happened had people done their jobs in the first place. They claimed it was too heavy while it was not heavy in the USA. One would think that if mistakes by the staff had caused grave inconvenience to a customer, the last thing they would want to do would be to add insult to injury. They even took all the travel size body lotions and left only 4 of them while each was only 50 or 88 ml. People are allowed to take up to 1lt in their carry-ons. That's what it says on British Airways website! What is that? I understand they are doing their job, but is their job robbing people. This is very offensive.

After all, one of her suitcases arrived one day later after it was emptied! Even they stole her ID which we are very worried about. They stole $500 worth of gifts from the suitcase on the top of breaking both of the suitcases. I can not believe how this can happen.

We are all upset with British Airways handling of this situation, and think that some recompense should be made for the gross inconvenience that she underwent and the insulting way in which she was treated. We also request that this series of errors be further investigated to prevent such unnecessary situations from arising in the future. If we are not satisfied with your response to this matter, we fully intend to file a formal complaint with the relevant regulatory authorities.