Am I Being Unreasonable to think that British Airways treated us in an absolutely unacceptable way?

[Lololala82]

This is the letter of complaint that I wrote to BA. I am still awaiting a response. Has anyone else had a terrible experience with British Airways losing their luggage and having to deal with City Bags?

Dear British Airways,

On Friday 19th August I travelled from Nice to London Heathrow with my husband and our 15 month old son on Flight BA 0347. I was 8 months pregnant.

At Nice airport we were told that our pram would be put in the hold and returned to us at the gate when we landed; orange ‘Priority’ labels were attached to all of our items of luggage, I presume because we were flying Club Europe.

When we landed at Heathrow we found that our pram was not waiting for us at the gate meaning that I had to carry Finn through the airport which was extremely uncomfortable as my son is heavy and I was heavily pregnant.

After waiting for over an hour at baggage reclaim (still holding my son), we were told that our three checked bags, our pram and our car seat had not made the flight. We were assured by BA that all of our luggage would arrive the next day at the latest. We arranged for them to be delivered to my mother-in-law’s flat in SW10 where we were staying that weekend.

Saturday 20th August 2016
Our bags were not delivered as promised.

Sunday 21st August 2016
We received several text messages that morning to say that our bags would be delivered but they were not. This was not only highly inconvenient as we did not have the pram but also a risk to my son’s health as his prescription eczema cream (which is more than 100ml so could not be taken as hand luggage) was in the check in luggage. I telephoned British Airways to ask them to change the delivery address to our house in N4. You confirmed that our bags were (a) in the UK, (b) were with your courier City Bags and (c) that the change to the delivery address had been registered.

After we arrived home, we found out that City Bags had attempted to deliver the bags to my mother-in-law’s house. Our message to deliver the bags to our house had obviously not been relayed by British Airways as promised. I telephoned both British Airways and City Bags who informed me that some of our bags had arrived in the UK but they were not sure which ones and that they had now been sent back to the City Bags depot.

Monday 22nd August 2016
One of our bags – sadly not the one containing my son’s medicated cream – was delivered, and also our son’s pram which was badly damaged. The rubber on the handle of the pram had been slashed open and one of the wheels is now completely wonky. The pram cost over £600 and is now unusable meaning we will have to buy a new one before my second child arrives later this month. In addition, our son had been struggling to sleep without his eczema medication.

That evening we received more text messages from City Bags. The first one at 19.51 said that our bags would be delivered between 23.42 and 01.42. We telephoned City Bags to say that we had a baby and did not want to be woken at such an antisocial hour, and to ask if they could deliver them the next day. At 22.07 we received another message to say that we would be delivered our bags “today between 14.22 and 16.22” – which at that point was in the past!

Tuesday 23rd August 2016
On Tuesday evening the remaining two bags were delivered. When the courier arrived he also had a Mamas & Papas pushchair that did not belong to us but had a label with our name on it. When I told him that it wasn’t ours, the courier said that “you may as well take it anyway though”. We obviously refused.

This whole ordeal was hugely stressful and upsetting for my family, and I spent much of the four days we were separated from our luggage in tears. I am due to give birth to my second child in a week and a half; the pram we were intending to put our new baby in has been completely ruined. It is British Airways’ responsibility to ensure that its customers get their luggage when they land, or at least in a timely fashion. City Bags is utterly incompetent and incapable.

In summary, I would like a response to the following questions:

• On your website you claim ‘We take great pride in carrying your bags safely and speedily to your final destination but if something goes wrong we’ll pull out all the stops to fix it as quickly as possible.’ How is this compatible with our experience of excessive delays and constant mistakes which ultimately put my 15 month old son’s health at risk?
• My £600+ pram was damaged and is now unusable a fortnight before my second child is due as a direct result of my experience flying with BA. What compensation are you going to offer me to meet the extra and unexpected cost of replacing it?
• Will you be raising my concerns about customer service with City Bags? Do you think that it is acceptable to organise a delivery to a family with a young child between the hours of 23.42 and 01.42 on a Monday night?
• I am particularly perturbed that their courier was encouraging me to partake in the theft of someone else’s property. Do you think that this service is in keeping with British Airways’ ethos and customer service policies?

Given the extreme nature of our experience and particularly because of the City Bags courier’s suggestion that I steal someone else’s luggage, I will be reporting my concerns to a number of independent consumer advocacy organisations. I have copied this letter to You and Yours, A Spokesman Said and the Guardian’s consumer team.

Mrs xxxx xxxx

OP For future reference there is an out of hours GP walk in clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

It does sound rubbish to have lost your bags (and let's face it), it is rubbish, as is the damaged pushchair. I'd be pretty disappointed particularly more so if it was a last chance family get away before the new addition!

You were right to raise it with BA and I am sure they will respond - and hopefully offer you compensation though I doubt it will cover the cost of your buggy.

They do always recommend that all medication flies with you in the cabin.

BTW it's really unusual for airlines to bring pushchairs up from the hold to the airplane doors - actually, it's unheard of virtually as it means delaying the disembarkment of passengers whilst they look for luggage.

I traveled British Airways frequently as a child when my parents lived abroad and they were always our family's preferred carrier. I guess I still had a rather anachronistic idea that they were a cut above other airlines. I think it is BA's responsibility to reunite people with their luggage bu employing a reliable courier service who are not incompetent and dishonest like City Bags. To clarify - despite being extremely emotional due to pregnancy hormones - I was not crying consistently for four days; it was just incredibly frustrating and upsetting to be assured that we would get our bags the next day and then to be sent multiple text messages saying we would get them at various different times for them not to turn up for so long. I think the lowest point was when I had to attend an antenatal appointment in a pair of my husband's novelty boxer shorts (with a Groucho Marx mustache on them) which were too small for him as the one pair of knickers that fit me which I was wearing on the flight were in the wash - all my maternity underwear was in my check-in bag. You can still fly up to 36 weeks with a doctor's note and at that point I was 35 weeks.

When dMiL was snowed in at ours without her blood pressure medication we phoned her GP who faxed a prescription to one of our local(ish) pharmacies. What took the longest was me having to trek there and back to fetch it as no cars could move on the roads.

I think you're getting a hard time OP.

Your letter is too emotional but you're heavily pregnant and BA/City Bags have royally fucked you about.

I would be livid too.

Hope you get your buggy sorted and good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and beyond

I think the lowest point was when I had to attend an antenatal appointment in a pair of my husband's novelty boxer shorts (with a Groucho Marx mustache on them)

Ah, bless you, Lolo

Agree with previous - stick to the facts about what went wrong and cut out all the stuff about it being an "ordeal" and "hugely stressful" as this just makes you sound unhinged.

Also be clear about WHAT you expect the airline or courier to do about it as you've basically just written a long rant with no ending. You need to state "I am expecting £200 towards the cost of repairing my pram" or "we had to go out and buy another buggy, cost £55, here is the receipt and I am expecting you to reimburse me" or "I want £100 for inconvenience and upset". Be specific!

OP wins the thread, btw ^^

Sorry to hear your predicament OP but I wanted to say - great rug choice - we gave one almost identical to yours!

Good luck with the baby. Try not to let it bother you too much, so hard when you're hormonal and fed up and this is the last thing you need

I couldn't finish it.

Sorry, this is between you and them

I worked for a major airline for 20 years, and it is extremely unusual on a non stop flight with no connections for 3 bags, one car seat and a pram to all go missing at the same time. Something is off here. It often happens that one item goes missing, or if passengers are connecting then all of their bags can go astray but this is an odd situation.

It might be unusual but it certainly happens.

I flew Manchester to Boston direct, and none of our six bags arrived. It turned out there had been a problem in Manchester Airport that day, and very few people's bags arrived.

If it was 0.5% or 1% hydrocortisone you can buy it at the chemist you know

Have you sent it OP or can you re-do it.

I often see complaint letters at work and I can tell you the one thing that doesn't work well is the emotional dramatics of a letter. It works when overtly sarcastic (see tiger/giraffe bread, some of the digital media ones) but often emotional complaints letters are seen as written by drama llama's who want money. Sorry. (this isn't being harsh just a fact).

Threatening the press first off also won't work because unless you have a specific contact who happens to be your best mate who works for one of the top travel columns in the most read paper, they won't give a damn. And they probably wouldn't even if you did as it wouldn't be a dramatic enough travel story.

So:

If you want to get emotional and sarcastic, go twitter/facebook/intstagram and make your posts as accessible to other people as possible slightly taking the piss, being friendly and non aggressive and asking for a resolution as you are desperate.

Write a FACTUAL letter that is short and succinct, knock out the emotion and stick to facts. Don't go into detail of the cream saga but say" needed medication that enables my child to sleep comfortably", find a quote from the website of the buggy to get replacement parts and then tell them that this is without fitting which will need to be done professionally.

Good Luck - none of this is a criticism of your emotional distress but short and factual will get a better result :)

I always assumed buggies would get destroyed - I've seen how they chuck them about. We've always used a cheap second hand one for travel. It's awful when these things happen but unfortunately that's the reality of travel.
BA have just changed our flight from 5pm to 7am which means we lose half a day in New York and will have to wake dc stupidly early to get the flight that previously would have been much nicer late pm flight. Travel can suck so you have to accept that to a degree.
That said, I would complain but much shorter letter and DS' cream could have easily been replaced at no cost to you so I'm not sure why you're so hung up on that bit.

Oh and put in the inconvenience of not having a car seat, which is obviously illegal :) and which caused problems for your onward travel plans.

PoohBear

That's what I thought. Only I said it in a less tactful way

You have been treated badly by BA messing you about with the bags being delivered/not being delivered etc, but as a seasoned traveller with baby twins, here are some tips:

1. If you have a posh buggy you want to take away with you, get a padded carrier for it and check it in.

1. Use a cheap umbrella buggy to take through the airport right up to the airport gate (either rent one or borrow one if you can't find one on eBay).

Doing option (2) is more likely to result in your buggy being made available at the arrivals gate. But it is still VERY VERY unlikely to get your buggy back at the arrivals gate - we have only ever managed it once and that was with a great deal of hassling check in agents, gate agents and crew on board the flight to make sure it was logged on the baggage handling files on board. For this reason, it is either best to take a baby carrier like an Ergo, or book VIP assistance at the arrival airport, if you have a non-walking baby to carry.

Some airports do have strollers available but you usually have to ask for them and hassle a lot of people before you get one.

1. Always have some medicine in your hand luggage - in fact I always pack my hand luggage with a few essentials, as bags going missing is pretty common - I always have enough basics in my hand luggage to see me through a couple of days (pants, spare clothes, any essentials I can't or won't want to buy in the arrivals destination). I always take my pills in my hand luggage (and if I have extras and I am really dependent on them, e.g. thyroid meds, I put some in my checked luggage too in case my hand luggage gets nicked).

It's about 7 miles between sw10 and n4. Why on earth didn't your in-laws just accept the delivery and you or your husband could have popped round to get it straight away?

Sounds really stressful. I too would expect a better level of service from BA, and hopefully they will compensate you for the damaged buggy

On the other hand, surely there's always the risk of stuff going missing or getting damaged on flights - I always carry spare underwear and basic stuff in hand luggage just in case - that's a normal precaution if checking baggage in - I don't think they are responsible for the baby's skin cream.

Other problems such as long delays are also fairly common, and likely to be much more of an issue if you are heavily pregnant.

If you expect your luggage to get lost and damaged and take precautions to avoid this being a massive headache, your expectations might be more in line with reality. Crying over a lost bag seems extreme - for me I'd just be glad it was at the end of a holiday and not whilst away, which would be far more annoying!

It sounds awful, and I sympathise with you over the way City Bags behaved, which was bad to start with and became almost criminal.

I would have boight over the counter stuff to replace the missing medication - it wouldn't have been as efficacious, perhaps, but better than nothing. However, as someone said upthread, surgeries and pharmacies are connected directly these days, so the pharmacy could have rushed through a repeat for you if you'd asked. Pharmacists are very useful, often my first port of call

Gubbins - no my parents-in-law couldn't take the bags as they were at Glyneborne, at the opera, for the night. When we left their flat on Sunday afternoon I telephoned British Airways (who still had not delivered our luggage) to say that we were going home to N4 and they said the message would be relayed to City Bags.

I can understand your frustration, I haven't used BA in years because of their shoddy service. Lost baggage, baggage not being loaded at all, canceled flights (a few times), rescheduled flights that I wasn't able to make because of connecting flights ... It's quite a long list (over the past 15 years)! Have to say though that each time luggage hasn't been loaded or has been lost, I've had it delivered within 3 days, the last time to rural France (I do still put my son on short flights with them, hence the French delivery). With the rescheduled or cancelled flights though they've only ever offered me credit for the next flight I take with them and it was only for a limited period so I've never used it. Because of this I can only assume that you'd have to fight for what you want. However, I think you want too much.

As PPs have pointed out, you really should have a back up of your sons medication, the pushchair can be fixed quite easily (unfortunately it's a chance you take when traveling that something might get damaged - I suppose it's a bit like saying you park your car in this car park at your own risk) and, really, your husband should have carried your son. Or could he not have walked? Frustrating and takes a million times longer but better than struggling.

Having said that, you paid extra to travel Club Class which would normally mean that you get priority treatment before, during and after your flight. Send another email and try not to be so dramatic, ask them nicely to rectify as many issues as possible although don't be surprised if they overlook it because of your previous correspondence. Best of luck.

gubbins

sw10 to n4 is a bit more than a "pop". more like an hour each way.

however, i agree that might have been a solution

We came back from Canada BA First. One of my suitcases didn't. Got delivered next day but had it not, dh would've just picked up the phone, spoken to the right person with a few choice words. I'm surprised you have so much time on your hands!

Sounds like a series of fuck ups, Lola (not your fault).

You should buy a new pram & pursue BA for compensation on the one that is ruined.

You should have posted this in Chat, or anywhere except AIBU. People fall over themselves to find ways the OP was unreasonable, even when she clearly wasn't.

Hope you get a satisfactory reply from BA.