/bin/tim

Rather unbelievably this brand new Airbus A-340 was written off within metres of leaving the factory by accidentally hitting a wall.  I’d like to see the insurance claim form …

These are all interesting possible alternatives for the BA acronym (British Airways) who are in appalling state from a customer perspective.  in the last 10 days I have spent £30 in phone charges on their money making 0870 number waiting to get through to their sales/customer service line.  One call was 55 minutes on hold before I got a representative who said they didn’t have enough staff.  You cant even complain because there is no-one to complain to except the reps who agree.  How can i be angry at them? To add insult to injury, we, the consumer have to fund the call time in order to use their service. And even worse customer service and sales and enquiries are all on the same number. They only keep their lines open until 20:00 so you can’t even ring in at a quieter time.  It could seem to someone uncharitable that the might make more money from the 0870 number than from the fare… I certainly hope they sort things out, but since there’s no-one to complain to there’s no way to even be sure they know there is a problem.

Come on BA, sort it out!

 Update:  I managed to get through by contacting the web support team on +44 8708508504 who put me straight though to a rep.  By then my bookings had all expired so I had to do them again, and I had to bite my tongue when asked why I had let them expire.  Hope that numbers helps someone else.

Double dropping was a term I was unfamiliar with before this week.  I never wish to hear or experince it again!  Double dropping is where the airline discover they have inbalanced their passenger manifests and decide to stop at another airport after you have taken off on your direct ‘non-stop’ flight.  We took off from Gatwick and ‘dropped’ in to Manchester where we had to change seats whilst a few more people got on.  What is most inconventient about the whole process isnt the landing and passenger embarkation (which was very quick just 10 mins),  its the extra 75 minutes they made us wait on the ground doing nothing.  Fortunately on the way out we were on a brand new 737-800 from Excel which was spacious and very nice.  On the way back we were on an original 737-200 belonging to European which looked like it had done a tour of duty in Vietnam 30 years ago.  Anyway, if your operator says you are non-stop complain loudly if they double drop you, its no fun.

Surprisingly the answer is Yes!  I was going to Tunbridge Wells today and to stops after I got on the train doors ceased to function, so no-one could get on or off.  Eventually the guard informed us that the train was lost and didnt know which station it was at.  This is important because it uses this knowledge of the station to determine which doors to open depending on the platform length.  After 5 minutes the driver managed to overide it somehow and get the doors open, otherwisee they were suggesting we would have to go to the maintenance depot to get it fixed,  great!