I’m sitting on the floor of the luggage lounge at Heathrow at 11.45pm, having just caused a casual revolt. Having landed late over an hour ago, no-one’s luggage for my plane, or any other BA plane has arrived. Half an hour ago we were told something to the tune of “sorry, as the plane landed late there’s not enough BA staff to unload the luggage and it’s delayed.” What wasn’t mentioned to the growing, over-heating crowd, was when it was likely to arrive.
At this point I walked over to get in the BA luggage desk queue, and after 20 minutes (only three customers, but they’re not quick)I asked when it’d finally arrive, and could I have a complaint form. At that point I heard the man next to me explaining the delay meant he’d missed his last train, and did he now have to pay a £60 cab fare? He was told if he sent his receipt in, the policy was to reimburse, if he noted it down on a complaint form.
Seeing a chance to teach BA a lesson about good customer service, and keeping customers informed I returned to the main area where the luggage indicator screen was. Now 200 – 300 were standing waiting, so I decided to announce, in my loudest voice… “excuse me everyone, as they’re not telling us anything, I’ll tell you. They’ve told me it’ll be around another 10 to 15 minutes. Also it’s worth knowing that BA has a policy that if you miss you last transport home it will reimburse you, so I suggest you go get a claim form.”
I got a small ripple of acclamation and large queue formed at the BA desk – around 50 people. It was at this point my cover was blown as someone started explaining to everyone else that “he’s the Money Saving Expert off the TV, this is what he does” and I had a rather nice comment thrown to me: “nice to see you practice what you preach.”
