I am writing this review in an effort to be read about how BA really treats brown / third world passengers. My father had a harrowing experience at BA when he flew Calcutta - Heathrow - Chicago flight this year. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. But the worst part is the way BA tries to shift the blame to the passenger, their non existent customer service and extremely callous procedures.

Let me start at the beginning. In the first flight from Cal-Heathrow my father had a near fatal experience. The plane due to some mechanical problems had to emergency land at the Riga airport in Latvia. The pilot and the flight attendants (all or most Goras) immediately proceeded to the nearest hotel leaving the passengers (mostly Indians) to rot at the airport. The facilities at the airport were inadequate for 300 or more passengers who had to stay in the airport for more than 12 hours. There was no food, no good seating arrangement and it was hell for the elderly, babies and pregnant women. My father says that BA was cleverly trying to delay the flight to Heathrow so they don’t have to pay for the night stay in London. Finally the passengers protest compelled them to fly them to Heathrow that day itself. To top this, my father’s luggage was delayed for a week once he arrived in Indianapolis. He is a heart patient and most of the stock of medicine was in the checked luggage.

We filed a delayed luggage claim in Chicago airport and was directed to an address in Houston. That is a recurring theme in BA. You can never directly speak to a rep. You either should write, fax ot leave a voicemail. After that they never reply back. Also you are never assigned a case number so anytime you are lucky to get a rep you have to explain everything all over again. Later we were told after 5 months of filing the claim that since my father is an Indian resident the claim needs to be refiled in India. But initially he was directed to send the claim to Houston, TX. Also they take five months to assign a case number and get to it. What the hell????

Now the return journey. My father wanted to prepone the date of departure. So I called the toll free number and the rep was helpful. She changed the date of departure for the BA flights and also changed the date for the first leg from IND to ORD which was an AA flight. She told me to take a printout of the revised itinerary from BA.com and never mentioned anything about a new ticket. Guess what... At the airport my father was refused boarding by AA who said that they want to see a new ticket with the new dates. Just a printout would not do. So I called a BA rep, he told to go ahead and purchase the one way fare which would be later reimbursed by BA since it was their fault. I still am waiting to get the money back (nearly 300 USD) after 2 months of my father’s flyback.

I have sent emails, sent all the boarding tickets and receipts and called and talked to reps. Nothing... All of them profess total ignorance now. Their standard response is AA should not have asked for a new ticket, maybe Indian office should handle this etc etc. I am yet to be assigned a case number. You leave messages and then no reply. After staying in USA for some years and experiencing the level of customer service of companies I have to say BA stink. They are pathetic when things go wrong. To add icing to the cake, my father’s luggage was delayed again when he reached Calcutta. In Cal they do not send your luggage home, you have to go and collect it.

In fairness I have to add that my mother in law’s experience was very good so far touchwood. She was upgraded (though she had paid a lot for her ticket anyway) and had excellent food on her flight to ORD.

So whats the moral of the story. You may board a BA (since Calcutta has so few options) and then pray to your guardian angel that nothing goes wrong. You would be treated differently if you are starting your flight from the third world. Forget about the post flight customer service. You have already paid so they do not need you anymore.

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	No Comment
Class flown most frequently:	No Comment