British Airways; Manchester to London, Heathrow....NEVER AGAIN......
Planning a holiday in India, I was searched for flights from Manchester to Delhi, my requirements were to get the best price, with good times, the flight that came out top was with Virgin Atlantic, leaving from London Heathrow.
There was however one problem; the short hop from Manchester to London Heathrow was with British Airways. Every time I have used BA I have had problems and try to avoid them. After much debate as to the pros and cons of driving to LHR, rather than flying with this sad excuse of an airline, that always lets us down . It was decided that, as it was between Christmas and New Year- the roads would be busy, the weather may be inclement - so we would use the suggested route and fly with BA to LHR.
The problems began even before we set off. A week before the departure I checked the travel details. On the return leg of the journey, booked for 12 Jan 19. The Virgin flight from Delhi was due in at 17.55. Then the flight with BA (BA 1376 ) due to depart at 19.50. HOWEVER, this now had a big red line through it and this indicated that the flight had been cancelled. The last flight from LHR to MAN was now at 17.30. So the flight was cancelled. That was it, no replacement flight, no notification from BA regarding the changes.
Because of the change, I had to book a hotel at LHR for the night of the 12 Jan and reschedule the flight for the morning of the 13 th Jan. if I had known this when choosing the flights I would never have selected this route.
As planned on 28 th Dec 18, we checked in At Manchester’s terminal 3 for our flight to London. Terminal 3 was once a dedicated BA terminal, but since this airline abandoned the North of England it now caters for low cost airlines.
There was however one problem; the short hop from Manchester to London Heathrow was with British Airways. Every time I have used BA I have had problems and try to avoid them. After much debate as to the pros and cons of driving to LHR, rather than flying with this sad excuse of an airline, that always lets us down . It was decided that, as it was between Christmas and New Year- the roads would be busy, the weather may be inclement - so we would use the suggested route and fly with BA to LHR.
The problems began even before we set off. A week before the departure I checked the travel details. On the return leg of the journey, booked for 12 Jan 19. The Virgin flight from Delhi was due in at 17.55. Then the flight with BA (BA 1376 ) due to depart at 19.50. HOWEVER, this now had a big red line through it and this indicated that the flight had been cancelled. The last flight from LHR to MAN was now at 17.30. So the flight was cancelled. That was it, no replacement flight, no notification from BA regarding the changes.
Because of the change, I had to book a hotel at LHR for the night of the 12 Jan and reschedule the flight for the morning of the 13 th Jan. if I had known this when choosing the flights I would never have selected this route.
As planned on 28 th Dec 18, we checked in At Manchester’s terminal 3 for our flight to London. Terminal 3 was once a dedicated BA terminal, but since this airline abandoned the North of England it now caters for low cost airlines.
At check in we were not informed we could use the BA Lounge, in fact we were informed of very little. We made our way to the lounge, The BA lounge in terminal 3 is located above shops. The area itself is nice with a large window in the middle letting a lot of light in. But the food offerings were very sparse, just a selection of sandwiches, crisps and biscuits.
There was a reasonable selection of drinks...if you drink Whiskey, but you had to ask for Champagne.
The aircraft from LHR arrived on time and boarding for our flight commenced. Some passengers had gone through and onto the air-bridge when they were called back. There was confusion among the ground staff as to what was going on. Eventually after about 20 mins we were informed that there were 'Technical Issues' with the aircraft and it would be at least 1 hour before this would be sorted out. A lot of passengers were angry and stressed at this announcement- many, many people like our selves having had this issue before. We went back to the lounge to wait.
After an hour we were called and boarded the flight, it then took off and made its way to LHR. At least 10 people on the flight had missed connecting flights.
Luckily on this occasion we were not effected and we made our way from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 to the Virgin Clubhouse.
However, for me this experience was a deal breaker , I have no faith in BA and I will never use British Airways again.
There was a reasonable selection of drinks...if you drink Whiskey, but you had to ask for Champagne.
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| BA Lounge Manchester |
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| BA Lounge Manchester |
Luckily on this occasion we were not effected and we made our way from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 to the Virgin Clubhouse.
However, for me this experience was a deal breaker , I have no faith in BA and I will never use British Airways again.
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| BA Lounge Manchester |
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