Experiences of an Indian Traveller going through London Heathrow Airport

[P.J.]

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Experiences of an Indian Travelling Through London Heathrow Airport

It seems that BA Staff are still holding Colonial Attitude towards Indian Citizens Travelling with them.

Here is the ref to the recent Complaint lodged with BA by one of the Indian who had experienced the worst treatment while travelling to India from US


Indians comfort and loss of time is of no value to British Airways | getsetandgo

 

[renuka]

Why avoid?? I feel all Indians Citizens/PIO/NRIs from all over the world should be encouraged to travel by British Airways..cos at least lets feel how it is to be discriminated and hopefully the mindset will change and people of Indian heritage from all over the world start to forget about caste discrimination.

The recent rape and murder of 2 so called Lower caste cousins in North of India and police refused to help becos the girls were from the lower caste is a shocking eye opener on how caste based mindset still prevails.

So lets everyone book our tickets! Sometimes to feel the pain of others we need to feel pain ourselves..it will be a good humbling experience for everyone..lets books tickets now!

 

[kunjuppu]

i have flown BA for over 40 years and have always found them the best of the airlines.

one hour transit time is not enough for any international travel. if the travel agency or even the airlines tell you that, they are either lying or ignorant, more likely the agent is ignorant.

personally i ensure that there is atleast 3 hours between flights, especially when there is terminal changes involved.

sorry folks, i intend to take BA again in september to india and back. thats the way it is.

 

[P.J.]

The purpose of my OP is to highlight the rude behavior by BA staff experienced by one fellow Indian Traveller.

 

[krish44]

passengers in transit should plan better. one hour margin is too short between flights-. I would not do it even within india.
generally transits get treated badly. they are charged a transit fee for this. . besides restrictions are put on the movement of transit passengers within the airport. unless prior approval is taken , one cannot go out of airport for sightseeing in case a few hours are there in transit. . most european and arab countries treat indians badly. except perhaps swiss who depend on tourism heavily. turkey is an exceptional muslim country good for tourism.germans are the worst.
if you have a choice try airindia though service is poor. atleast you are not discriminated.ofcourse you have to put up with their delays and inefficiency.

 

[prasad1]

Indian passengers are also rude. A PIO kid (about 4 years old) was running the aisle in a domestic flight in USA. The young parents got tired of chasing the kid, and stopped coming for their wandering kid, finally the the cabin staff had to make an announcement for the parents to collect the child.
I have had good luck traveling with BA (a lot better than AI).

 

[P.J.]

PLEASE READ THIS AGAIN

MY OP IS TO HIGHLIGHT THE RUDE BEHAVIOUR OF BA STAFF EXPERIENCED BY ONE OF OUR FELLOW INDIAN CITIZEN;

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH KEEPING EXTRA TRANSIT TIME ETC ETC OR Better Travelling Experience you had previously.

 

[mskmoorthy]

These travel blogs (written by Pico Iyer Pico Iyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) may be of general interest to travelers.
His general blog is:
Pico Iyer - Jet Lagged Blog - NYTimes.com
In particular this one
http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/the-friendliest-country-and-the-unfriendliest-skies-2/ ( please read the comments)

Response by a flight attendant (please read the comments too)
http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/flight-attendants-vs-passengers-care-to-step-outside/

The twist here in the post http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/genera...british-airways-flights-india.html#post248292 is connected with race.

 

[Naina_Marbus]

 

[tbs]

Please Avoid British Airways Flights to India

It seems that BA Staff are still holding Colonial Attitude towards Indian Citizens Travelling with them.

Here is the ref to the recent Complaint lodged with BA by one of the Indian who had experienced the worst treatment while travelling to India from US


Indians comfort and loss of time is of no value to British Airways | getsetandgo

hi p j sir,

i will tell u the story....always problem for connecting to flight to delhi/mumbai from heathrow....the reason is all flights from

USA in the early mornngs in heathrow....the mumbai/delhi flights are in the morning....so connecting time is very short....many ppl

miss it...especially elders have a lot of problem....those belong to gujarat/punjab and beyond north BA flights are not advisable....

ONLY CHENNAI/BENGALURU/HYDERABAD FLIGHTS ARE IN THE AFTERNOON/EVENINGS FROM HEATHROW....so generally south

indians never had problems....im using BA every year without fail....more than 15 yrs ...i travelled through BA....even i had

problem with delhi /mumbai flight once....i miss the flight ...they arranged through dubai.....it was their mistake....even

this im travelling to chennai in october by BA.....my preferable airliner.....yes sometimes..they had colonial attitude

towards indians/indian passport holders....

 

[tbs]

i p j sir,

idhu eppadi irukku...


Clogged loos force Air India Frankfurt flight to return

 

[Naina_Marbus]

Opinions from non-Indians.

British Airways Customer review : 2 June 2014 by N Oakshott (UK)
A long time user of BA I have seen a gradual decline in quality now hit freefall and the LHR-PHX-LHR route that I use monthly has become more akin to sitting in a cattle truck than a B747. ….the aircraft is seldom what you would call clean and the crews give the impression they are almost putting themselves out to serve you. Food is not worthy of the name and the whole experience is an utterly miserable 10 hours of your life each leg. Enough is enough … the last time I'll use the …flight ……
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British Airways Customer review : 2 June 2014 by Bedingfield Elizabeth (UK)

Travelled back from Tampa to Gatwick, Friday 30th May. This flight proved that it is the crew that make a good or bad flight. This one was really bad. I was booked in Club, normally the plane is a three class 777. On Friday it was a four class that was flying and I was lucky enough to be seated in the First Class cabin. Although it was not classed as an upgrade to First because it was business class service, it should still have been a lovely experience. Yes the seat and all the space was great, but the first words I heard as being offered a drink was - "Can't wait for this flight to be over". This was from one of the stewards to another steward, but that attitude was the same amongst all the crew serving the cabin. ….the service really was appalling. My husband was in the bathroom when breakfast was served, he was ignored. A request of a cup of coffee was met with, “we will be landing in 40 minutes”. …. Will no longer recommend.
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Customer review : 29 May 2014 British Airways by Amanda Hutchinson (UK)

My husband and I travelled to San Diego from Heathrow and back via JFK five weeks later. Service is appalling. ….stewardesses who are particularly rude, abrupt and lazy. Food is particularly foul and there was a long period of some hours (the flight to San Diego is 12 hours) without access to water or beverages. …. The journey from JFK was worse. Same problem with rude and disdainful stewardess. …Dinner was pretty awful and the next meal: breakfast comprised of a near frozen croissant. The problem is staff. There needs to be a senior manager travelling on these routes in 'cattle class' incognito - then they will understand what it is like to be treated with complete disdain.
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British Airways Customer review : 28 May 2014 by S Arangelov (Bulgaria)

Heathrow - Johannesburg, A380. My first flight on A380. After half an hour delay because of planes late arrival boarding started. First thing I noticed was how tiny the seats were. Second thing to notice is that the plane was not properly cleaned. There were grease stains and empty cans left behind. At this point I noticed some toilet paper between the panels above my head. When asked, the cabin crew explained this is how they fixed condensation problem from the air conditioning. Anyhow time for lift off. I turned on the inflight entertainment system to watch it from the camera at the tail of the plane. After looking for 5 minutes I couldn't find it anywhere. (Later I found out there is no such option on BA A380s). So no tail cam, fine let's listen to some music. Wrong, the headphones are not working. Cabin crew assures me they will "bring me some more". One hour later, suffice it to say cabin crew did not bring anything. I've managed to grab a pair of unused headphones from one empty seat just to find out they were not working either. Probably it was some problem with the jack in the seat, rendering the whole inflight entertainment system pointless. And if that was not enough it was time for dinner. By the time it was my turn, BA had run out of "chicken" so my dinner was asparagus with rice or something like that. You don't even have to look at it to understand why everyone else was choosing the "chicken". So no edible dinner and soundless entertainment system. Pretty much spent the rest of the journey counting the minutes until I could get off this plane. The worst part is I have a return trip with BA which I'll be looking to switch to another airline if possible.
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British Airways Customer Reviews and Ratings | SKYTRAX

 

[P.J.]

I have been travelling to London more often ever since my Daughter moved over to UK; We have been routing our travel to US through London as we used to spend 6 months in UK with our daughter and then move on to US to stay with our son who is in US.

Even after moving to US, we had been routing our trip to India only through LONDON and through BA only.

I had more experience of flying by BA than probably any of those responded to my OP.

We have been travelling only by BA, and on no occasion we had experienced any sort of rude behavior by any BA Staff , either during our flight or during our interaction with customs and immigration officials at Heathrow Airport.

Having said that, we had also experienced inordinate delay in our flight from India finding a parking slot after landing at Heathrow and also long ques waiting at the security check counters.

I quite agree that for Transit between any connecting International Airport , a minimum of 3 hours is required as safe margin time; but that does not give any authority to any BA Staff to behave rudely with INDIANS saying that the Loss of time experienced by the passenger has no consequence to them.


If BA staff can treat other White Skinned European Passengers with due respect, it is normal for any Indian Passenger to expect same courtesy extended to them, but in this case as per the complaint lodged by the passenger, it was not given.

You might not have experienced any delay or rude behavior by any BA Staff during any of your previous trips , but that does not mean you may never experience such rude behavior in future.

One of our Indian Citizen had experienced rude behavior by BA Staff, which was reported, complaint lodged, complaint number is given, and we had to believe that has happened and unless we raise this issue in whatever Forum we are members, members may not be aware of such things happening to our own people.

MY OP is just to bring that to the notice of Members here.

It is up to you members to read my OP, in that respect and nothing more.

 

[prasad1]

Generalization based on a small sample (1 ) is doing disservice to an organization. I do not have stock in BA nor I fly BA anymore. It is preposterous to condemn on an isolated incident.

Mr. PJ sir you were chastising me on a different thread for not having proof of corruption in India, what proof other than an opinion of one individual, you have to say that British treated an Indian indifferently.

 

[tks]

Airline staff are often over worked, abused by some travelers, sleep deprived and told to keep a smile on their face all the time.
In a restaurant to serve a party of 10 people over 30 minutes could be challenging for a waiter/waitress. An airline has to prepare, deliver and clean up in about an hour for about 50 people per hostess.

Many Indians lacking a sense of collective responsibility tend to dirty up a bathroom in a matter of minutes without any shame.
Sometimes NRI summon their old parents who are not used to western toilet function to travel and do baby-sitting duties. One Air India hostess with a lot of contempt told me stories of such passengers.

There was a old woman sporting a beard actually opened the rest room looking for help as to what to do next (and I was sitting near the restroom that time) and all I could do was get a English hostess (it was a BA flight) to help this poor woman.

There was one jackass passenger who made an issue in another flight I was on (which happened to be Air India) that he was given less portion because he was an Indian and that the Air stewardess was more than happy to bend over backwards to please a white skinned passenger. It was embarrassing.

I am sure there are isolated instances where hostesses have been rude to passengers and this happens in all the flights.

A passenger registered a complaint and that needs to be addressed by BA properly one cannot generalize about any airline until a response is evaluated to see if there are systemic issues.

Until then there is no story here in my view

 

[P.J.]

This issue is not about Air Hostess misbehavior or ill treatment of passengers, it is about BA Staff mishandling missed flight Issue.

The Flight was delayed due to non availability of Parking slot and human error with the result the connecting flight was missed; the passenger concerned was told that your "Loss of time'' is no concern by us by a BA Staff and talked rudely.

Kindly go through the link i have provided before assuming many things and posting a reply.

 

[tks]

This issue is not about Air Hostess misbehavior or ill treatment of passengers, it is about BA Staff mishandling missed flight Issue.

The Flight was delayed due to non availability of Parking slot and human error with the result the connecting flight was missed; the passenger concerned was told that your "Loss of time'' is no concern by us by a BA Staff and talked rudely.

Kindly go through the link i have provided before assuming many things and posting a reply.

In the big picture it does not matter (staff or hostess or baggage handler though situations & details may differ) - airline employees are not going to solve the problems most of the time. Kuwait airlines is the worst where they lie about connections that are already oversold. Air India is bad too.

The staff is rude - making this into a race issue for the entire Airline is not wise in my view.