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    #26
    I flew into Heathrow last year on American with a change to BA up to Stockholm. Our American flight arrived 3 hours late meaning I missed my connection to Stockholm. The people at the American terminal (3?) had no idea what the fuck was going on, none of us knew if we had been rebooked or where to get new boarding passes. They were all shouting at people and trying to herd us into a bus to Terminal 5 or something. After 25 minutes no bus showed up. So I walked back into the terminal (while being shouted at for leaving), went out through immigration and customs (took two minutes) and took the tube to Terminal 5. Walked up to the British Airlines check-in desk, explained my story, and they sorted everything out in two minutes and put me on the next flight. Even found my luggage in the system and made sure it was redirected to the new flight. You find out how good an airline is when things go wrong and they have to fix shit. American failed, BA succeeded. Pity BA tried to charge me 2 pound 50 for a cup of tea on the flight to Stockholm. Tea!
    Last edited by anton pulisov; 16-10-2018, 23:29.

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      #27
      That might say more about American than about BA. And you might have been lucky in your interactions with BA staff at T5. My most recent interactions with them have involved mostly surliness and getting shoved into long queues without any explanation of why it would be this slow moving queue rather than that almost empty line.

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        #28
        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
        Singapore used to have a daily flight from Changi to JFK that would stop in Frankfurt for a crew change and fuel.

        They would sell the few seats that were empty for the second leg for hundreds less than Lufthansa. It was bliss.
        As of this week they have the world's longest nonstop flight award again, Singapore to Newark.

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          #29
          I usually fly Virgin to the US and have flown with them to HK and Sydney. Of course we hate Branson but it’s a good flying experience. The last few times I’ve gone Upper Class if it’s over 9 hours, Premium Economy to JFK. All good.

          In the 2000s, I flew United to the US, in whatever class was available as I had a friend who worked for them. So most often it was Business. They were mostly good then.

          I’ve flown a lot with BA, in all classes, and I still have Avios points I need to use. What puzzles and puts me off them most is that their cabin crew seem such snobs. I’m never rude to service staff, and being nice usually pays dividends. BA staff seem to hate everyone and do that gritted-teeth smile if you ask for as much as a cup of water. They stomp up and down the plane avoiding eye contact. Also they’ve been a bit funny at the gate, “we’re boarding FIRST CLASS passengers ONLY, Madam”. “Yes, I’m flying first-class”. [Look me up and down, look at my boarding pass, slight ‘face’ as they process it, then the fake smile.] “There you go, Madam.”

          I’ve also gone long haul with Nippon and Air NZ, the latter were superb even in economy.

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            #30
            Just echoing what a lot of others have said - BA used to be my airline of choice (not that I was a regular aviator, but still) but have gone well and truly down the toilet in the last 15 years; the last 5 have been especially bad.

            They still want to charge BA ticket prices, but nowadays for EasyJet levels of service and punctuality (and charging extra for luggage, food, check-ins etc). Fuck that noise.

            They've gotten so bad that mrs b and I are planning to fly Norwegian to Orlando when we go to see her 'Murican friends in Florida. If you're going to get budget service, you may as well be paying budget prices.

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              #31
              Would this be an okay thread to post my underpants in Cairo anecdote? It's sort of airline related.

              Some years ago, I went to work in Cairo for a month. The bastard employers were too poor to pay for a direct flight, so I flew with Greek Airways, with a change in Athens. However, the first plane from Madrid was delayed so I missed the connecting one. I was put up in a hotel near the Greek capital. I was told that my suitcase would be put on the new flight the following day. All I had with me as hand luggage was a small rucksack with important documents and a change of socks and undies...that sort of stuff.

              However, on arriving at Cairo Airport I discovered that my suitcase hadn't followed me. I was a bit worried about this but fairly optimistic that there'd been a mix-up and that it would soon arrive.

              But a day or two passed and nothing happened. Cairo is a hot place and it's necessary to change your clothes with more regularity than you would in, say, Worksop. I could wash stuff by hand and they would dry quickly in the baking sun but this was no long-term answer, especially not when the girl in the Greek Airways office was telling me, "We are hardly looking for your suitcase".

              With short-term compensation money from the airline I set out in Cairo to buy some replacement clothes. A couple of shirts and a pair of trousers was easy enough, then it was time for the undies. I entered a shop. They spoke English. I explained what I wanted. A pair was recovered from a shelf and handed to me with the words, "Twenty Egyptian Pounds!"

              This was way too much for a pair of briefs, and I asked if they had anything cheaper. The shop assistant took them from me, ascended a step ladder to a higher level and descended brandishing a pair of undies in his sweaty hands.

              "These are ten pounds, " he told me.

              I examined them and realised they were exactly the same ones as he'd showed me a couple of minutes before. I bought them. They were white. Most underpants sold in Egypt seem to be white. They are not very adventurous in their underwear.

              The next day I found much cheaper ones in one of Cairo's street markets. One crotch was bigger than the other, but this didn't cause me too many problems. You get used to these small troubles in foreign climes.

              They lasted for longer than my Cairo sojourn, but on arriving home my girlfriend took umbrage to the undies and decided they had to go. I rather wanted to keep them as a souvenir, but my decision had been already made for me, and out they went.

              I never got my suitcase back, by the way.

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                #32
                [QUOTE=Sporting;1483955] One crotch was bigger than the other, but this didn't cause me too many problems.

                So does sir dress to the left or the right?

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