British Airways passengers experienced an absolutely nightmarish customer service mishap last week when a flight departing from Orlando, Florida on Thursday evening did not reach its destination at the Gatwick Airport, south of central London, until Sunday. The trip should have taken just eight hours, but after waiting on the plane for four hours, 200 passengers — many returning from a trip to Disney World — were forced to deplane and shuttled to a hotel for the night due to a mechanical issue.
“Imagine 200 people turning up in the early hours to check in to a hotel,” Sarah Wilson, a mother of four who spent £11,000 on airfare taking her family on a “dream” vacation, later told BBC News. “It was a chaos and there was not a BA representative in sight taking charge.”
The following day, the shuttle back to the Orlando Airport was delayed twice before finally leaving around 8:00 p.m. on Friday. When the flight finally took off in the early hours of Saturday, within 40 minutes it was diverted to JFK airport in New York City due to the same mechanical issue. After the “roughest one-and-a-half hours on a flight” Wilson said she’d ever experienced, they finally landed in New York but found themselves stranded at the airport terminal with nowhere to go.
“On arrival at JFK, first of all we had to wait until 06:00 ET for the BA staff to arrive and then told there was no food waiting and getting a hotel would be difficult because the New York Marathon was on and everywhere was fully booked.
“One mother asked where she could get formula for her seven-month-old baby and the reply was ‘it would be difficult to find anywhere at this hour.’ She was in tears.
“The passengers were treated inhumanely, all we wanted was some food and drink, somewhere to sleep and to be kept informed – and they failed on all counts no matter what they claim.”
Throughout the three day long ordeal, many passengers sounded off on Twitter imploring for British Airways to intervene:
#BA2036 deplorable service. Cannot believe our children had to sleep on the floor of an airport terminal for five and a half hours whilst you advise that you are looking after us. pic.twitter.com/sPXUFnmZgX
— Rosie slater watts (@SlaterRosie) November 3, 2018
Imagine having a little daughter spending their birthday in a terminal,sat on a rock hard floor and not knowing when they’re going to eat, sleep or have a safe place to stay. Put yourself in the footsteps of that family and think about what you are doing.#BA2036 @British_Airways
— Kc (@caseywilson98) November 3, 2018
@British_Airways so this plane should have left MCO 7:25pm Thursday it is now 7:25pm Saturday and we find ourselves in JFK still not boarded. Constant examples of sheer incompetence and lies. @SkyNews @NBCNews #BA2036
— Tom Humphries (@th3s) November 3, 2018
#BA2036 Stranded at JFK for 4 hours today with no information on any details!!! pic.twitter.com/GpQtStlrgo
— Theresa Haddad (@terrie8800) November 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/boozyrac/status/1058859622327635968
https://twitter.com/Lee_Sullivan85/status/1059005360453939200
I cannot believe how inept and disorganized British Airways have been in this whole sorry affair. They have spoiled the whole holiday with their handling of the situation. #BA2036
— Lee Wilson (@leeson67) November 3, 2018
77 hours after original flight time we are on our way home. I could cry!! Thank you all FB and Twitter friends for your support. Let you know when we get home xxx @British_Airways #BA2036 @DailyMirror @BBCNews @itvnews @piersmorgan @realDonaldTrump
— Ceri Todd (@doctoddy) November 4, 2018
The airline has since apologized to passengers saying that it “appreciated that this was an exhausting and frustrating experience” was “sorry for the long delay,” which seems like the understatement of the century.
