Beth and I are in London this week wearing the same clothes as when we departed on Saturday since British Airways lost all three of our bags. We smell sooo Euro…
I realize that shit happens, particularly when you manage a business at scale. BA seems particularly bad and my story is hardly the first or worst. The problem for me is when the remedy is half-hearted and clumsy. Here is a quick summary of my calls with them:
- Sun # 1: “The bags are on a flight arriving at 8 am. Check back later”
- Sun # 2: “We aren’t sure where the bags are”
- Mon #1: “Two of the bags are in and will be out for delivery. No info on the third…”
- Mon #2: “I don’t know why the courier has had the bags for 18 hours without delivering them”
- Tue #1: See “Sun #2″
- Tue #2: “Call the courier, Express Baggage…here is their number” (it turns out is was only voice response)
- Wed #1: “The courier has all three bags but doesn’t know where your hotel is. If you tell me, I’ll tell them, and you’ll get them by 10:30 PM”.
That last one is pretty rich. We are staying at the relatively famous May Fair Hotel in the Mayfair neighborhood. When I completed the report, I indicated we are at the “May Fair Hotel, London”. Googling that gets you a map and the first two links are to the hotel’s site. When asked why they didn’t look it up or call, the guy offered only… “uh, well, the bags will be there by 10:30″
Well…it is Thursday and I am sitting here in the hotel robe debating whether I’ll wear it to breakfast at the neighborhood Starbucks. It is about 38F and windy but the plan sounds (certainly smells) better than putting on the threads I have been wearing since Saturday.
The race is on to see whether we will get our bags before we depart this weekend!
