Oh how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, British Airways referred to itself as “the world’s favorite airline”. Now, they are quickly becoming the world’s worst.
After their planned strike was canceled, it became obvious that staff morale was at an all time low – something that became painfully obvious last Friday night at London Heathrow. A flight arriving from Prague got into the airport over an hour late, mainly due to the bad London weather.
Sadly, the baggage handling team at terminal 5 reached the end of their work day, and nobody at British Airways was willing to authorize overtime pay. End result — luggage stays on the plane, and the staff all go home.
Passengers had to wait for hours till the morning crew arrived at the airport. Some of these customers had been stuck at the airport for almost 6 hours. Of course, British Airways blamed everything on the bad weather, and apologized for the situation. Sadly, this is the same airline that once left 100’s of bags out in the rain, so they have a pretty nasty history in dealing with luggage.
It’s winter travel season again, in case you didn’t know.
The first major storm of the year was nothing short of severe. Some drivers ditched their cars on the side of the road, giving up any attempt to compete with the snowstorm. Meanwhile, malls were empty, as many didn’t bother trying to compete with the weather.
When the chairman of Thai Airways arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport, he did so with his wife, and 30 pieces of luggage. His official luggage allowance is just 132 pounds, so the 840 pounds of stuff he was dragging along with him on his trip was about six times too heavy.
Based on the excess luggage rates for Thai Airways, Mr. Wallop would have been expected to pay about $12,000 for the right to bring his luggage on the plane – but apparently he felt he was too important to pay. And that is where a firestorm of criticism started.
Thai Airways hasn’t posted a profit in several years, and the chairman was already on shaky ground. This incident has finally forced the airline board to investigate the incident, and they placed Wallop on administrative leave.
The whole story gets even better, because apparently Wallop demanded that all his luggage be sent to the lost and found depot at Bankok airport, in order to prevent it passing through customs (and being subject to import taxes). As the storm grew, Wallop even claimed all 30 bags were filled with donations for a local Buddhist temple.
Even the Thai government managed to get involved – and with growing calls for his resignation, Mr. Wallop will probably really regret pushing the limits on luggage allowance, since it will end up costing him his job.
Imagine an airline experience free of middle seats, standing in line or dealing with nut-job flight attendants who withhold orange juice, water and any other service not related to “safety.” Tom Stuker, it seems, doesn’t have to close his eyes and pretend: he lives the dream. He’s spent 700,000 in non-middle seats this year alone, with complimentary cocktails, a hidden check-in process and a taste of luxury not present even in first class having become the norm for him.
Now, with 8.8 million miles racked up on United over his travel-intensive career, Stuker has been admitted to an elite frequent flier program, of the sort we covered here at Gadling not to long ago. This is the type of secret society noted in George Clooney‘s new flick, “Up in the Air.” Airlines don’t like to talk about it, but they actually do treat people well on occasion. You just have to spend a fortune to matter enough to them.
United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski Janikowski likens the airlines super-duper-premium offer, Global Services, to Yale’s Skull and Bones society. Like the elite underworld of the Ivy League, its members include CEOs, senators and other people envied by the rest of us.
So, how does this work?
1. You get a special check-in area. Avoid the great unwashed, and get greeted by name, as a concierge, of sorts, dispatches with your bags quickly. Your boarding passes will be waiting for you. At some airports, you’ll be able to pass through a hidden door to the front of the security checkpoint.
2. You’ll be watched. When? Well, when you move to the front of anything. We are all aware of those guys who occasionally are allowed to board before the elderly – before any announcements are made.
3. You’ll choose first. For everything, all the time. The meal will come to you before anyone else even knows there’s food on the plane.
4. Your lost luggage is scouted. If the airline loses your luggage, they actually try to find your luggage. Actively. A special team takes care of this.
None of this is truly life-changing, though, except the security piece. The real value of being a member of this type of secret society becomes apparent when something goes wrong … not unusual when airline employees are involved.
If you have a connection that’s too tight, the airline will rebook you on the next available flight – while you are still in the sky. A special agent will meet you at the gate with your new boarding pass, and a set of wheels will be furnished to take you to the next gate. If you need to go through security again, you’ll be escorted personally. In rare cases, a car will be waiting for you to dart you across the tarmac to your next plane. Terminals are for prolie scum.
Thinking back to Stuker, he’s got insane props with several airlines, but his favorite is United, because, “I am treated like a king.” Simply, he notes, “If I was in coach, I would shoot myself.”
Do you enjoy a story filled with stupid people? Then you are going to love this one! A Texas stamp collector checked his luggage containing rare stamps – and a regular luggage thief swiped the bag and tried to sell the stamps at local pawn shops.
The thief, Antoine Shaw, is a regular at Midway airport, and he has been charged with luggage theft before. Of course, since airport security is too busy searching people for water bottles and nail clippers, nobody noticed this repeat thief swipe more bags. Antoine hit the jackpot when grabbed a bag on November 18th – it contained $200,000 in rare stamps.
Pawn shops gladly purchased the stamps from him on two visits, but on his third trip, pawn shop staff got suspicious and called the cops. Shaw was arrested, and according to the police report, “only some” of the stamps were recovered.
It doesn’t matter how often you remind people not to check valuables in your luggage – every year someone ignores the advice. Of course, in most cases it involves a missing laptop or camera.%Gallery-76818%