Flight home...

A post script to the trip: Our transfer from Bintan to the Singapore ferry terminal, and then on to Changi Airport all went really smoothly, we were able to book in really early, in fact 6 1/2 hours early. We spent our time wandering about and enjoying the wonderful facilities; free wi fi, a butterfly garden and more muffin outlets than we could cope with.

When we boarded the plane there was however an interesting issue, the "in-flight entertainment system" for my seat was faulty, the screen was missing. A stewardess said I should have been informed of this at checking in, we weren't. The senior cabin guy came and spoke to me, was very apologetic and gave me a "Comment form" I could fill in and forward to BA Customer services. To be honest I wasn't particularly upset by the problem, but I penned the following:

 

Sir,

on page 129 of your in flight magazine "High life", you tempt your customers with the promise of "100's of movies, tv shows, games, audio options and cd's...", certainly sounds good doesn't it? I would have liked to have sampled just one of these entertaining treats, but was dismayed to discover when I took my seat that my screen was broken and "unavailable". The steward said that I should have been informed at check in - I wasn't. I checked in at Changi 6 hours before take off, so I was hardly the last to be allocated a seat.

The on-flight crew were apologetic but they weren't able to suggest any alternative for me but to write this letter. One of the films I should have been able to see was "Broken City ", - but in my case it's "Broken in flight entertainment"... another option was "Mississippi man", but for me it's "Missing-out-on-the-paid-for-entertainment man".

An irony is that we decided to pay extra for "World traveller plus" because we wanted to treat ourselves to something extra, it seems that in my case the "extra" was time on my hands...

If we'd paid even more we could have gone Business class - I bet their in flight entertainment is never broken.

I hope you register my disappointment with this state of affairs, I feel some recompense is appropriate, 12 and a half hours is a long time to kill, there's only so many letters one can write...

I await your reply.

(This is what I didn't have in front of me!)

Towards the end of the flight another senior cabin crew person approached me, apologised for the problem again, and offered to compensate me for my inconvenience by giving me either £50 off my next BA flight, or £50 pounds discount on any of the Duty free!

I consulted with my Legal department (Jan), and decided that because we rarely fly with BA the former suggestion was a no goer, and equally rarely we don't buy much Duty free so the latter offer wasn't much better. It's like a game of poker! I told the lady "thanks but no thanks", we would take up the matter with their customer services!

 

Watch this space...

 

Posted with Blogsy