Oh dear what a day, after a long GRU-LHR i did not expect what was to follow.
Travelled from T1-T5 by train, quick journey but lots of walking.
Checked in and was put on Standby so went to Staff travel area where all went well and i was accepted.
Security and screening was a breeze then all went wrong.
We were told to go to gate A5 so we waited for boarding for a 0945 departure.
0935- told gate had changed and we were all herded to another stand on a lower level to be coached out.
1115- After standing in a freezing cold area for 1hour 30 minutes we boarded coaches and left for remote stand.
We had a very honest Captain who was obviously livid and angry as to what had happened, he and his crew had been sitting on a crew bus for two hours waiting for buses to empty the aircraft we were to board so inbound passengers were also angry.
We were told there had been no loaders, no tug drivers, no coaches, no coach drivers, no step drivers, he said he expected teething problems on day one but this time " ba had lost all their teeth".
Passengers were filiming him as he stood at the front of the cabin giving regular helpful updates.
He organised a bus to return to the aircraft as so many businessmen did not want to travel as they had already missed their meetings.
It was truely embarrassing but i do not put the blame totally on BA. I will agree there were a lot of lost groud staff walking around the terminal and lots of people milling about the gate not knowing what was happening which did infuriate a lot of passengers.
1330- After sitting on an aircraft for two hours we eventually took off arriving over three hours late.
I would like to Thank the Captain and the crew led my Psr Karen Willings on the BA1326 LHR-NCL, they made themselves available for questions, they served drinks on the ground and Karen was seen on two occasions allowing passengers to use her own personal mobile telephone to inform relatives/friends of the delay. I told her she should write a Bravo on herself!!!!
The BAA/BA name similarity is also causing confusion and passengers seem quite willing to blame BA when many of the problems were caused by BAA.
I would advise crew to travel light and not carry suitcases as we left with no bags and some commuting crew were still awaiting lost bags from previous flights so are now tracing two lots of luggage.
I am sure when it is all up and running it will be a fantastic terminal but i think today did not get us off to the best of starts.
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