V-Flyer

Awoke in the morning, and noticed that it had been snowing again - check BA.com and the flight was still listed as being on time. After a few meetings at work, our car to the airport arrived. En route to the airport, checked flight-tracker, which showed that the flight was cancelled. My travelling companion is BA gold, so he called to find out what we should do. They were unable to do any re-routing but told us we were wait-listed for the BA482, but to go to the gold desk on arrival and they would be able to help more.

Once we got to T3, we walked over to the BA check-in area, to find there was no BA Gold desk. We spoke to one of the BA assistants, who basically said we had to wait in the queue to join the queue at the customer service desk (and that BA Gold had no priority over anyone else). My travelling companion queried this,and so she went off to speak to someone more senior. When she returned, she took our executive cards and told us that we were waitlisted for the BA482 and basically we should go away and come back in 2.5 hours to find out if we had a seat. I then requested the written information about delays and compensation etc, which was not forthcoming. Eventually, after being pressed about it several times, she simply said 'if you want to complain then you'll have to go and speak to the duty manager'.

We wandered over and waited whilst she dealt with another BA Gold passenger. Things then changed completely - the Duty Manager was amazing. She came up with different re-routes (via Paris or Madrid), but basically said we should wait it out and she was pretty certain we would get on the flight. We asked about what to do in the interim, and she said she would sort boarding cards so that we could get into the BA First lounge, with the remote chance that we would have to 'land' if there were no seats! Her handling of the situation was perfect, and really made up for the initial problems with the BA customer services agent.

Once through security, which was deserted, we headed to the BA First Galleries. Having been in the Club Galleries in T3, I was interested to see what it was like. It is about the same size as the Club one, but the drinks were better quality (open vintage champagne, Grey Goose vodka, T10 gin etc). There is a first dining room, but it was only offering a 'daytime menu', which is nothing like the evening one that is available once the flights from T3 with first are using the lounge.....and also it is self-service drinks in the dining room during the day.

We had a very nice time in the lounge waiting - eventually got our boarding cards for club seats on the BA482, which was also running about an hour late. It was the usual bus out to the plane, and then we sat there waiting. Someone didn't turn up, and as it was a B757 they had to individually off-load the bags to find theirs. This meant we missed our slot and finally ended up leaving around 10pm (we should have left LHR at 16:20). Whilst on the ground, we were offered juice/water in club, and eventually they also did a soft drinks round in EuroTraveller.

Finally after we were de-iced, we headed off for the flight to BCN. Once in the air, it was drinks (vodka/diet coke for me, and I was given two minature bottles) followed by dinner (I had the pork and spicy noodles - very nice). I asked for another diet coke, which he thought meant I wanted more vodka, so he came back with two more minatures (which ended up being flown home with me!). The crew were cheery and helpful throughout the flight, and we finally arrived sometime near 1am local time.

The snow delays weren't BA's fault, but what was very annoying was the handling of the situation by some of BA's staff on the ground (people are already stressed in this type of situation, and they just seemed to be making it worse!). BA first lounge at T3 - definately nothing on the ClubHouse!!

Thank you for the TR, it's shame about the first agent that you faced didn't really understand the rules. However, great news about the Duty Manager and good to hear that you managed to get in the air.[y]