BIRTHDAY BLUES

In June 2017, I purchased two first class tickets on a Dreamliner from Phuket via Kuala Lumpur to London (BA34) to celebrate my husband’s 80th birthday.

Things quickly went from a dream trip to a nightmare. On the second leg to London, my husband discovered the IFE system in his seat was not working – the steward changed the headphones, to no avail. Eventually they discovered half the IFE systems in the first class cabin were not working, so they could do nothing. Then we were given pyjamas – these were all the same dark-blue colour for men or women, which made us look more like inmates than elite passengers.

Next, the food: the appetizer was an extremely spicy salmon ceviche. Was there an alternative? No. Did anyone ask if we were ok with spicy food? No. For the main course my husband chose the beef tenderloin, which came rock hard and totally overcooked. The steward changed it – but the second tenderloin came even harder. My husband agreed to try the risotto instead but this was tasteless. With no decent dinner, my husband was given a small plate of cheese – surely common sense would have been to make this dish a little bigger. My husband went to sleep with no movie to watch and no dinner.

I decided to charge my mobile phone only to find that the charging points were also not working, and the cabin crew didn’t seem to know how to use the equipment (though thankfully, at this point, the switched-on cabin services director took my phone to charge somewhere else). After a sleep, I woke first and had some breakfast. Later my husband woke up, but when he chose his breakfast, was told they had run out of the dish he wanted. Other issues included having just one toilet cubicle for the nine first class passengers, crew and pilots. Moreover, it was dirty from the start, whereas other airlines keep this spotless at all times. Thank you British Airways for making this birthday so unforgettable.

I wrote to customer services when I landed, demanding an upgrade for the return section (we were only able to book business class apparently) or a full refund.

They chose to remain silent until the day we f lew home, then told us there was no alternative route with first class, upgrading was not possible and a refund was not possible. Instead, they offered me 15,000 Avios in compensation, which as a friend told me, meant I could f ly for free between Heathrow and Gatwick… quite disgusting.

I suppose if we were famous people we would have new tickets and a red carpet. But being only full-paying passengers, who cares? Thank you British Airways for making the trip so awful, for not responding on time, and for not coming up with a decent solution.

Sabine Wolf Gilbert, Phuket