BA refuses a bottle of water for mother in a £1,226 seat
IT WAS once considered the best airline in the world, setting the gold standard for service and comfort and pioneering the supersonic Concorde planes. But now British Airways has been accused of acting like a ‘budget airline without the cheap prices’ after refusing a bottle of water to a 33year-old mother who was breastfeeding her baby. The new mum, who had paid hundreds of pounds extra to sit in ‘premium’ class on a 12-hour flight with her husband and six-month-old daughter, was told bottled water was a perk reserved for business class passengers only.
The young family, from Essex, had paid several times the price of economy seats because they wanted to make sure the trip to and from Mauritius with their baby went without a hitch. Their flights from Mauritius to Gatwick were part of a package, but similar ones this September can cost £1,226 per person one-way for premium economy, against £406 in standard economy or £376 in basic economy.
A flight attendant told them their only option was to be delivered water in small plastic cups – the same as economy class passengers receive. The woman’s husband, 32, said that he was surprised BA thought it could charge significantly more for a flight, yet provide almost nothing extra in terms of service. He said: ‘We were warned that premium economy is just “economy with a newspaper and an inch more legroom”. It turns out that wasn’t far off the mark.
‘The cabin was outdated, with worn seats and a lack of privacy; the screens for entertainment were small and grainy. I took one look at the breakfast on the return leg and knew I couldn’t stomach it. It was not the kind of service you’d expect for an expensive ticket. Fundamentally, BA got us from A to B without much delay. But when you pay four figures for a flight, you want C thrown in: the Class you have forked out for.’
The episode is the latest example of falling service standards at BA that have left customers feeling shortchanged. In a wave of money-saving initiatives, BA has already stopped handing out free sandwiches on short-haul flights and started charging people to reserve seats and put luggage in the hold on some routes.
The airline’s once-glowing reputation has also been tarnished by an IT meltdown that left 75,000 passengers stranded over the Bank Holiday weekend in May two years ago.
BA said that all customers can still request bottled water on flights – no matter which cabin they are in – but offered no explanation of why the woman was refused. Her husband said: ‘Either the attendant hadn’t been trained properly or they had
run out of water and she decided to make an excuse.’
He added that having water delivered by the cup was perfectly acceptable, but the attendant’s attitude had left him unimpressed. ‘We must have been about four or five hours into the flight and my wife had been asleep with our daughter on her and was thirsty,’ he said. ‘You’re supposed to drink a little bit more when you’re breastfeeding, so she requested a bottle of water. The attendant, who was pretty stern, said that they didn’t give out bottled water on premium economy – only business. My wife was, understandably, pretty unhappy about this and said she was breastfeeding and couldn’t understand why – as a premium economy passenger – she couldn’t have a bottle of water.
‘The attendant said she could give her a cup of water instead, to which we said that one cup wouldn’t be enough – and we didn’t want to keep disturbing a sleeping child. So the attendant went off and returned with a tray of four or five, and waited while my wife drank.
‘Premium economy tickets for such a trip cost approaching four times the price of economy, but you definitely don’t get four times the service.’
Customers have submitted poor feedback on BA on the Trustpilot customer ratings website, giving an average of just 1.8 out of 10 from more than 1,700 reviews. BA said: ‘We’re currently upgrading our 777 aircraft. British Airways will be investing £4.5billion over the next five years in new aircraft and interiors to enhance our customer experience.
‘Customers will be able to enjoy inseat power and high-speed wi-fi on all flights, as well as new in-flight entertainment systems. By 2020 we will have received 100 new aircraft in less than a decade.’