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British Airways accused of treating customers with contempt during enforced New York stopover British Airways has been accused of providing “deplorable service” after more than 100 London-bound passengers were stranded in the US for nearly three days due to a technical fault on a plane. Passengers said their children were forced to sleep on the floor of New York’s JFK airport after their flight from Orlando in Florida to London was diverted. Flight BA2036 was scheduled to leave Orlando on 1 November at 19.25 ET and arrive in London eight hours later. But after being held up by a “technical defect” and then a diversion to New York, it did not arrive in London until Sunday 4 November, 77 hours late. The airline put up passengers in a hotel for the night in Orlando and returned them to the aircraft after repairs were made. The flight was diverted to New York after a further “minor technical issue”. Passengers said many people were stranded at JFK without information, accommodation or access to food or drink for several hours. Ceri Todd, from Mumbles in Wales, said she was on the flight with her husband and two teenage children, who spent seven hours trying to sleep on the floor of the terminal before being moved to a departure lounge. Describing it as “the journey from hell”, she said there were fire engines on the JFK tarmac when the plane landed but no BA staff to greet passengers. “There was a lack of leadership, a lack of strategy and there didn’t appear to be any plan in place for when things like this happen.” Another passenger, Rosie Slater Watts, said her children had to bed down for more than five hours on a JFK terminal floor. She told the Guardian: “We were treated with contempt and like we didn’t matter. When we got on the aborted flight, the customer care manager advised us that they weren’t sure the aircraft had been fixed. No way would we ever use BA again.” BA said in a statement: “We appreciate that this was an exhausting and frustrating experience for our customers, and we have apologised for the long delay to their flight. Customers were rebooked where possible and while there were limited hotel rooms available, our teams on the ground cared for customers in our first class lounge providing bedding, food and drinks to ensure they were comfortable during their stay.” The company said it had been unable to find accommodation for all passengers because the New York marathon meant that hotels were fully booked. Since you’re here …... we have a small favour to ask. Three years ago, we set out to make The Guardian sustainable by deepening our relationship with our readers. The revenues provided by our print newspaper had diminished. The same technologies that connected us with a global audience also shifted advertising revenues away from news publishers. We decided to seek an approach that would allow us to keep our journalism open and accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. And now for the good news. Thanks to all the readers who have supported our independent, investigative journalism through contributions, membership or subscriptions, we are overcoming the perilous financial situation we faced. Three years ago we had 200,000 supporters; today we have been supported by over 900,000 individuals from around the world. We stand a fighting chance and our future is starting to look brighter. But we have to maintain and build on that level of support for every year to come. Sustained support from our readers enables us to continue pursuing difficult stories in challenging times of political upheaval, when factual reporting has never been more critical. The Guardian is editorially independent – our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important because it enables us to give a voice to the voiceless, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. Readers’ support means we can continue bringing The Guardian’s independent journalism to the world. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as £1, you can support the Guardian – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. www.theguardian.com
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