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Nov 18, 2009

Memo to the women who work at reception at the BA lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol airport

baWhen you try to connect to the free guest wifi in the lounge, a login screen appears, which says – and I quote:

“The username and password to access this free Wi-Fi service is available from the front desk of the lounge.”

So when a “valued guest” goes up to the front desk to enquire what the username and password for the wifi is, it’d be really awesome if you could prevent yourself from getting a big lip on, barking “the information is posted on at least three cards on the coffee tables,” then marching into the lounge, signalling for the traveller to follow, in order to point to one and say “like this one, for example.”

Because:

a) your own site says the username and password is available from the front desk
b) there are only three of those cards in the lounge, and none of them, by the way, are in the second (quiet zone) lounge, so travellers can hardly be blamed for missing them and
c) your attitude stinks: being passive aggressive, rude and mardy with paying loyal British Airways customers seems like a particularly idiotic and short-sighted way to run a hospitality service.

Also, your cheese is warm and rubbery.

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Category: Rants, Travel, fmp

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3 Responses

  1. MArk (Pig on Wheels) says:
    November 18, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    I had similar treatment at Gatwick once when I got bumped to Business for the last leg to Manchester of a flight from the US. “This doesn’t mean you can use the Business Lounge,” snapped the orange-faced tart at the counter as she dispensed my new ticket. I hadn’t even asked. She shouted it out again as I was leaving.

    So seriously, what would you have done? Proceeded directly to the Business Lounge, had a long relaxing shower, brushed your teeth with the free toothpaste, topped up on free tipples and packed as many free magazines as your hand luggage would carry?

    Damn right!

  2. Chris says:
    November 19, 2009 at 12:45 am

    This is unfortunately standard practice for BA – there’s no wonder they’re known as ‘lounge dragons’ on FlyerTalk.

    My favourite BA experience was flying SF to London, when I was offered a Daily Mail, and I asked if there were any other papers available – the old queeny steward snapped “you only get the Mail in World Traveller Plus”…

  3. Ian says:
    November 19, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    Assuming they mean you only get the Daily Mail in WTP I think that’s an excellent policy; I’d hate to get stuck sitting with a Mail reader in Club World for 8 hours!

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What’s all this, then?

This is a personal site, created and curated continuously since early 2000 by Meg Pickard, a creative geek, passionate photographer, anthropologist and web experience /community /social media specialist, who works for The Guardian & lives in London, UK.
 
The site includes a blog - a personal and evolving collection of links, opinions, thoughts, ideas, anecdotes and musings - as well as a variety of other projects. It is also a place to aggregate some of the author's distributed web activity, like photos, links and music.
 
More info about this site and its author.

Important note #1

This is a personal site. The contents and opinions contained within don't necessarily reflect those of my employer, family, or cat. They think for themselves (though mostly about tuna, in at least one case), and so do I.

Important note #2

Since the overwhelming majority of content on this site is historical, it should be regarded in light of the context in which it was originally published, and not as indicative or revealing of current perspectives, preferences or experience.

Important note #3

While I work and spend a lot of time thinking and talking about social media, participatory technologies and community development strategies, the vast majority of content on this site is not about that.

This personal site isn't about anything, except the perpetual unfolding of one person's experience, and the perspectives, observations and opinions that involves and inspires.

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