Valia's Blog

Emergency does not mean being rude

2010-04-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Just a story I'd like to share. My piano teacher a lovely and lively octagenarian (at least I think so, she has never told me her age, may be more), went to see a friend of hers for lunch. Her friend had not been well, feeling weak and having had a few falls recently. At some point during the afternoon visit, her friend fell in the bathroom and even though my teacher tried hard to lift her , she was unable to do so. Eventually, she gave up and decided to ring 999 to ask for paramedics to come and help them.
The 999 man at the end of the call was very rude to her, even though she tried to answer his questions as calmly as possible. One would hope that those answering a 999 call are trained to get the right info out of people in distress, without making them feel guilty and inadequate. Especially when it comes to elderly people.
And that's all I have to say on this matter.

On a better note, the paramedics that arrived were absolutely wonderful.

Dolphin slaughter in Denmark. Surely this can't be true!

2010-01-17T03:55:00.001-08:00

How can something like this be true in Europe? We are always proud to talk about respecting rights of humans, animals and the environment and then in the name of tradition we can destroy both.
Surely this can't be true!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-the-calderon-dolphin-slaughter-in-denmark

Could BA have delighted their customer?

2009-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

I put my hand up and admit that it was my fault that I was 2 minutes late getting to the gate for the BA flight to Sofia this morning (Wed. 9 December). So if this is where BA's customer care stops, you do not need to read any further. If on the other hand you care about your passengers, especially your loyal ones, please read on.

At 7:42 the boards in terminal 5 LHR showed that the Sofia flight would depart from gate A10. A10 is down one level, so I got a coffee and sat at the top of the escalator so I could be close to the gate. Admitedly I misjudged the time and got down the escalator at exactly 8:10 (when the gate was reported to be closing). I then realised that gate A10 consisted of 5 or 6 gates and there was a long corridor. Being aware that I was late I started running from one gate to the next even though there was BA personnel around calling for the other flights, only a cleaning lady, seeing me in a panic, asked if I was going to Sofia and pointed me towards the last gate. It is worth pointing out that BA staff at the gate could see me from a distance and no one attempted to help me or tell me to hurry. When I got to the gate they showed me the last bus that had just shut its doors and was only then pulling awayand told me I could not get on the plane.

They were all nice and polite of course. I know it was my fault, but all they had to do was either put out an announcement (it was being done for other passengers on other flights) or just get to the bottom of the escalator and hurry me along, liek they were doing for other flights.

I had to get a new ticket with another airline for later that afternoon, which meant I had hours of waiting time. I asked at the customer service desk if I could be allowed to use their lounge so that I could sit and work. I expected they would help out as I have been a loyal customer and over the years I.ve had both silver and gold loyalty cards with them. Again a very polite no.

In summary, twice they could have done this little bit over and above the job description and twice they chose not to. I'm sure the Sofia flight today ticked all the Key Performance Indicators for BA , but did not delight their customer. It's a shame because they can do better.

Ice cream makers

2009-10-12T12:22:00.001-07:00

I am looking to buy a new ice cream maker (a cheap one). Does anyone know of any good ones ?

easyJet stressful boarding

2009-08-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

My family and I flew from Athens to London Luton with easyJet yesterday.
We've never really had any problems with easyJet before. Having said that, the only thing that I've always felt unhappy about was not knowing where we are going to sit. I don't like having to rush to get on the plane ahead of others and "run" down the aisle to grab the first available seat. I like the travel experience to be an experience, but a positive one. We've used easyJet a lot in the past and the way we would take some of the seat searching stress out of the equation, was by getting to the airport very early to check in.
Well, it seems that these days checking in two and a half hours before the flight is not early enough! As more and more people pay the extra for speedy boarding or check in online with only hand luggage, all the 1st group positions have been taken before one gets to the airport.
The result was having to sit separately, depriving ourselves of the opportunity to have a relaxing flight back, reminiscing about the great time we had on holiday. It is a shame really, because by sticking to this no seat number system easyJet makes you feel that they do not care and I am sure they must be losing potential customers.