I sent the complaint below to BA on 29 *August* 2006:


---------start of original message-------------------
I would like to make a complaint about my experience in relation to this 
flight, upon which I travelled (my booking reference was XXXXXX)

The flight's departure from Brussels was delayed almost 2 hours due to a 
late inbound aircraft. My experience onboard was fine, but I am very 
disappointed with the arrangements I experienced at London Heathrow upon 
arrival.  The aircraft landed and was at its parking stand by around 21:10 
local time. We were advised after a wait of several minutes that buses were 
on their way to bring passengers to the terminal. After at least 20 minutes, 
one bus arrived, and we were asked to allow passengers with connecting 
flights to disembarked first, which I did.

However, it was *at least* another 30 minutes before the next bus arrived, a 
total of 50 minutes from landing. I was not at passport control in terminal 
4 until after 22:00.

As a result of this severe delay, I missed my train connection at 22:13 from 
Heathrow and had to wait until 23:13 for the next Heathrow Connect service. 
Consequently, my wife had to stay up to collect me from my local station at 
00:41 and it was past 1am before I arrived home, exhausted.

I would therefore ask you to urgently address the following issues:

- Given that the flight was late (which you knew) and that it would be 
directed to a remote stand (which you also presumably knew), why were buses 
(which appear to be provided by British Airways!) not awaiting the aircraft?

- Even if you were not aware that the flight would be placed on a remote 
stand until after its arrival, why on earth did it take AN HOUR to send a 
bus to deplane passengers?

I would ask that you conduct a full and immediate investigation into this 
shameful occurrence. I would have some sympathy if this ground handling 
debacle had occurred at some remote foreign airfield where you had no 
influence, but to see it take place at London Heathrow Terminal 4 - BA's 
home airport and terminal - fills me with despair.

I look forward to hearing from you with a constructive response.

---------end of original message-------------------

After a couple of chase e-mails and "we'll get back to you" responses, I 
finally got a reply today:

---------start of BA response-------------------
Dear xxx

Thank you  for your email dated 29 August 2006. I sincerely apologise for 
the delay in responding, which is due to a high volume of customer feedback 
we received.
It is vital for both our customers and our business that we operate our 
services on time.  I know it is small comfort after the event, but you can 
be sure the delay to your flight has been reviewed so that we can improve 
what we do.


Please accept my apologies and assurance that we do pay close attention to 
what our customers tell us.  We are working hard to get every aspect of our 
service right for every one of our customers, so it is genuinely helpful to 
have your letter pinpointing where we need to focus our efforts.



I realise we have not met our usual high standards this time, and I hope 
that there will be more for you to enjoy when you next fly with us.


Thank you for getting in touch, and for your helpful observations about our 
service.  I hope you will fly with us again soon.

---------end of BA response-------------------

I had specifically asked 2 questions in my original complaint, neither of 
which were addressed.  I've sent a followup to BA pointing this out to them, 
so, dear readers, I'll be sure to let you know when they get back to me - 
I'm estimating Christmas.  Note that I haven't said which Christmas.

T