British Airways replace knackered suitcase

So on my way out to Gran Canaria (full blog on that coming soon, promise), British Airways knackered the retractable handle on my suitcase, presumably in Terminal 5’s infamous baggage handling system. I was left carrying it for the rest of the journey (a further two flights) to Gran Canaria, and obviously all the way back too (another two flights).

When we returned to Terminal 1 on Monday I went up to the customer service desk, fully prepared for the mother of all fights with a jobsworth hiding behind the company’s terms and conditions and stating categorically that British Airways couldn’t possibly be held responsible for damage to personal property caused by uncaring staff and/or malfunctioning machinery and that it’s left at the owner’s risk, yadda yadda yadda. But it never came, and I was all geared up for it too!

Instead, a very nice gentleman took the details of the suitcase, produced a catalogue of luggage from under his desk and asked us to identify the suitcase in it, filled in a form in front of us and then without even looking at (much less actually examining) the suitcase, stated (without any sort of fanfare) that he was very sorry for the damage and that a replacement suitcase would be delivered to me in three to four days.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. The same was true on Wednesday, when, sure enough, the replacement suitcase was delivered to my apartment. Not some cheap knockoff, the real Samsonite deal, a direct replacement.

Everyone loves to slag off British Airways but on this occasion I really can’t fault them. Good for them. Bigup.