British Airways Business Class, bad service and ******

<p>My wife and I decided to use some of our avios to fly business class from Durban to Johanesburg on the 3rd January 2016 on BA6202. We arrived at King Shaka International airport and passed through security only to find out that our flight had been delayed by ~5hrs and was now scheduled to depart at 19h45 instead of 15h05. This was suprising since we had recived ZERO communication from BA regadring the delay. When we proceeded to the BA counter we were told by the consultant (Amaltha Harikasun ) that the plane had a problem in Port Elizabeth (PE) and that was the reason for the delay. This meant that BA knew 1 hr and 45 min before scheduled departure in DBN that the plane had not left PE and would not be arriving on time. The consultant then told us that the reason we were not contacted was beacuse they had to call people individually and it took a long time. My wife and I were seated in row 3 of the plane, how long does it take to call 6-8 people? more than 2 hours? really? When we enquired about alternative flights that we could be transferred on, we were informed that tall flights were fully booked and that even if we got on a waiting list that there would be zero chance of getting on another flight. We then left the airport. Upon returning to the airport, our flight was now further delayed to 20h30. As we proceed to the boarding gate entrance we discovered that there was no priority boarding line sign as there usually is. There was a gentlemen in a wheel chair on the right, so we stood behind him and were forced to endure looks of judgment from the other passengers in the non priortity boarding line. When the doors opened, there was no call for priority boarding just a free for all of people rushing the gate. The ticket counter attendents did not even greet us or acknowledge us. We were then forced to wait another 15minutes in the boarding tunnel. during this time we learned that other customers had been compensated with flight refund vouchers and meal vouchers, none of which were ever offered to us at the BA counter. Perhaps our skin color was a little too dark for BA to warrant compensating us. Upon entering the plane and taking our seats, we were then informed that there would be a further delay as 6 passengers that had not boarded had baggage that needed to be offloaded. During this time I discovered that my seat (a business class seat) was in fact broken and freely reclined backwards and there was also chewing gum in the front comaprtment which leaked an oily residue all over the book placed there. When air hostess offered champange and drinks to the passengers in business class, my wife and I requested champange. The airhostess did not have any reamining on here tray and and expressed her annoyance at our request. She then took the order of the white couple seated in the row across the aisle (also champange) and then returned with their drinks. My wife and I then received our glasses and were both amazed by the fact that our glasses were only a quater filled whiled every other passenger whom had ordered the same drink had 3/4 filled glasses. Again, I was left to the conclusion that somehow I was a second class citizen who did not warrant the level of treatment as my white peers on the plane. As an executive club member, this is the worst experience I have had on any airline, ever, anywhere in the world. The way my wife and I were treated is unacceptable and I sincerely hope that BA remedies the situation. Having said that, I will be spending my remaining aviois and switching to teh Voyager programme on SAA where I hope that I will at least never be treated as a second class citizen again.</p>