Poor communication and customer service

I would like to express my extreme disappointment in the service provided by BA on 3 October.

I was booked on flight BA6274 from Windhoek to Johannesburg and then on Kulula MN641 from Johannesburg to Durban.

When at the airport waiting for my flight, I heard from colleagues that the incoming flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek was delayed, so I went to the BA counter at Windhoek airport to ask if BA6274 was delayed (this was about 2 hours before the flight). I was assured that the incoming flight was due to land in 5 minutes and there were no delays.

I subsequently checked through, and a delay was then announced about half an hour before the flight was due to board. This would mean I would miss my connecting flight back to Durban.

There is no-one available in the boarding area to get more information so I went back out of security to the BA desk to ask about the flights. I was assured that the incoming flight was NOW in the air, and that I would get onto a flight to Durban the same evening. Having been in this position with BA previously and having experienced the same total lack of communication I then called BA to be told that there was only one later BA flight to Durban at 19:00 which was full, so I would not be able to get on it.

I eventually booked a flight back on SAA to make sure that I got home that night (and it turned out that if I hadn’t BA was unable to assist me, and I would have had to spend the night in Joburg).

As mentioned above, I experienced a similar situation a few months ago, where I ended up having to spend an extra night in Windhoek. I appreciate that delays do happen, but the communication and assistance from BA is absolutely dismal, and I would really expect better from a major international brand.