If all airports were to adopt Terminal 5's modus operandi then perhaps it would reduce our unreasonable expectations about unlimited air travel. Hats off to the architect who obviously takes the threat of global warming very seriously!

Rikki Tikki-Tavi, Lichfield, England

Hm, Beijing airport opened without much fuss last month.

Funny how they can get something right, and the BBC doesnt notice.

Rob, Swansea, UK

Brian, don't forget O'Connell s Law - "Murphy was an optimist".

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

Willie Walsh Law

Optimism alone will get you nowhere, attention to detail will !!

P Baker, Andover.,

I'm surprised that the country is surprised at the debacle that is terminal 5. I flew to Canada last weekend and my connecting flight was delayed getting into Heathrow (BA). I was told at flight connections that my plane had boarded and we couldn't catch it. A colleague who was also travelling then told me that they were still in departures and the plane hadn't boarded. We had to queue for over an hour. There was one person looking after approximately 200 people in the queue whilst 10 feet away 6 people were looking after 4 1st class passengers. It was only when I complained to the manageress that 2 additional people came out. The reason I was given was that it was difficult to get people to work the bank holiday weekend.
To add insult to misery I returned through T5 and am told today that they still have to locate my suitcase. I have not been advised as to any compensation I'm entitled to despite being without essential clothing and information from my business trip.
I will not fly BA

Gary Millen, Stirling, Scotland

QUOTE: "The worlds favorite airline" (sic)
D.Heath, London

Teehee! That actually made me laugh in what was otherwise just another aren't-we-rubbish story. I must say I've never had a problem with flying BA, but I don't fly that often. And, let's face, they've royally messed up T5.

Gareth Strachan, Abingdon, UK

After the way BA has handled this debacle I doubt they will need the full terminal anymore as am sure many have been put off flying BA after this

Rich Mathews, Edinburgh, Lothian

Will British Airways pay compensation to passengers who have suffered cancellation? Reading the www.flightmole.com discussion board shows that British Airways consistently attempt to stonewall legitimate attempts to recover compensation.

Joan, London,

My worst airtravel was with BA, who managed to delay a flight from Copenhagen to London by 20 hours! After midnight they sent us to hotels with the message that we should be back at the airport by 7. At the airport we were then told that the staff was not allowed to be contacted before 9, so we - the catlle - would have to wait. One woman transferring to Calcutta was initially denied even a phonecall to her daughter in Heathrow, while the rest was denied meal coupons. The next morning all other airlines flew to Heathrow from the start while BA was unable to inform or fly before 2 pm!

Infrastructure in this country is the laughing stock of the world, and the Olympics are coming on (although not even near the price projected).

Made in Britain - God help us all...

Claus, London, UK

After all this incompetence at T5, I suggest BA and BAA offer
themselves to Singapore Airline (my favourite airline) to run them. Singapore recently opened Changi T3 without a glitch.

Rahman, Karachi,

Flyer rights bill is shown as posters also on all Scandinavian airports - but on those operated by BAA, you can't have that even as a flyer (have tried that 4 times on Stanstead and twise at Heathrow). And this is responsibility of both BAA and operating airline.

Other thing: Mister W.W. will not resign, because then he'd lose the golden parachute and if he is sacked then he'll get multimillion compensation plan. I would suggest alternative way: mr WW would still keep his salary, but he would be demoted (if the title can't be changed, then just redefine general manager job description) to cleaning toilets, handling luggage, work in check-in and othre BA routine jobs ... I'd love to see how long he would keep that up before he'd resign, which would save BA significant amount of money!

Michael, London,

I expect that the Manchester Airports group, and the Peel owned airports will be rubbing their hands together in glee.

I find it impossible to understand why anyone who has any alternative would ever contemplate using Heathrow as a hub airport.

Break up BAA now.

MARTIN GRIFFITHS, Hyde,

I flew into T3 at Changi on the day it opened, then out the next day. It was perfect, calm, comfortable, clean with no delays. Maybe BA should have got some help before opening T5, as the size of this disaster is staggering.

Jon Bird, Owaka, New Zealand

I remember flying on a transatlantic flight to Miami a couple of years ago. There was a British couple seted next to me. We got to talking as the woman's seat was broken. The husband remarked that in the UK BA doesn't stand for British Airways but is a descrption of the airline itself..."bloody awful." Another time I flew BA to London and there was a fire on the plane. We were diverted to Philadelphia. They provided 1bus for a full 747! There was nobody around to ask questions to and we had no idea when to be ready in the morning to see if our flight was going off. Totally unprofessional. It took me 8 months, several letters and calls to the CEO before I was offered a voucher for flights. Although I now fly only Virgin Atlantic on my transatlantic flights, I do fly BA within Europe and tend to agree. They really need to get their act together. I'll be flying out of T5 in June and am keeping my fingers crossed that the gltiches are now fixed.

Lynda, Henderson, Nevada

Imposing fines on BA will only mean that the customers will end up having to pay for them.
Hit the Irish guy at the top where it hurts and then let Easyjet and Ryanair in,that'll shake them up.They can turn planes around in minutes.

alan routledge, chester, england

A lot of people from my company travel from Algiers, Algeria to Aberdeen, Scotland via London Heathrow: we have all learnt: something : never have your luggage sent directly from Algiers to Aberdeen: it gets too often lost at Heathrow Airport.
The first leg of the trip is flown with Air Algérie, while the second leg is with BA. I never had a luggage lost with Air Algérie.
You need to collect your luggage in London and then check it in again for the second leg of the trip.
On such a trip I arrived to Aberdeen, but my luggage did not and the BA assistance in Aberdeen was close to none: I had to nearly beg for an overnight kit. After a week in Aberdeen without my luggage, I flew back to London Heathrow where, with a lot of luck and after 3 hours I managed to get my Luggage back.
I ll never fly with BA again.

AMar HADDADI, Algiers , Algeria

Typically UK. Can't get anything right, but you can bet your bottom dollar T5 is awash in health and safety workers in dayglo jackets and Estuarian-speaking VI form dropouts in fleece jackets (the blight of the modern British "uniform") who can't pronounce the letter "r" exhorting you to "speak to their colleagues".

Jimmy B, Pasadena, USA

Why the T5 debacle is being met with any degree of surprise is a total mystery to me...

My experience as a regular, long haul business class passenger with BA over the past 10 years consists of interminable delays on the ground – both at the point of departure & of arrival (including long, tedious hours of waiting for my baggage to arrive on the belts at HT4), of being served sub-standard food on board by surly, inattentive staff with a (mystifying) superiority complex, of shabby cabins with broken trim, malfunctioning seats & entertainment systems that fail as often as they work and of toilets that are 'fouled' within hours of the flight departing.

Mercifully this era is soon to end and I shall be free of the company travel policy that mandated BA as the preferred carrier and will be travelling with Singapore Airlines instead – now there is a company that understands the concept of customer service.

JBF, London,

Now is'nt SHANNON Airport lucky that all connections with Heathrow were finished,
A. BIRDTHISTLE
13370 Mallemort France

Alexander Birdthistle, Mallemort 13370, France

Avoid Heathrow at all costs. It is the black hole of global aviation.

Ed, San Diego, USA

5-10 years ago, BA was highly regarded as one of the best European and Transatlantic airlines, if not in the world. A series of fiascos, poor industrial relations, price-fixing and now the Terminal Five saga have left its reputation in tatters. There are some things that are not BA's fault, such as terrorism, or the incompetence and venality of Ferrovial/BAA which runs Britain's main airports. Nonetheless, Willie Walsh needs to think long and hard about how he is going to turn this round - BA does not have many more chances and faces financial catastrophe and/or being eaten up by a competitor if it doesn't get its act together

Richard, Bexhill, UK

"Considering claims on a case by case basis" is going to cost BA far more than blanket compensation would, and the proper, timely notification of terms would have saved even the price of writing and circulating the offending letter. Generally speaking, thinking ahead beats any amount of hindsight.

Rosemary , Germany,

Maybe all the managers will give up some of their fat cat salaries now to the customers who have suffered.
Or maybe they should start listening to the staff at BA for once & finally get somewhere in making BA great again.

and, finchley, london

It defies belief that noone appears to have properly tested all systems and functions before going live with this terminal.
Having seen many state of the art IT systems introduced, none of which actually worked as advertised on day 1 and needed tweaking to perform their basic design function, largely due to inadequate testing, why am I not surprised that T5 was the same. I am sure there are lots of people who would have been glad of the chance to play passenger for a day even for couple of quid out of pocket expenses plus meals, which would additionally test the catering as well!

Im old enough to remember the trumpeting when T4 was opened, with the same wild promises of comfort, accessibility and stress free BA only travel. Yes well OK!

Bill Glanvill, Horsham, W Sussex

I learned 20 years ago not to fly with BA,having a counter clerk attempt to almost refuse to book me in for a flight-most humiliating not to feel like a fee paying customer.
How many others are learning the same lesson now?
When BA fails don`t think that the writing wasn`t on the wall!

Chris, Asia/Europe,

Would Tata consider buying BA? Please...

Bob, Leeds,

Bearing in mind the opposition to terminal 5 one wonders if some sabotage is involved here.

john, buckingham, uk

I have spent fourty years flying around the world on business and pleasure and BA has NEVER been my favourite airline. The incompetence of management is bad enough but, as many of those stranded have mentioned, the attitude of staff compounds the problem; arrogant and unhelpful are the words that spring to mind. Thank God for Virgin. It always amazes me that successive governments always seem to favour BA in supporting landing rights, giving planning permission for new terminals etc.

Ian, Frederick , USA/MD

If I remember correctly there was criticism in this paper when terminal 5 was being built over seating. I understand there are only 60 odd seats in the entire terminal with too much space taken by retail shops.

Just another example where common sense has taken a back seat and profit taken the driving seat. Can not the UK get anything right nowadays. As for BA, no change there!

T D Miller, Oxted, Surrey

A lack of proper primary and secondary education,a culture of"I have my rights but no obligations"particularly from BA staff all drawn together beautifully in the debacle at T5

David Knight, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

people never learn ! When I book my ticket for holidays I tell my travel agent, any airlines, even, Syrian airlines will be Ok but not BA.
BA is the sick child of Britain.

Minu, London, UK

As a trainee Engineer in the 1950's I was given one major piece of advice - "K I S S" [Keep it simple stupid]. It seems all today's Managers either in land or air transport want to re-invent the wheel!

Benbow, Andover,

As a regular traveler taking on average 60 flights a year for the last twenty years I have, over the past few years, become appalled at the decline in standards and service offered by 'The worlds favorite airline' (sic).

Since Willy Walsh took charge there has been a rapid decline in all that BA offer ranging from randomly canceled flights to interminable baggage delivery, if it arrives at all, and it's all such a national disgrace. To see him surrounded by desperate travelers at Terminal five saying there's no way he'd resign sums up the state of Britain under Labour.

Virgin, Ryan Air, Easy Jet, BMI et al must be raking it in right now with ex and never to return BA refugees.

D.Heath, London, London

"Remember, remember...."

Just as every adult sensibly warns their child "never play with fire" so adults really need to take some safety advice of their own when cheaper fares or a british flag makes you forget what being burned feels like.

For anyone who flies or goes on holiday, there is a simple mantra that might help ensure life turns out better, and it runs as follows: "Never fly BA. Ever."

Mark, London,

I am absolutely incensed by the manner in which BA has come in for most the criticism over the difficultiesT5 endured on day 1. Firstly everyone should understand that the BAA own the building and systems within it including the "state of the art" baggage system. Where is the public outcry regarding the BAA? The building in its contruction may have been on time and on budget as the BAA claim but they fail to mention that the internal fit out was late and training for BA staff had to be done while all the internal works were going on. It was a very unfortunate start to the first operational day and changes need to be made swifly and efficiently but we need to take a reality check and stop bashing our national institutions - something we take great delight  in doing!! If all those moaning hypocrits would only do their homework and look at the other new airport and terminal moves accross the world in recent years you will find T5 was far from being the worst. Good luck BA!!

TS, London, UK

This makes BA appear to be a bunch of crooks. What a sad state of affairs. There needs to be a revolution in the culture of the organisation.

Miland Joshi, Birmingham,

can it get any worse for BA, our national airline?.....YES IT CAN!

Patrick, Manchester,

What a sad but predictable mess....and so typically British! I long for the day when we actually manage to get something right and manage to learn something useful from our colossal catalogue of screw ups. I'm really looking foward to the Olympics!!!

Steve, Zurich,

Willie Walsh is on record as saying: "We disappointed many people and I apologise sincerely. I take responsibility for what happened. The buck stops with me."

You know where to send your hotel bills.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

I hope that BA will be dropping the phrase "the worlds favourite airline" from its advertising material. As an Englishman living in South Africa I am ashamed by my national airline. One expects problems in third world countries - is that what the UK has now become ?

Nigel, Pretoria, South Africa

BA - Bloddy Awfull

Nothing has changed - nothing will.

Boycott BA.

Steve, London,

With the help of Terminal 5 – BA have managed, in just one day, to merge Sod’s, Murphy’s and Parkinson’s Laws into a single Willie Walsh Law

Brian Christley, Abergele, UK

Chaos all round - that means a lot of BA staff in the next Honours List.

GJB, Slough, Berkshire

Having just looked at the AUC website and the EU claims entitlements, it looks like BA are in for a whopping claims bill, if the passengers go about it the right way, which I hope they do.

Thomas, Alicante, Spain,

I live in Spain and travel frequently through Alicante and Madrid airports. All over these airports are large posters telling me my rights if my flight is cancelled, delayed etc. These are produced in Spanish, English & German languages and probably others as well.
I have yet to see anything like these posters in any British airport and now the reason is clear, British Airways and others want to keep the passengers uninformed and in the dark.
I have written to a few of the newspaper travel correspondents about this to no avail, so I guess they are as guilty as BA for not doing their jobs and not keeping their readership up to date.

Keith , Mazarron, Spain

My wife has just arrived in South Africa on a BA flight. Surprise surprise her luggage along with that of most of the other passengers failed to arrive with her! What a disgrace.

mike sturgeon, fleet,

We need an independent body at airports in place to inforce peoples rights over airlines ,otherwise only those who know the rules will get anything close to fair treatment .

Robert Fitzgerald, London,

I think the trouble is that the men at the top are not able to operate the systems themselves that they expect others to. In the 1970’s book Up the Organisation, the new General Manager of Avis unbeknown to the time and motion study professional, was watching him teaching counter staff about the new overcomplicated system he was installing. The New GM asked him to run it himself and the man fled because he could not run his own system. This experimentation on the public should stop. On the other hand the public should not be so impatient. The answer should have been to start with one flight then the next day two and so on, letting passengers know that glitches may happen. But to suddenly load the whole system and to expect it all to work, was crazy. It’s the same today in about everything. Computers have made life far more complicated. Instead of realising their promise, because they can supply more information they are being used to undermine our freedoms.

Jas, Alders, UK

It appears that irrespective of UK and/or EU regulations and law they are both in breach of the spirit of contract let alone absolute in breach of their duty of care to their customers.

This T5 fiasco was a probability, also "Murphys Law" and in any event the day-to-day running of such a vast "machine" inevitably will lend itself to the occasional failure.

I wonder that both parties did not have manual back-up system in place which whilst would have delayed flights would have kept their customers moving slowly but surely.

For sure, in the coming months, T5 will be virtually squawk free and work reasonably well for all and one can only hope that both BA and the BAA will have learned a lesson and have a back-up procedure available for the benefit of all. If T5 design does not allow for this then it is clearly worthless.

All airport designs have to take in worst case scenarios accident, fire, security, poor weather and general delays including equipment breakdowns!

Melvyn Simson, Sipson, Middlesex UK

I was involved in the choas at T5 on thursday, with my flight to newcastle cancelled; the advice was to join a queue for rebooking- 4 agents in view 30+ desks all with closed; no surprise que length unbelievable
there then followed a period of send the fool futher as I tried to de-log the airport and "land myself" so I could take the train from kingscross.
I was handed a piece of paper with my "rights" for compensation, no mention of the EU payment for cancellation just the rates whey would accept for hotels.
I normally train to London, I will continue, as for EU or long hall, BA Forget it; I'll continue with KLM, at least when they cancel a flight they are honest and compensate you with a cash card at the airport for 350 euros (100 above the minimum) hotel and phonecalls- but then they are a good airline

Anthony C Smith, sunderland, UK

I remembered that was what happened similarly when the Hong Kong new airport was opened, which was having some chaotic time and some planes are delayed. My plane at the time was stay on the air for like 15 minutes to wait for landing.

However, what happened in T5 is in a much larger scale and much worse than the case in Hong Kong, just hope everything will be settled down as soon as possible, otherwise its only doing more damage to the UK image.

alexlmlo, Norwich, UK

Years ago I remember being turfed off a BA flight in Dublin after several hours in the plane and after all transport from the airport terminal had ceased. The BA people all vanished leaving passengers to try to find accommodation as remaining in the airport building wasn't permitted.

Fortunately some airport staff persuaded a corporation bus driver to ferry us to hotels- I seem to remember BA not reimbursing my hotel costs. I try not to fly with BA.

Damian, Brighton, UK

I expect this means bonuses all round because some target or other was hit.

Ross, London, UK

When, for once, there is a legal protection scheme for ordinary people put in place by the EU, it seems that my fellow countrymen are quite happy with their rights being denied by a British company. Is this some perverse masochistic form of nationalism? From an expatriate's point of view, we see Britain as having declined into general arrogant lawlessness: the BA incident falls into this category. It's about time the inhabitants of Britain woke up, and dealt with the crooks who have been running things over the last decade or two.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, Athens, Greece

The EU regulations are very clear. Airlines are required to provide hotels for all passengers delayed overnight. It is not up to the passengers to find hotel rooms or to pay for them.

The reason for the T5 situation arising is that BA either underestimated the resources needed to get their baggage handling facilities operating properly or they were trying to save on costs. In either case, BA fully demonstrated its incompetence the past few days.

If passengers were left to sleep in T5 then BA should be required to pay a fine of £5000 and provide £500 in compensation to each passenger affected. Without such penalties there will be no incentive for any any airline or airport authority in the future to ensure that its services meet acceptable standards from day one.

B. McLellan, Vancouver, Canada

Two years ago while on a BA pre-paid trip to London, BA cancelled my flight for technical reasons when I got to Heathrow. Before checking out of my West End hotel BA confirmed the flight to be on schedule. At the airport they refused any aid, no hotel, no taxi fare back to London, no phone call. I ended up paying $500+ out of pocket for 1 night. I did not know of any compensation rules nor did BA offer a penny.

Then last year over Christmas there occurred a baggage breakdown at Terminal 4. I lost a bag containing my dead parents private documents and artifacts. Lost for ever. Since then I fly American or other airlines and prefer Gatwick or Manchester airports. Heathrow is a nightmare even when things are supposedly working.

K Zaman, St. Petersburg, Florida

Davd Elliott - BA's got deep pockets, they wont go bankrupt with a fine of 5K per passenger on top of compensating affected customers. If anything, they SHOULD be fined, and they SHOULD be made to pay affected customers. Since UK consumers are such weak spineless folk who'll take any treatment they get (let me tell you there would have been a riot if this had happened in an airport in some other countries!!), they need their government (in this case the EU) to stand up for them and penalise offending customers, thereby sending out a strong message to other companies!

Ed, Toronto, Canada

£30 per hour for a room.
£30 per HOUR!!!

Some people are far too soft.
Grin and bare it people.
Sleep rough for a night in some airport lounge and harden up.

Tough times in the UK are now ahead.
Worser than Thatcher's 1980's decimation.
The only holidays you'll afford and want then, will be permenent ones.

Sean Hamerton, York., England.

The airline industry has lost the plot. Far too much emphasis getting passengers to spend money in airport shops and restaurants and forgetting why they are there - ie to catch a flight. Get that bit right and stop wasting time trying to fleece the travellers (which is done very expertly unlike the essentials such as a working baggage system!). I dont want a glitzy airport. I just want to spend as little time there as possible and get on the plane. It could be a prefabricated building for all I care costing a fraction of what they spent on T5.

Chas Dawson, Epsom, UK

The press is just helping to create a situation that it doesn't exist
Yeah they had problems and serious, but today I went to T5 and the amount of people from BA & BAA helping passenger around was unbelievable, restaurants were full and passengers walking around like in any other decent airport, but instead turning the tele on all I could hear it was about how chaotic was T5.
BAA is in serious debt troubles and rather than help the country, the press is just making the problem worse and believe me it will affect everyone.
Why not divert some of the bad publicity trying to find solutions for the problems??

Rodrigo De Faria, Kingston upon Thames, UK

This is ridiculous. BA is Britains primary airline and after spending £4.7billion on a development which has not been correctly implemented, their first priority should be to protect and compensate the customer.
Following the damage that Britains development reputation has suffered, BA should be pulling out all the stops to restore confidence, not only in their own service, but also in the viability of Britain as an efficient destination for residents, visitors and investors. So much for this expanding airport providing a boost to the economy as BA predicited.
This failure only further highlights the case of moving development away from heathrow in favour of other airports, sich as Newcastle, Leeds Bradford or Manchester, a stragegy which would also target the north-south divide and ultimately prove more beneficial to the country as a whole, rather than the south-east.

Nick Graham, Penrith, Cumbria

Stg 100 per night for a couple sharing a couple room seems perfectly reasonable to me. What is unreasonable is the Sheraton demanding Stg 250 for a night in a cupboard with a bed.

Pure corporate greed as usual!

Graham, Pattaya, Thailand

Once again the blatant arrogance of BA staff and middle-management leaps to the fore. I was hoping the BA "you are only a passenger" mentality would be a thing of the past with the arrival of straight hitting Willie Walsh. The sight of the BA apologist slamming the door in the face of a BBC TV journalist was the last straw for me and doubtless many other BA passengers. Last year I flew over 100k air miles and am the type of customer BA should be fighting for. Given the T5 BAA/BA fiasco
I now realise T3 and Singapore Airlines isn't too bad combination after all!

DEREK ADAMS, Pattaya Beach, Thailand

Why people have such short memories and why anyone flies with BA when there is a choice of other airlines is beyond me. Every year without fail, and usually several times a year, there are items in the news which highlight BA's terrible lack of expertise and professionalism, and complete disregard for their passengers.

They are always losing or misdirecting baggage, they are in the habit of cancelling flights at short notice, and they have continual staff problems with strikes and go slows a regular feature. They have weak management and an unmotivated workforce, who seem to view passengers as a nuisance. BA are always in the news for the wrong reasons.

The Americans have the best airlines. They have historically led the world in mass air travel, and generally speaking they have always been the most professional, and have provided the most customer-focussed service. I am British, but wherever possible I would always choose an American airline for a long-haul flight.

BA - no way!

Ed, London, UK

What a disgusting company, this makes the senior management sound like a right bunch of no-hopers.
Is it any wonder this country is a shambles when we have senior managers/directors like this running a 'flagship' company.

Or is this another example of middle mangers so scared of the 'directors' that they will literally do anything to please them, even to the point of destroying the companies reputation to save a couple of quid, this isn’t management it’s short-sighted and stupid.

Shame on you BA, you messed up, now pay.

Ian J, Ramsgate, UK

Who in their right mind would launch a new terminal just before the great Easter get away ? Are these people stupid or what ? This should have been opened for public after Easter holidays had ended. Its already late whats another couple of weeks ? What good does an apology do for people whos holidays or trips are ruined by incompetence ?

A. Khan, London,

It is pointless to bankrupt BA by fining it £5,000 per passenger when a simple scheme giving a lump sum by way of compensation to all those affected can be put in place.

david elliott, brighton, uk

boo

Nick Graham, Penrith, Cumbria