Sheesh I don't know but I hope they get it worked out soon. I always had found them pretty good before. There are good long haul carriers like Emirates and Singapore and I thought BA, but shorter hauls seem to be not as good on many airlines. You would think that they would be all quite good anymore.

BA seems to have an extraordinary number of silly problems.

They "lost" part of my trophies years ago, and the man in charge here in Dubai had no hesitation in being honest and telling me someone in London did that on purpose!!?

An official letter was sent to them that with immediate effect, they are blacklisted in a number of organizations here, who will never use their services.

Surprise surprise, the shipment was "found" in Singapore, of all places!

Since then we have decided that we will never use BA, and have never regretted it.

That is exactly my sentiments about American - I have been on them once in over 20 years.

The bigger and more political the union organization, especially in services, the worse the service becomes is my observation across the board.

I had British air employees flat out lie to me in Joberg re: my luggage being on a connecting flight to Harare. Haven't flown with them since.

I use them for European travel and always find them good.

However for long haul flights Virgin seem hard to beat

Their "World Traveller Plus" is very comfortable with excellent leg room. Priced right, too.
We flew this class last August DFW - LHR - JNB. Never had a problem with our firearms.
Got to admit though, the Delta nonstop is overall less of a whoopin crossing the Atlantic to the RSA from the USA.

I don't know anything about their short haul flights. Flying from Dallas to Johannesburg on air miles my options are AA to London and then BA to Johannesburg. Our experience has been great on the BA flights.

I rang British Airways today to notify them I would be flying with firearms and ammunition when flying Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth . After all the questions about their requirements I was told it would be 50 pounds for " special handling" . Not only that as my bolt and ammunition are separate in my suitcase that incurs the 50 pound charge as well .
Do I get different luggage gorillas for what is more than $AUS 200 ?
I rang my travel agent and cancelled the flight and told him never to book me with BA again . I don't care if the new flight costs more , I won't put up with this dishonesty .

Mark

The Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth flight would have been operated by Comair which does not carry firearms or ammunition in any case.

If you look around here on the Travel Forum Mark you will see that BA handles the firearms differently and assigns a person to them to hand check (load) these and ammo. It does cost more and it is well documented on the BA site. But they rarely if ever lose your case or ammo though. It is not a bad process but just more to do at check in so arrive even earlier is my suggestion. You do indeed have to notify them earlier and it says "Firearm" right by your name. As Jag said Comair doesnt carry rifles or ammo so you are on SAA anyway.

Mine sailed through except in Heathrow (enroute to JoBurg) they (BA) had to change the ammo from the luggage to travel separately as is required by S. Africa . They called me to the gate and they took me to a different area and delivered the bag with the ammo tag. I took the locked ammo case out and they gave it another luggage tag and returned it all. They were very courteous about the whole thing really. It was a small hassle but not entirely unexpected. I have had worse right here in the USA.

Like Charles and Jack above our World Traveler Plus was really pretty nice overall.

I never fly with BA or through Heatrow. I think they must be one of the most anti hunting airlines/airports around.

I am happy to spend my money elswere.

Good Hunting
carl Frederik

Thanks Jaglav and TexKD . It sounds like I made the right call cancelling as indeed the flight is operated by Comair . Would have been a disaster turning up on the Saturday to be told no rifles . Interestingly the person at BA , who had our booking details , did not mention Comair not carryon firearms .

Mark

TexKD,

Your experience mirrors mine with traveling on BA. Next month will mark if I remember correctly 12 trips to Africa on BA. I have used them exclusively since '94 if they serviced the area I wanted to hunt. I've never had one issue with my guns and gear arriving when handled by BA nor have any of my clients. A couple of my clients had delayed luggage once their kit was transferred to SAA and another couple had their guns checked a second time in Heathrow to make sure all was in order but nobody has had an issue with their guns and ammo arriving and to me that is the most important part of travel while on safari. BA on occasion has like any other airline ignorant people behind the counter that can cause a hassle but that has nothing to do with BA having anti gun or hunting policies.

Mark

Mark - was you know I consulted you too beforehand. And you were spot on as always.

We had 4 BA flights this trip and 4 SAA flights. All were top notch as was the check in and baggage. I did opt for the Premium Economy versus the Business class on BA as had 4 tickets to buy . I was very well pleased .

I wil tell you something else - they may have some of the best long haul pilots in the business. I have heard that from buds who are pilots for major airlines too. The BA pilots are well respected if that makes any difference.

On the Heathrow change it was painless and as I said they were very nice about it too. Even one of the big bosses came to be sure it was in order and that I had no issues. I already had the Americase aluminum ammo case locked, weighed, tagged etc and in the bag, so all it was was another additional luggage tag. They knew it was 3.5 Kgs and there was nothing else ( I guess in the old days it might have interrupted my beer would have been all lol ) Heck Africa Sky's guys had all that rounded up and loaded om the cart by the time we were at the main luggage turnstile for 5 minutes.

Coming back SAA and BA inquired about my ammo a couple of times each. After I nicely said I am carrying no ammunition that was all over too.

We had SAA business class and it was really nice. As I put in the other thread our luggage was already at the turnstile when we walked up. I collected the rifle case and ammo case and we were on the way. Our SAA check in was yes. hello, right this way, and can we get you anything. How good is that?

I would much prefer either of these any day to some of our carriers here. Namely American. Happens.

I was there right when the Cecil thing hit. However during this whole trip of over 3 weeks in length and several countries I only had one person say anything negative about hunting or hunters. And that was a darn American in the JoBurg airport. I gave him some courtesy on his first 2 opinion passes - then I became more firm and grizzled on his 3rd pass. He decided to get farther away and drop it - and that he didnt like Texas guys anyway. All of which suited me fine.

I never heard or saw a single anti-hunting or anti sportsman or anti anything from any of the SAA or BA airline personnel at all.

British Airways plane catches fire on Las Vegas runway.

An engine on a London-bound British Airways jet caught fire Tuesday while the plane was preparing to take off from Las Vegas, shooting flames from the side of the jumbo jet and forcing passengers to escape on emergency slides.

Billowing black smoke and orange flames could be seen pouring from under the plane's wings, sending passengers fleeing quickly from the aircraft and across the tarmac before about 50 firefighters doused the aircraft in minutes.

The 159 passengers and 13 crew members on board got off the plane, McCarran International Airport spokesman Chris Jones said. The airport reported on its official Twitter account that two passengers were taken to a hospital for minor injuries. Fire officials said paramedics on the scene were also evaluating some passengers.



http://news.yahoo.com/british-...unway-235716442.html

Fire is about the most dangerous thing in airline travel. No one got hurt badly or killed ^^^ which is great. And probably says something about the crew too.

I live here in Las Vegas and my understanding is that the passengers thought the BA crew worked in a very professional manner in the evacuation.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
I live here in Las Vegas and my understanding is that the passengers thought the BA crew worked in a very professional manner in the evacuation.

That is very true, as mentioned in all the reports I have seen.

But, why does BA seem to have such accidents almost on a continuous basis??

Saeed,

I guess we'd have to have some outfit make a comparison between BA and all other carriers to clearly determine how BA stacks up against other carriers to know if they really do have more accidents. I wonder how BA compares in numbers of flights and size of fleet to other carriers? In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the excellent service I have routinely received from BA and I'm sure you will continue to bash them.

Mark

Mark,

Airline accidents or incidents are always headlines news.

And frankly, I have not seen any other airline which has been in the news with these happening like BA.

In two previous trips to Namibia, I flew the Frankfort route, once with United and once with Delta. When the city of Frankfort instituted their gun permit requirement and Air Namibia decided to charge $100 extra each way for firearms, I said screw it. I booked an all BA flight schedule from ORD to LHR to JoBerg to WDH. The flights were all on time or early, the food and service was very good, the booze was free as were first run movies. I was impressed in all facets of my BA experience, and will use them the next time I fly to Namibia from Chicago. Oh, and my 2015 BA flights were $400 less than my 2013 flights.