Fighting the system

I finally got off BA287 24 hours late and stopped shaking with fear just about the same time I started shaking with rage at the BA representative on the ground here in SFO. Having nearly killed us, lost our luggage, sent us on a tour of County Clare (which incidentally is extremely beautiful, but not San Francisco), put us up in a freezing hotel, then delayed us some more, they offered us $50 to replace our missing luggage.

I'm pretty much speechless at that, I don't need to write anything scathing or cutting, you're obviously as outraged as I was. And 300 other people. I will repeat again how crap Terminal 5 is, just in case anyone's out there still looking for a way to shut it down. The fact that they can't service a plane properly to the point where 300+ people are in danger of being made into pancakes in Shannon should really be enough to call the whole thing to a close. Willie Walsh, get your marching papers mate. The buck stops with you, you nearly killed 300 people. That's genocide. In the words of Alan Sugar, you're fired. Or you bloody well should be at least. What a shower.

In the midst of all of this, I have to register my appreciation of pretty much every Irish person I met on my journey, their emergency hospitality was fantastic and their sense of humour put a smile back on my face. The air crew on my flight, Eleanor and Lesley in particular, were great, and no doubt as terrified as us, as tired as us, and yet still worked another 10 hour day for us. Since I've arrived, every American has not only helped out where possible, but also apologised for my inconvenience (go figure that). No, it's the British (Airways) who are the bastards, as usual.

Now my disgust is registered in print and any 'real' journos looking for a piece to pick at can search for it on my keywords, I must turn my attention to something else which worries me, and my dear old Mum, who sent me a link to this story, with the comment at the end: "Maybe the editor is trying to put some of the bloggers off in the interest of keeping control of the news?"

She taught me everything I know. And you wonder why I'm so cynical.