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Gordon Brown, the pregnant woman and the BA bumpings
Saturday, 30 Mar, 2011
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As if British Airways hasn’t got enough to worry about after Monday’s strike ballot result, now it’s got entangled in a row involving Gordon Brown and lots of bumped passengers.
According to the Daily Mail, the ex-PM’s arrival in business class on a flight from Abu Dhabi to London coincided with a seven-months pregnant woman and her husband being asked to downgrade from premium economy to economy, along with a very tall Red Cross doctor who needed legroom.
Other passengers were moved down into economy and, at the bottom of the tree, some economy guests got bumped altogether.
The passengers were miffed enough at the downgrade, which occurred at the start of the journey in Oman, but when they saw Brown and his six-strong group of advisers board at Abu Dhabi, they hit the roof.
The pregnant woman, who does not want to be named and refused to be downgraded, took a picture of Brown while he was asleep next to his aide. The aide promptly let rip at the woman for taking the snap.
According to the pregnant woman, the aide backed down after she gave her a piece of her mind, backed up by the Red Cross doctor.
The pregnant woman made a complaint to BA and was subsequently offered £75 each for her and her husband, which she called “derisory”
But BA strongly denies there was any link between it downgrading and bumping passengers and Brown’s arrival.
A spokesperson said: “The situation had absolutely nothing to do with Gordon Brown. We have apologised to [the complainant] and we have offered to pay compensation.
“It is very rare for a customer not to be able to travel in the cabin that they have booked and we are extremely sorry that this happened on this flight. Gordon Brown and his party were booked in advance and were not involved in any way.”
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