Eat

I stopped here to pick up food at the London Heathrow Int'l airport. The manager was hilarious - not to me as a customer, but to me as an observer of life. He was a very self important young man, and he was so into taking inventory and giving stern correction to his staff (in front of customers), that he didn't seem to mind or notice that he was literally pushing his way through all of us while we stood in line, yelling to his staff right next to our ears, and just being completely rude. It was honestly quite amusing, but as a service rating, Eat gets a 1.

British Airways

Fly the snotty skies...

The British Airways land staff in the US was actually extremely nice, helpful and friendly. They were all from the Boston area, I surmised from their accents. The US staff gets a 4. I upgraded my ticket for a tiny bit of extra room, and it cost $250. It was worth it for the 6 hr trek to London.

When in London, I tried to upgrade the next leg of my trip, and the obtuse, condescending BA ticket agent (from the UK) told me that they don't give out "discounted specials" like they do in the US, as if the US was letting some very low class citizens into their high class slightly larger seating area. They wanted me to pay $2500 for the upgrade. Uh huh. No. The employee was so snotty - I can't think of any other way to describe him. The BA land crew gets a 1.

The flight attendants on all 4 legs of the flight were fine - they kept calling me sir, which was ridiculous because I didn't have a hat on. In the US, I get called sir a couple of times a year, and it's always when I have a hat on, and it's at a glance - as soon as I speak or the person looks me in the face, they realize I'm not a sir.

Apparently, these flight attendants have NEVER seen a woman dressed in a man's clothing in their entire careers, which I find hard to believe, since many of them seem to be flirting with the bounds of their own gender's realm.

I wrote to BA headquarters letting them know about the poor service I received in London, and I suggested they conduct sensitivity training with their staff. When in doubt, don't say sir or ma'am. I certainly don't care, but it honestly just got annoying after the 10th time. The people next to me, who were aware that I was not a man, all seemed horrified every time it happened, and that was just plain uncomfortable.

The response from BA was canned, and not at all satisfactory. No wonder they are having to ask their employees to work for free. (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article6510479.ece)

Overall service rating by BA, driven down by their poor response to my detailed feedback: 1.5