A man who complained on Twitter about British Airways losing his vital medical equipment has received an avalanche of support from social media users.
Giles Duly, a photographer, writer and cook known as the ‘One Armed Chef’, took to Twitter yesterday morning to share that his bag containing medical equipment needed for his prosthetics had not been put on his British Airways flight owing to a check-in error.
Giles wrote on Twitter yesterday: “Dear @BritishAirways, After an error at check-in, my bag was not loaded onto my flight. Ground staff were aware at the time, and I was promised the bag would be sent asap and I was given an apology for the mistake.
“I’m still waiting for my bag and/or any kind of communication.”
British Airways’ official Twitter account responded by asking Giles to provide more details via a direct message on the platform. But Giles continued: “I replied as requested, but was only a bot dealing with my message so got nowhere.
“Baggage has medical equipment needed to keep my prosthetics operating so request is urgent. Mistake was made by your team at check in and I was told it would be fixed. It was not.”
British Airways replied: “Once again, please accept our apologies for all inconvenience caused we don’t have any further updates at the moment.”
Giles replied: “But I’ve had no updates?! You simply said you were continuing tracking. That’s not an update.”
Giles received an avalanche of support from other Twitter users who were outraged by his treatment.
One said: “If this has not been addressed and remedied by now, please get on this. This isn’t lost luggage, your team made a mistake and this person needs his medical equipment. Shame on you that he had to resort to Twitter to get anywhere.”
Another told Giles: “I’m sorry you have to go on Twitter to try and get help over something this important,” before urging BA to ‘please improve your customer service’.
Giles has since tweeted that his bag has been located and is in London.
He wrote: “Thank you to everyone for your support trying to get my missing bag from @British_Airways It has been located & is in London. Still a long way from me! it was mistakenly checked in by staff under the wrong name. Mistakes happen, but that doesn’t excuse terrible customer service.”
He added: “And there are worrying security lapses if @British_Airways staff could check in a bag under somebody else’s name, meaning my bag flew on a different flight, with a incorrect name.”
British Airways told Travel Gossip it couldn’t comment without a booking reference and permission from the passenger.
