Leading British bookmaker Ladbrokes has stopped using British Airways for corporate travel after the airline tried to bump the chief executive's 14-year-old daughter and a friend off a flight from Barbados.
Astonished Chris Bell, the bookmaker's boss, has now complained to the airline's chief executive, Willie Walsh, and instructed the betting group's travel agent, FCM Travel Solutions, not to book its 14,000 staff on BA flights unless there is no alternative. Ladbrokes spends more than £2m a year with BA.
Mr. Bell, a BA Gold Card member, said Barbados was the final straw after recent problems involving Ladbrokes' staff and the airline - including the Terminal 5 fiasco.
Mr. Bell was accompanying his daughter and her friend on a flight from Barbados to Gatwick on April 8.
Having checked in their luggage, BA staff then told him that, while there was room for him, there was no space for the girls on the flight. To his astonishment, BA staff then made a direct offer to the two girls of £250 each if they stayed in Barbados. An incensed Mr. Bell said he could not abandon two 14-year-olds and that they must fly together. BA eventually found room for all three of them.
Mr. Bell subsequently phoned BA to complain. 'Some bird rang up from a call centre and offered the two girls £20 vouchers each at the corporate shop. I said, 'What do you expect them to buy with that - a teddy bear?'?' he said. 'Only after eight calls have we been offered two £250 vouchers and one, one-way upgrade. It's like playing the national lottery.
'The thing is I always fly with BA. As a company we must be spending a few million a year. I spend around £100,000 a year myself.'
Mr. Bell wrote to Mr. Walsh on April 22, relating to other unhappy BA experiences. He said he received a standard reply, but has yet to hear from Mr. Walsh.
A BA spokesman said: 'Mr. Bell is a valued customer. There was a seating problem in Barbados but we have offered him compensation. We are very sorry that he feels that he cannot fly with us again.' She added that Mr. Walsh had recently written to Mr. Bell.
