Sorry to hear all that but not surprised…..I left BA 2 years back, so this the following opinion is based on working under different senior management.
….surprised that BA hadn't planned for enough staff to deal with the many flights that they had arriving at the weekend.
Manning was cut to the bone years ago and I think it was accepted unofficially, (perhaps even officially) that there would be no extra carried on the payroll to cater for the 1 day in 100/200/ a year or event when you actually needed the extra bods.
Result: when the 1 in X days happens, as it will, as it did…
I’m not sure whether budget constraints would have allowed managers to entice people to come in to work an extra shift at weekends by paying overtime, and TBH I think fewer and fewer people were willing to come in unpaid, especially at a weekend.
my hunch to travel with hand-baggage only came up trumps
Very wise, I gave up on routinely traveling which a suitcase when traveling to work or when working years ago…..unfortunately I haven’t had much success getting the family to follow that example on the rare occasions we have flown on holiday…