I was at LHR on Saturday trying to use Staff Travel. Clearly with this utmost in my mind my experiences;
1. The BA Staff at check in were superb. When the back up "system" came on line they had to share PC's / work in 2-3's to get individual bookings ticketed and tagged. Accessing their systems was slow and time consuming and familiarity a issue - Overall 10 out of 10.
2. Early on they cancelled all Staff Travel to concentrate on fare paying punters - can't argue with that. It didn't materialise much - the order came from upon high - we just hung around as it was ever changing.
3. Their Manager came round giving directions and updates, he missed a couple of occasions to say thanks and I could see the opportunity was missed. This was down to pressure i'm sure but the relationship with the Manager is the number 1 on staff engagement.
4. Having checked in at STD -30 mins (having been in queue for 2hrs 30mins) finally got boarding passes and legged it to drop bags off (bag belts u/s also is that BA or BAA)
got airside - no gate on FFS just a security man helping
5. Got to gate 10B no BA staff for some time. They came and gave a few updates. After some time the BBC news TV on the gate said all flights up to 1800 cancelled. The gate staff hadn't heard this though (as comms was all down to phones). The one particular BA lady kept us updated every 30 mins or so, great communications with as much as she could give - again 10/10. When we gave up she was being hassled by about 20 pax so we just shouted well done and she thanked us.
6. Getting out was another issue. Everyone exited via gate 12 (hundreds) and only two small exit lanes. Could have gone wrong big time but old bill helped out. Quick dash through immigration and into bag hall - BA staff said don't bother so we just went out.
Apart from the disappointment / long day the only negative to me was some other BA Staff Traveller trying to "jump" the queue as his flight was going soon (just like rest).
There is always one, trying to go away on school hols with kids - well when it goes wrong you'll only do that once
And finally at my work we use mainly Indians and they are better by a country mile