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BAHRAIN businessman George Middleton is fighting a bitter battle with British Airways over the disappearance of his daughter’s birthday present.
A fellow passenger on the flight from Maimi to London claims to have witnessed a flight attendant picking up the video iPod and even recorded a statement as evidence.
Mr Middleton, 52, a magazine publisher, said: “We immediately reported the incident but British Airways simply didn’t want to know – it could have been sorted out straight away, they simply had to check.”
Instead BA told the frustrated father that he would have to report the incident to the British Airways customer relations website.
His daughter Gianne had left the iPod – her 18th birthday present – on her seat when she went to the washroom and the Portuguese witness says he spotted a flight attendant pick it up from the floor and place in on a tray.
The iPod is a portable media player designed and marketed by Apple, stores thousands of songs and hours of video, and costs from $250.
Emanuel Carvalho claims he confronted the flight attendant who denied any knowledge of the incident.
He said: “I can’t believe they handled the situation in such an unprofessional manner. I have since contacted a Portuguese BA staff member and he has agreed to take the complaint to BA head office directly next week. I now regret not having said something to the crew chief.”
After Mr Middleton caught up with Mr Carvalho in the baggage retrieval area and recorded his testimony, he was then advised to speak with officials at BA’s baggage desk. From there he was sent to customer services in another terminal where the duty manager reportedly refused to listen to the eye witness’s recording suggesting it could have been made by an “actor” and labelled it “hearsay”.
Mr Middleton said: “At this point I became quite agitated bearing in mind that my understanding of the situation was that the person who may well have taken my daughter’s 18th birthday present was being protected by the bureaucratic bungling of the organisation whose reputation he was in the process of ruining.”
The family left the airport five hours after touching down after mistakenly being told to wait for the opening of BA lost property, which was not due to open until the following day.
Mr Middleton was advised to write to British Airways Customer Relations who informed him it would take 28 days to reply to his complaint because of the “busy summer period”.
He also lodged a complaint with the terminal police who are looking into the matter.
“The incident destroyed the tail-end of my holiday,” said Mr Middleton. “I felt angry, depressed and disappointed and my peace of mind was destroyed. I was treated with brash rudeness by people who wanted to avoid all responsibility.”
He added: “I have heard nothing from BA.”
However, after GulfWeekly started investigating, a BA spokesman said: “We sincerely apologise that Mr Middleton and his daughter’s experience with British Airways did not meet the high standards we set ourselves. These are very serious allegations that we wish to investigate thoroughly. We will be in contact directly with Mr Middleton.”
