Entebbe BA staff, you can do do better!

Sep 27, 2008

I read Sarah Mulira’s letter, “Entebbe BA staff messed me up” published on Wednesday and must commend her for exposing the mess at Entebbe Airport. In May, I travelled with my family to London aboard British Airways on the first leg of a trip that ended up in New York.

I read Sarah Mulira’s letter, “Entebbe BA staff messed me up” published on Wednesday and must commend her for exposing the mess at Entebbe Airport. In May, I travelled with my family to London aboard British Airways on the first leg of a trip that ended up in New York.

We arrived early at the airport and went through the check-in procedure, and my son and I were cleared but the BA ground staff had doubts with my wife! Lady checks my wife’s passport, and doubts that the photograph in it was hers, inspite of a valid British as well as US visa, with evidence of previous travel to the US in 2007. Her contention was that it wasn’t my wife’s! who was it then, Britney Spears’?

We understand the repercussion of stowaways in planes, but come on, delaying a passenger for close to 45 minutes with the ground staff lazing around and feeling nothing! Forty-five minutes later, with my wife almost in tears and mad at anything that moved, (including the conveyor belts perhaps), we finally saw their supervisor who, having about 10 fast cases to solve, was blunt, bordering to rude to various passengers.

To one passenger, she went like, “this one doesn’t travel…and with no room to dispute she was clear, “go back to the British Embassy if you like”. We waited until our turn when the ground staff, who swore it wasn’t my wife’s picture on the passport, explained it to the supervisor.

At least I didn’t hear “alien from outta space” in her explanation. In a mini court-like session at the counter, the BA supervisor rendered her verdict. The photo in the passport was actually my wife’s.

Phew…I was about to wonder who I actually married.And to think that, from Heathrow to Newark, and back….the BA staff were professional, fast and had no doubts about my wife! Who gave the BA ground staff the nerve to even think, I was married, not to Claire Wambui Mwangi Oyulu…but to someone else?

BA Entebbe staff, you can do better.

Patrick Oyulu
QG Saatchi & Saatchi
Kampala

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});