As most of you probably know, I made it back to Ireland this week and as much as I wish to say it's great to be back home, one thing has ruined it for me.

About four weeks ago, I went to a small travel operator in Clapham to arrange a return flight to Belfast. The lady at the desk said Britsh Airways would be the best bet. For my return trip, I ended up £108 lighter in the pocket and confident it was a wise purchase.

Friday 11th, left work really excited about going home. Took the tube to Heathrow, with adequate time for check in. As the gate closed at 8:55 pm, I thought I was well prepared at booking in at 8:15pm. So I strode up to the counter, ticket in hand, expecting to be on Irish
soil in 2 hours time. Here's where the proverbial excrement hit the proverbial fan. Little to know, I was dealling with a dizzy untrained moran behind the desk, I fell into a false sence of security. She took my ticket, looked at it and declared "Unfortunately, Mr Mcgowen (They never pronounce my name right) we've overbooked this flight but there is a good chance I can pencil you in quickly." So she taps away, then "Oops. Enter that wrong, I'll try again." Enters again, to
say "Oh Dear, it appears these spaces have just been filled." At this point I was trying not to assault this woman and finding it very difficult. She handed me back my ticket and told me to approach the gate anyway so off I went with a patchy form of hopefulness and my
unconfirmed ticket. At the gate were more bemused and angry travellers wondering why they were standing at the gate and not sitting on the plane.

After 15 minutes and suffering much rudeness of the lady at the desk, she told us there was no way in hell we were getting on that plane. So next flight? 8:30 the next morning. So I and the other passangers were given a hotel for the night, some out of pocket expenses and the
address of BA's compensation office.

So they bundled us off to the Rennaisance Hotel near Heathrow and did things get better? No. There we met more victims of the overbooking disease, each as fumed as we. We did get dinner vouchers which turned out to be a half warm buffet meal which had been sitting out most of
the day. The staff who rudely told us to hurry up and get our food as the restaurant was closing soon, didn't help. My room was a complete pit, the bathroom had damaged items and the TV failed to operate properly.

Next morning, I managed to get this plane and was scolded for turning up a day late, until I told them I did turn up the day before and didn't get on the flight. After an hour's delay (Surprisingly not due to BA but a failure in Heathrow's air traffic computer) we managed to get airborne. The seats were comfortable enough although a little close to the ones in front. The breakfast consisted of a stale piece of bacon, what looked vaguely like a sausage, and some indescribable that I could only get was supposed to be egg. The one thing that did impress me was a stats panel above our heads which gave us our location on our maps, different times (Did you know when it's 9:30 in London, it's 9:30 in Belfast too? Wow!!), temperature, speed (My chants of 'Faster, faster!' didn't go down well. We peaked at 580 mph for anyone interested.) and other totally useless information.

All in all, I felt the service as a whole was totally shabby, and when I wasn't rudely spoken to, I was spoken to in a patronising way which really ticks me off. Don't think because I was a normal flyer I was thrown off oh no! Two other passangers turned out to be silver card holders and if this is the way BA treat their customers, then save for the return to London, I'll never be travelling with BA again.

Overall, a disgraceful service, with a rude, patronising and incompetent staff.