This Business
Sucks
April 2025 – British Airways | 2nd Runner Up
We end this round of Bad Business Awards on a musical note. A sour musical note. Back in 2008, United Airlines destroyed Dave Carroll’s guitar on a flight to Chicago. The airline saw no reason to offer restitution, so Carroll wrote a song about it and cratered the airlines stock price.
Then just last year Delta Airlines turned Madi Diaz’s guitar into splinters. Now, British Airlines, according to the NYTimes, “Destroyed Our Guitar and Won’t Pay Up.” In the spirit of the phrase, “twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern”, it is clear there is more than the Montreal Convention governing the strange actions of the airline baggage handling pratices.
British Airlines, though, was up against the world-renowned Staples Singers, off on a European Tour and the travel writers of the New York Times. Ultimately, compensation was received, but the path was twisted and long. In an article that seemed more like a sigh than insight, the Times concluded that insuring against loss or assuring reimbursement is as much a DIY project as is renovating a kitchen
”The multifaceted monthslong saga you endured with British Airways should be a reminder that travelers today need to do more than their fair share of the work to find their lost items. Adding AirTags or other Bluetooth trackers to checked luggage is a smart first step, so when the airlines claim they don’t know where your luggage is, you can tell them or even share its location, since the feature is now shareable with a third party.”
Of course, knowing the downside of damaging any luggage, let alone a storied band’s guitar, you’d think an airline would be able to anticipate the special needs of special items. British Airlines has a well-document contentious history with stringed instruments and their performers. No need to revisit them all here, but if you are of a mind, click through here.
That’s why British Airways made the list this quarter.
Past winners
Southwest Airlines
It was Frontier Airlines, after joining in on the rush to add on what we know junk fees – a la carte charges for things that used to be/ought to be part of the basic service like…
Frontier Airlines
It was Frontier Airlines, after joining in on the rush to add on what we know junk fees – a la carte charges for things that used to be/ought to be part of the basic service like…
Red Lobster
It has been long held that “success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” The bankruptcy of Red Lobster has turned that on its head…