Dear
Mark Freeman, Heathrow Airport Duty
Craig Smyth, Menzies Aviation CEO
Sebastian Mikosz , CEO LOT Airlines
This is an open letter to Heathrow Airport, Menzies Aviation and LOT airlines.
Yesterday
22/04/2014 my family and I suffered a serious incident at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 zone J. My elderly
parents-in-law, my pregnant wife and I arrived to the J9 desk however we were
turned back, even when empty, by airport personnel to try to do check-in
at the automatic kiosks. When walking to the counter, around 5:05pm, I specified
the person who addressed me, that we were travelling to Warsaw at 5:50pm.
After trying multiple times with the machines, none of them worked, then
we went back to the counter but we were denied boarding, according to the
lady on J9 counter because it was a few minutes too late. The following situation developed:
1. Our arrival time, as it can be proved with Oyster card records at T1 was 5:01pm.
2. Although we were well inside inside maximum 30-minute cut off (http://www.lot.com/gb/en/at-
3. Since it was impossible to board the flight at this point we went to the LOT counter. However, they insisted we were past the cut off time. Again they could not confirm what the cut off time was.
4. The lady at the LOT counter was not helpful and could not confirm who was responsible for missing the flight (she said the people directing passengers, in turn this people said it was LOT for their failure to check-in). Since we were going back and forth I demanded speaking with her supervisor. She said she could not do that.
5. After my wife and I insisted, and when I said I would need to record the situation (which I did not, thus CCTV would be useful in this case) then a supervisor was called as well as airport security.
6. At this point Ms. Debbie Pinto arrived saying she was her supervisor. After explaining the situation Ms. Debbie Pinto was not helpful and said there was nothing to be done.
7. Ms. Debbie Pinto could not confirm either the cut off times saying she is not working for LOT.
8. Security people also started raising their voice in a clear anti-social behaviour and tried to bully my pregnant wife at which point I asked for their supervisor.
9. Ms. Debbie Pinto claimed she had no supervisor, that she was the maximum authority there and her saying was final, she repeated this statement multiple times. We found this declaration very difficult to believe and I have been in contact with Menzies Aviation ever since.
10. We insisted for a long time to speak with a superior, or with someone else who could help us or confirm the questions we were asking. Ms. Debbie Pinto insisted again, there was no one above her at the airport.
11. Ms. Debbie Pinto, at this stage started to raise her voice and being aggressive in her language against me and my wife. When we were trying to explain our position she was dismissive and frequently cut our answers off. It was impossible to speak with her when she was speaking above us. At the beginning of the discussion she started speaking calmly but later it was evident that Ms. Debbie Pinto wanted to intimidate us and leave and did not want to give any help or advise. Ms. Debbie Pinto started getting more and more upset since I continued enquiring about responsibility for the machines, legal cut off times, and also questioning their behaviour. At this point she denied being aggressive in turn told us we were aggressive. It was an impossible game: every time we were saying she was aggressive and needed to turn her voice down, she replied saying we were aggressive and repeated our demands back.
12. Ms. Debbie Pinto started loosing her temper and the respectful initial tone, changed to a challenging one, calling at some point to my wife "sister" and some other names, in a very unacceptable manner for social standards. This is the reason why we are in the process of collecting information to file a complaint with the Metropolitan Police for anti-social behaviour and harassment. Airport security wasn't helpful either and instead claimed we were probably "over-sensitive". Airport security seemed to be even more aggressive than Ms. Debbie Pinto, since they did not identify themselves, and were sure their crime could continue without consequences.
13. Ms. Debbie Pinto said she had no overview of any people directing passengers to the counters or not. That she was not responsible for that personnel and she could not answer for them, although it was surprising to her why they didn't directed me to the counter.
14. Ms. Debbie Pinto said that it was unknown to her why I was not allowed to check-in at the counter. We thought she would say that she would investigate however, she limited to say, that she did not know, and that was all.
15. Airport security also refused to led us to their supervisors and said the will need to call the police. We accepted since we felt our physical integrity could be in danger by this unidentified security staff or by Ms. Pinto at any point, and we would prefer to have public security protection. After a short conference between airport security and Ms. Debbie Pinto, they declared, without making any phone call, that the police was "too busy".
16. Ms. Debbie Pinto approached some minutes later again to collect information about our tickets, without informing why. We had to follow her and ask her the purpose. She said it was for a report.
17. After insisting to speak with a supervisor Ms. Pinto turned around and left without further explanation.
18. Airport security staff also left without further explanation. They also refused to be identified or to speak with a supervisor.
This is not the kind of behaviour we are used to when travelling through Heathrow Airport or any other airport in the UK or abroad. We felt threatened by the dismissive, accusing and bullying language of Ms. Debbie Pinto and the security staff of Heathrow Airport. I believe this is not the kind of social behaviour accepted at Menzies Aviation or Heathrow Airport and this is why I need to further investigate and escalate the situation. We travel frequently through Heathrow Airport, and we want to file a complaint to the Metropolitan Police in case that the Heathrow Airport Security Staff, Ms. Debbie Pinto or someone associated with them want to take reprisals of any kind against myself, my wife or our families, since we anticipate that they will be not pleased about our complaints.
We hope to have no further problems with Airport Security, however it was deplorable that some people who do not identify themselves are able to operate within the airport putting passengers and staff alike in potential danger.
1. Our arrival time, as it can be proved with Oyster card records at T1 was 5:01pm.
2. Although we were well inside inside maximum 30-minute cut off (http://www.lot.com/gb/en/at-
3. Since it was impossible to board the flight at this point we went to the LOT counter. However, they insisted we were past the cut off time. Again they could not confirm what the cut off time was.
4. The lady at the LOT counter was not helpful and could not confirm who was responsible for missing the flight (she said the people directing passengers, in turn this people said it was LOT for their failure to check-in). Since we were going back and forth I demanded speaking with her supervisor. She said she could not do that.
5. After my wife and I insisted, and when I said I would need to record the situation (which I did not, thus CCTV would be useful in this case) then a supervisor was called as well as airport security.
6. At this point Ms. Debbie Pinto arrived saying she was her supervisor. After explaining the situation Ms. Debbie Pinto was not helpful and said there was nothing to be done.
7. Ms. Debbie Pinto could not confirm either the cut off times saying she is not working for LOT.
8. Security people also started raising their voice in a clear anti-social behaviour and tried to bully my pregnant wife at which point I asked for their supervisor.
9. Ms. Debbie Pinto claimed she had no supervisor, that she was the maximum authority there and her saying was final, she repeated this statement multiple times. We found this declaration very difficult to believe and I have been in contact with Menzies Aviation ever since.
10. We insisted for a long time to speak with a superior, or with someone else who could help us or confirm the questions we were asking. Ms. Debbie Pinto insisted again, there was no one above her at the airport.
11. Ms. Debbie Pinto, at this stage started to raise her voice and being aggressive in her language against me and my wife. When we were trying to explain our position she was dismissive and frequently cut our answers off. It was impossible to speak with her when she was speaking above us. At the beginning of the discussion she started speaking calmly but later it was evident that Ms. Debbie Pinto wanted to intimidate us and leave and did not want to give any help or advise. Ms. Debbie Pinto started getting more and more upset since I continued enquiring about responsibility for the machines, legal cut off times, and also questioning their behaviour. At this point she denied being aggressive in turn told us we were aggressive. It was an impossible game: every time we were saying she was aggressive and needed to turn her voice down, she replied saying we were aggressive and repeated our demands back.
12. Ms. Debbie Pinto started loosing her temper and the respectful initial tone, changed to a challenging one, calling at some point to my wife "sister" and some other names, in a very unacceptable manner for social standards. This is the reason why we are in the process of collecting information to file a complaint with the Metropolitan Police for anti-social behaviour and harassment. Airport security wasn't helpful either and instead claimed we were probably "over-sensitive". Airport security seemed to be even more aggressive than Ms. Debbie Pinto, since they did not identify themselves, and were sure their crime could continue without consequences.
13. Ms. Debbie Pinto said she had no overview of any people directing passengers to the counters or not. That she was not responsible for that personnel and she could not answer for them, although it was surprising to her why they didn't directed me to the counter.
14. Ms. Debbie Pinto said that it was unknown to her why I was not allowed to check-in at the counter. We thought she would say that she would investigate however, she limited to say, that she did not know, and that was all.
15. Airport security also refused to led us to their supervisors and said the will need to call the police. We accepted since we felt our physical integrity could be in danger by this unidentified security staff or by Ms. Pinto at any point, and we would prefer to have public security protection. After a short conference between airport security and Ms. Debbie Pinto, they declared, without making any phone call, that the police was "too busy".
16. Ms. Debbie Pinto approached some minutes later again to collect information about our tickets, without informing why. We had to follow her and ask her the purpose. She said it was for a report.
17. After insisting to speak with a supervisor Ms. Pinto turned around and left without further explanation.
18. Airport security staff also left without further explanation. They also refused to be identified or to speak with a supervisor.
This is not the kind of behaviour we are used to when travelling through Heathrow Airport or any other airport in the UK or abroad. We felt threatened by the dismissive, accusing and bullying language of Ms. Debbie Pinto and the security staff of Heathrow Airport. I believe this is not the kind of social behaviour accepted at Menzies Aviation or Heathrow Airport and this is why I need to further investigate and escalate the situation. We travel frequently through Heathrow Airport, and we want to file a complaint to the Metropolitan Police in case that the Heathrow Airport Security Staff, Ms. Debbie Pinto or someone associated with them want to take reprisals of any kind against myself, my wife or our families, since we anticipate that they will be not pleased about our complaints.
We hope to have no further problems with Airport Security, however it was deplorable that some people who do not identify themselves are able to operate within the airport putting passengers and staff alike in potential danger.
Roberto Arias
Update 1 (23/04/2014): Patricia Rayneau from Menzies Aviation replied to investigate further. No one from Heathrow Airport or LOT has replied so far.
Update 2 (09/05/2014): Tracey Boyle and Fiona Steele from Heathrow Aiport replied to my concerns, however, is their policy to not comment about any internal measure taken.
Update 3 (09/05/2014): It seems the communication department of Heathrow Airport doesn't want to have negative comments in LinkedIn and Facebook and deleted my comments.
