Learning made fun

British Airways - Inflight Customer Services, Well They Just Don't Care!

I'm outraged by British Airways inflight customer service. Rob, my husband and I recently went to New York with our 3 Grown up kids. Rob and I were travelling premium economy whilst our kids were going economy.

Rob's screen wasn't working so he couldn't watch a film. Actually our steward was lovely and after a few attempts to reset it said he would call the chief steward over to discuss options. The chief steward had a problem talking to both Rob and I and would just talk to Rob. I found him quite rude and dismissive, I'm unsure if it was because it was Rob's screen that was broken or because I was female. He offered to move Rob to business class after the meal - he said there was only 1 free seat but even if there were more he would only move 1 of us. He refused to accept the idea that the 2 of us travelled together so wanted to sit together. I was even more wound up by the fact that he then asked what car we had and when we bought it did we get one free? I'm not sure what that analogy was meant to show but he obviously thought he had made his point.

I'm regretting our decision to recently travel British Airways often, to build up our miles. How can they think this is the right way to treat customers and regular customers at that?

Rob asked, even though I had to ask Rob to ask as the chief steward refused to talk to me, if we could both be upgraded on the way back. This wasn't something he could do. The option he proposed was for one of us to move to business class or not. Our nice steward suggested we may get extra Avios points, so Rob put this to the chief steward who said we wouldn't get many but he would see.

5 hours later the chief steward still hadn't returned to see if Rob wanted to move to business class, Rob asked our steward what had happened and was told somebody in business class had a problem with their screen and had been moved to the spare seat. Customer service is obviously at its best when we are just ignored!

The chief steward did come over again just before we landed. He said a lot of seats in business class had issues with their screens so he was too busy ( on a 7 hour flight) to come back and see us. Our custom is not considered as important as theirs obviously. He also mentioned, to our astonishment, that he thought I was abusive as he was dealing with Rob and I was interfering! Apparently there are no Avios we can get and no compensation for getting a seat with no inflight entertainment.

I'm doubtful if other airlines would have dealt with the problem of a broken screen in this way. I think British Airways need to remember we, the customer, have a choice. They also need to train their chief stewards in customer relations better! Next time we go to New York I'll investigate Virgin Atlantic. I'm definitely going to follow this up with Customer Services in the UK. I wonder if they'll be better than the inflight version!

An Interview With…Karen Sherr – Musical Minis by More than Mummies

I was delighted to be interviewed by More than Mummies for the series they have on mums running a variety of businesses, they hope these interviews will inspire you as well as answer some questions you may have about what it’s like to be a mum in business.

http://www.morethanmummies.com/2014/03/an-interview-with-karen-sherr-musical-minis

Musical MInis South Wales Celebrates St David's Day

Guest blog by Jo Weaving, the South Wales Musical Minis franchisee.

I’m not Welsh but I have lived in Wales for over half my life. Until I had my children I didn’t realise that the Welsh language is taught from pre school level upwards and I didn’t realise quite how much effort is put into celebrating St David’s Day. Schools hold their own Eisteddfods which include poetry, music, creative writing and art. My own children have always gone to school dressed up on St David’s Day - our costumes have ranged from rugby players to leeks and miners. Playschools, nurseries and similar groups hold their own celebrations too. This year, for instance, one of our local playgroups asked all the children to wear red each day, sang simple Welsh songs and ate Welsh cakes.

With this in mind, for several years, I have run a week of classes celebrating St David’s Day, and this year (2014) was no exception. This year we had St David's Day celebrations in our classes in Barry, Bridgend, Pontyclun and Sully.

Many of our Musical Minis came along dressed for the occasion, as did some of the grown up carers. We started our classes by singing a variant of our name song in Welsh. ‘Bore da, sut wyt ti?’ Which means ‘Good Morning, how are you? And for our afternoon sessions ‘Prynhawn da, sut wyt ti?’ Which means ‘Good afternoon, how are you?

When I attended a preschool group in our local library with my youngest, we learnt a few songs in Welsh, so this year, I decided to include a couple of these within our Musical Minis session as well. We sang ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ in the first half of the session, then replaced 2 of our nursery rhymes with a Welsh song using the dog, mouse and horse puppets followed by a finger counting song.

At the end of our sessions each child was given either a Welsh cake, or a daffodil or leek badge to take home with them.

My aim from running these sessions wasn’t to teach the Welsh language but to celebrate the Welsh culture while having lots of fun.

India - The Golden Triangle

At the end of October Rob and I travelled to India. The sole purpose of this trip was to see the Taj Mahal, which is in Agra but in addition we visited Delhi and Jaipur too.

Driving into Delhi from the airport we found familiarity in travelling on the left hand side of the road with three lanes clearly marked. However, the cars were five abreast, some cars were heading towards us on our side of the road and every driver had their hand firmly planted on the horn. We were shocked by the sheer number of cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks and other three wheeled vehicles, not to mention carts pulled by oxen.

Throughout the trip we had our own driver, Gurmit and guides in each place. We stayed in Oberoi hotels and only ate vegetarian food in the hotels. We are not particularly brave travellers! We booked through Abercrombie & Kent who were great.

Easter Extravaganza With Oxford Musical Minis

Oxford Musical Minis will be hosting a series of events for pre-schoolers (birth – 5 years) during the Easter holidays.

Come and join in with the fun at one of 5 locations:

Monday 7 April 2014, 10am–12.00pm CALVERT

Monday 7 April 2014, 2.30pm–4.30pm BICESTER

Tuesday 8 April 2014, 10.00am–12.00pm ARNCOTT

Wednesday 9 April 2014, 10am–12.00pm 12.00pm WOODSTOCK

Friday 11 April 2014, 10am–12.00pm ADDERBURY

Music, dancing, Easter parade, bubbles, parachute fun and an Easter story!

A prize for the best decorated Easter bonnet/mask as well as an EASTER EGG HUNT where each child will receive a full size EASTER EGG!

Places are limited and must be pre-booked and pre-paid prior to the event. £6.75 per child includes all of the above. (Siblings under 6 months free)

TO BOOK A PLACE CONTACT LEENA ON: 01296 738652 or email: [email protected]