ONE of Scotland’s top mountain bikers has blasted “useless” British Airways after they lost her bike.
Kerry MacPhee, who was a member of the Scotland team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, has had to borrow a bike so she can compete in Spain today (thu).
The 28-year-old from South Uist flew with BA from London Gatwick to Valencia on Tuesday hoping her bike – thought to be worth around £3,000 – was in the hold.
As well as borrowing a bike, Kerry said she had to shell out for new cycling shoes.
She posted on Instagram yesterday: “I arrived in Valencia to race a four day stage race…but my bike didn’t, so I was wracking my brain for ways to stay positive.”
Kerry said she was told in a BA email that the bike had been located and would be delivered in time for the competition.
She added: “However today the bike is ‘still being located’ and customer service were pretty flipping useless.
“I’m super mad because I almost always arrive two days ahead of racing for this very reason.
“Bikes often don’t make it on the flight but they always get put on the next available flight so I always have sliding room and a day to play with if this occurs.
“The other frustrating thing was that the plane was empty from Gatwick to Valencia.“
She added: “Rather than resting and prepping today, I’ve been going round teams, bike shops, race organisers and anyone to see if they have a spare bike (got laughed out of a couple of places for sure).
“Fortunately, one of the guys racing has given me his wife’s trail bike to ride. It’s not a cross country bike but hey, I get to start right.
“Here’s hoping BA stump up for the cost of these and all the spares I had to buy. Man alive… Bikes are braw… Most of the time.”
Kerry’s sister Kirsty Macphee wrote under the post writing: “Holy moly sounds like faff that could be done without, especially for something that requires organisation to be on point.
“Awesome you get to start. Love the kindness for others. You would do that same.”
@Spagforth said: “British Airways are serial offenders. A whole party in Majorca last year had their bikes ‘lost’ by them.
“My wife had her bike ‘lost by them on a flight to Italy. Customer services totally
useless. We never & will never fly with them.”
British Airways said in a statement: “We are in touch with our customer to apologise and to let her know that her bike was put on the next flight.
“Every year we take great care in transporting thousands of our customers’ bicycles around the world, free of charge, and the vast majority reach their destinations without issue.”
