Former Big Brother Naija (BBN) reality show star, Erica Nlewedim, has wrongly accused an employee of a Lagos-based ground handling company of allegedly downgrading her from a business class cabin to an economy seat on a British Airways flight, having fully paid for the said premium seat.
A trending video of the BBN house mate on Instagram showed her complaining and saying some dirty thing in the process.
“I paid for a business class ticket and he is trying to downgrade me to the economy and I didn’t come late. I wasn’t recording before. I was on my own and you called a uniformed person on me telling me I was recording. Okay now, I am going on life recording.
“Even if you guys want to shoot me, everybody will see it. You have not seen the mad side of me in four years and now it’s out. I have been nice since and the niceness is not getting me anywhere but now I have to be nasty.
“Don’t bring problems my way and I won’t bring problems your way. I came here all nice and you told me that you wanted to put me on economy. What the fuck? Did you all not collect the money? Give me what I paid for.”
However, investigation revealed that a check-in staff does not have the authority to either upgrade or downgrade any passenger without the instruction of the airline.
“It is quite unfortunate that this event happened but it is not uncommon during Peak seasons where numerous agents book for seats thereby causing a case of overbooking.
During Peak periods, the airline system would take precedence of Passengers with added advantages like frequent flier premium passes over others during check-in and would definitely stall the check-in process of others once the capacity of the aircraft has been exhausted.
Also, some passengers take advantage of the early check-in facility by checking in 48 hours before departure,” a staff of the ground handling who craved anonymity told NewsGazette.
He said as regrettable as the incident had been, Erica should have contacted her ticketing agent to find out what the problem was.
“There are numerous ways to solve this issue which include flight change or even Airline change and she would have definitely been compensated for the inconveniences,” he added.
He explained that ground handling staff represents the airline at the counter taking care of the check -in and Boarding process but do not have the authority to downgrade any passenger.
“The video showed the check-in staff trying to pacify Erica to call her agent and to explain the options that were available to salvage the situation but she would have none of it,” he said.
He acknowledged that incidents like what happened to Nlewedim on that fateful day “are not uncommon during peak periods and as inconvenient as they are, there are solutions.”
