Tonight:
3°c
T5 blues is YouTube hit
Tim Stewart, Evening Standard17 Apr 2008
When groom Tim Soong's wedding plans were thrown into chaos after British Airways lost all his luggage - including bride Sokha Nhim's wedding dress, his suit and the best man Andy Baynes's suit - he could have been just another unhappy passenger fighting for compensation.
But he took the ultimate revenge by making a homemade music video mocking Terminal5 that is an instant internet favourite. The video is already getting more than 1,000 hits a day on YouTube, and The Terminal 5 Song has been played on the radio and could even be released as a single.
The luggage debacle took place last year before T5 opened when Tim and Sokha flew from Heathrow with BA to get married in Italy.
To get their own back after failing to get any compensation, Tim, 29, and Andy, 31, wrote the song poking fun at the shambolic opening of T5. In the video - covertly shot in the terminal - they highlight the problems of delayed flights, queues, lost luggage and faulty lifts.
Lyrics include: "It's the biggest terminal you have ever seen. It's the biggest disaster - you all know what I mean."
Although their luggage was eventually found Mr Soong, an electrician from Kennington, said he decided to take revenge after he was forced to spend hundreds of pounds on hotel rooms to wait for their luggage.
He said: "We had to stay in a hotel in Pisa and cancel all our rehearsals for the wedding. My future wife was in hysterics. Sokha is a fashion designer and had spent weeks making her dress herself. BA found our luggage the day before the wedding but it wasn't ideal preparation and we ran up a lot of unexpected bills."
BA initially agreed to refund the cost of the flights and the hotel accommodation in Pisa but Mr Soong claims they have heard nothing since returning to the UK. He added: "I doubt BA will see the funny side of the song but everyone else appears to be enjoying it. We've been amazed by the level of interest."
A BA spokesman said: "We apologised for the inconvenience Mr Soong experienced and requested supplementary information so that we could issue compensation but our customer relations department received no reply."
