Complaining to BA

[13Alpha]

My first post here after a year's lurking, so please be gentle, and my apologies if I've broken protocol.

As a BA gold card holder and regular PAX from one of the UK's "regional" airports I'm pretty disgusted by the recent events (BA Connect sale, expected redundancies etc.)

While I know it's a futile exercise I want to make my feelings known to someone in BA. Can anyone here suggest a recipient for a letter - other than the standard ones for complaints on the website ?

thanks in advance
13Alpha

[TightSlot]

Warm welcome, 13Alpha - the first post is always the most nerve-racking, but you'll remember it forever!

[Sean Dell]

[email protected]

[PAXboy]

Hi 13Alpha and welcome on board. The protocol is run with a light touch here [doffs cap to the collectively magnificent moderators] and it was good to see that someone still bothers enough these days to give a d@mm. :(

British Airways Executive Club
PO Box 111
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 6FB

Since you are a Gold member, these folks ought to be interested in you, whilst the folks at the HQ will be less so. Leastways, that is the impression gleaned here.

By the way, Tight Slot, it is kind of you to think that some of us can remember our first posting to PPRune but it was rather a time ago ... well, I'll just make my mug of cocoa and get on the chair lift to go to bed :zzz:

[WHBM]

Warm welcome, 13Alpha - the first post is always the most nerve-racking, but you'll remember it forever!
Bit like a First Solo !

[13Alpha]

Thanks for the warm welcome and making my first time a pleasure :)

Thanks also for the responses. PAXboy I think you're right, the Exec Club might be the best bet as they are supposed to be about maintaining customer loyalty. I fear that these days any letter to BA which doesn't begin "I'm the CEO of a City firm who travels in Club to JFK twice-weekly" will go straight to the low priority pile so I will choose my words carefully.

I've often used BA for business travel in the past when it's been neither the cheapest, or most convenient, option because of the quality of the service and because I like the people who work for it.

However loyalty is a two-way street and when I see BA treating its own people like dirt and continuing to run down its regional operation and migrating everything and everyone to LHR, while other airlines increasingly fly me where I want to go direct from EDI or GLA - or via an airport which works*, like AMS, why should I subject myself to LHR's security nightmare and ATC delays ?

13Alpha

* I don't include the AMS baggage handling of course :rolleyes:

[Lancelot37]

Travelling to Perth Australia, with my wife, January 13th from Teesside via AMS with KLM I've tried numerous times on their web site to request seats in the two seat configuration, not three abreast. Their web site allows questions to asked and points to be put to them and has a tick box at the bottom saying "Do you wish to receive a reply?"

I've tried several times but no replies.

We both have 32,000 points in their Flying Blue but they don't seem interested in Customer Service. We go to Australia ever year for three months.

I'm close to 70 years and my wife is 72 and we want a peaceful flight without much disturbance.

[flybywire]

Lancelot, I know what you mean about flying blue, I have about 80,000 points with them myself (believe it or not) and all I ever wanted was to book one return flight LHR-CDG-AMM with them and I still haven't been able to thanks to the great organization!! Last mach for example I tried many times and everytime I was speaking with someone different who was telling me the opposite of what the previous person said!! In the end I gave up and used staff travel with BA. :rolleyes:
However in your case if you're buying a ticket you might be able to request the allocation of two specific seats together by calling their FB customer service number? I suppose they can do that? It shouldn't be rocket science for a reservation agent.....:8

As for a formal complaint to BA, 13Alpha as it's been suggested the exec.club people are the best to contact (BA care about gold members than their own employees, I promise you) they at least will hear you out. I doubt though that they'll do something about it, BAConnect, as "ze boss wiz the cold heart" said, has a different philosophy which doesn't agree with BA's (point to point....BAConnect is a bit like AerLingus who in fact have already been kicked out the Oneworld alliance) so I doubt that even if all customers like you got together they would change His mind. But I always encourage our customers to speak out so please do write to them/call them!!:ok:

I believe the MAN-JFK route will be kept though, just operated by BA mainline, so for all those people who think this route will be dropped, do not worry, it will still be there in 100 years......:cool:


FBW

[13Alpha]

Lancelot37: yes, I've also found KLM to be not good at responding to website queries. BA are better but are still pretty slow. For anything important I tend to give them a call.

flybywire: Thanks for the encouragement. Letter is on its way. Text below. I'm not expecting anything more than an acknowledgement but at least I've made my point.

13Alpha

On 3rd November I received an email from British Airways regarding the proposed sale of BA Connect to Flybe.

In addition to news of the sale, this email states that:

“BA Connect also operates from London City Airport and between Manchester and New York. These services will not be impacted by the proposed changes.”

This is patently not true. The manner of the announcement of the Flybe sale, the simultaneous announcement of job losses amongst ground handlers, checkin and customer liaison staff at your regional bases, and the lack of clarity about the future ownership and direction of your London City services must all inevitably affect the ability and motivation of your remaining regional staff to deliver a quality service - not just to future London City customers, but to those flying on BA Mainline services from “the regions” to Heathrow and Gatwick.


My business flight bill for the last year amounted to around £50 000. Around 25% of this was spent with BA Connect and a further 25% with BA Mainline. A major factor in my choice of BA was the option of flying from my local airport without having to endure the torture of ATC and security delays that constitute a Heathrow transfer (neither of which will be solved, incidentally, by Terminal 5).


As a result of BA’s recent actions, my options are now significantly diminished, and, if your CEO’s commitment to services to London City and London Gatwick is as strong as was his commitment to giving BA Connect 2 years to succeed, then before long I will have no options at all.


From my local airport I can fly to all of the destinations I need to without using BA. Please tell me why I should remain loyal to your airline and continue to recommend it to my colleagues, when it appears that customers who live north of the M4, or who don’t share your enthusiasm for travel via London Heathrow, are of such minimal interest to you.

[outnumbered]

I've complained to BA twice in the past by post to the customer services dept - never even had the courtesy of a reply. :(

[Lancelot37]

Lancelot37: yes, I've also found KLM to be not good at responding to website queries. BA are better but are still pretty slow. For anything important I tend to give them a call.



Is life too easy for some airlines? I retired 7 years ago but it was always impressed upon me that the most important person in our company was the customer.

KLM have had a bad record for a long time, so nothing has changed.

[flybywire]

As a result of BA’s recent actions, my options are now significantly diminished, and, if your CEO’s commitment to services to London City and London Gatwick is as strong as was his commitment to giving BA Connect 2 years to succeed, then before long I will have no options at all.

From my local airport I can fly to all of the destinations I need to without using BA. Please tell me why I should remain loyal to your airline and continue to recommend it to my colleagues, when it appears that customers who live north of the M4, or who don’t share your enthusiasm for travel via London Heathrow, are of such minimal interest to you.

Very well written 13Alpha.....I am very curious to see what they will say when they reply to you. I hope it's not one of those "try to avoid answering the question" replies.....some of the management over here seem to have mastered that skill very well. :rolleyes:

[firemac]

outnumbered says, "I've complained to BA twice in the past by post to the customer services dept - never even had the courtesy of a reply"

I've had reason to complain to BA several times over past dozen years or so & have always found that a letter to the CEO/MD has always produced a response (& some form of compensation/shut you up trinkets). The replies didn't come from the great men themselves of course but from one of their PA's - but at least my mail got into their office & wasn't ignored.

[13Alpha]

outnumbered says, "I've complained to BA twice in the past by post to the customer services dept - never even had the courtesy of a reply"

I've had reason to complain to BA several times over past dozen years or so & have always found that a letter to the CEO/MD has always produced a response (& some form of compensation/shut you up trinkets). The replies didn't come from the great men themselves of course but from one of their PA's - but at least my mail got into their office & wasn't ignored.

Thanks for the tip. Since it's one month since my letter to the Exec Club and no response yet :rolleyes: , I'll give that a try.

The way things are going I may take my business elsewhere (but continue to drink BA's coffee, use their showers and sit on their comfy chairs until my gold card runs out ;) )

13Alpha

[Haven't a clue]

The way things are going I may take my business elsewhere (but continue to drink BA's coffee, use their showers and sit on their comfy chairs until my gold card runs out ;) )

13Alpha

As a fellow Gold card holder and equally p***ed off over the BA Connect debacle I think I'll join you. Will BA miss me? :{

My thanks to all the wonderful Manx/BRAL/BA Connect staff who've looked after me so well over the past 24 years!:D

[13Alpha]

Thanks for the tip. Since it's one month since my letter to the Exec Club and no response yet :rolleyes: , I'll give that a try.

13Alpha

Now two months since my Exec Club letter, and three weeks since my Willie Walsh letter. No reply to either. :(

Well I guess WW has a lot on his mind at the moment. But I hope the irony hasn't been lost on him of fact that the only domestic flights flying the BA flag next Tuesday will belong to the airline he's just sold.

Nor, hopefully, will he have missed the ongoing dangers of putting all his eggs in the Heathrow basket, which seems now to house not only bad transport infrastructure, creaking baggage handling systems, insufficient security staff, overcrowded airspace and insufficient runways, but the most militant cabin crew in his organisation.

I've started catching the train on my London travel now, and I'm afraid my next longhaul trip probably won't be with BA, and definitely won't be via Heathrow. :rolleyes:

13Alpha

[419]

If you ever have a problem / complaint / question for Air france or KLM, regarding their frequent flyer program, don't bother writing to them, as all it will do, is end up with you wasting time and money, for no good reason.

They must have the worst run, and most disorganised "loyalty" program in the world.
It's not for no good reason that it's nicknamed "Flying Poo"

[PAXboy]

A friend said to me yesterday that he is now working on a project in Scotland and he is in Berkshire. Rather than ten junctions down the M4 to the Black Hole of Harmondsworth, he takes the train from Reading. His company are happy, even though the 1st class rail fair is often more expensive than Y on Bacon!

Between them, BA + BAA have ...