Dave,
Thanks - but that e-mail form doesn't work for me. I have no record of what I sent - and despite having using it in the past I have never (not once) had a response.
I called the ExClub in Bremen to book an open jaw, (closing the jaw with a booking on a partner airline) which you cannot do on-line. I was told up front to go away and do it on-line (not quite that rudely, but ...) otherwise I would have to pay a fee. I reminded the 'support-staff-person' that I couldn't book an open jaw on-line or an Alaska flight and he agreed and said he would waive the fee. We discovered:
1. No availability on AS for the next 3 months.
2. Despite me seeing seats on the LAX-LHR flight, he couldn't. (We don't see what Gold club members see). He couldn't book that for me. He could see seats LHR-YVR and offered to book that for me, which he did.
3. I booked the LAX-LHR flights on-line.
So I later booked on-line one leg of the open jaw myself and he booked the other leg (as they were the only two seats left). I swear I paid more taxes for doing it this way.
When I got the bill for the Taxes etc for the flight he booked I noticed he had charged me the booking fee, despite saying he would waive it. I called back and discovered 'he had left BA', but they wouldn't refund the booking charge as "I could have booked it on-line". Asked for the supervisor who said the same. Forgive me if I paraphrase. "We would have waived the fee had we been able to book what you were asking for, but since we couldn't give you what you wanted we slapped you with the (not insignificant) fee".
A bunch of amateurs who could give a 'monkeys' about their best customers. I am proud to say I no longer fall into that category.