Beware when your eticket disappears

[Aksai Oiler]

So much for etickets. Whilst in Kazakhstan a week a go I changed the date of my BA eticket from Moscow to Heathrow (I was flying the return leg of a full fare economy ticket which had already been paid for). A couple of days ago, whilst I was logged into my Executive Club account I noticed my booking had disappeared so I called the Reservations line in Newcastle to find out that my eticket had been deleted by mistake. At this point it was re-instated.

This afternoon I went to check in for the BA873 in Domededovo - whilst I was waiting to get my boarding card the check in lady told me there was a problem and she had to go an see the Duty Manager. About 10 minutes later I was told that if I wanted to fly Club Europe I had to pay extra (I had not booked Club Europe, but Economy). I demanded to see the Supervisor and was told that there had been a mistake and I was not booked in Club Europe but Economy (this I knew, but then again I didn't book myself in Club Europe in the first place, Newcastle Reservations Centre did). After a long discussion with the ground crew I managed to secure my economy boarding pass, and my onward boarding pass to Manchester (which was a full Business UK ticket). However just because I was bumped from Club Europe, my onward Business UK seat was moved half way down the cabin from 01A to 15F (so I guess there is some underhand seating policy as well, as I was preassigned 01A).

All in all the who experience was humiliating - I had not booked the Clue Europe sector, BA reservations - who had my booking reference, had. At the moment, I am somewhat angry and am considering boycotting BA (I only have flown them on 28 flights so far this year, but obviously this counts for nothing). BA's Customer Service is somewhat to be believed.

I hope Bealine is reading this, because after a long discussion with the Newcastle Reservations Office after this fiasco; my support for BA has dwindled to ZERO:mad:

BA keeps publishing in High Life it policy regarding disruptive Passengers; well what about the passenger's right when it gets continually poor service. At the moment I am going to vote with my feet, my next flight is with bmi and I'm considering cancelling my round trip Club World flight to Tel Aviv on Tuesday and flying with Lufthansa.

Oiler

[Final 3 Greens]

Full Fare Economy

So probably more expensive than a non flexible Club Europe ticket?

Bealine will probably reply that there is no discretion locally, but it seems a bit barmy that they didn't go with the flow and keep you in Club.

Still, nice to hear that the sales prevention department has, apparently, survived the future shape and size programme. ;)

BTW, how many tier points did you get for your 28 flights? Do you have a gold or silver card? BA focus seems to be on g/s levels, i.e. little service without.

I avoid flying BA, because I'll never get more than a blue card due to the tier points system and my short haul pattern of travel. Skyteam have a far better FQTV scheme than Oneworld and I retained silver by the start of July and am on track for gold by the end of November.

[rsoman]

Well from what you say it looks like mistakes from the reservation staff caused the problem.


When you changed the date of your reservation from Moscow to Heathrow in Kazhakistan, at that stage itself your Eticket record should have been revalidated. Most likely this was not done which would have resulted in your booking "disappearing".


After that when you called the Newcastle BA line, they would have attempted to reinstate the booking, and most likely booked you into J class by mistake . This would have been caught out at the airport.

Ofcourse all this is hypothesis based on what you have told . I do not have experience of working in airline reservations, but I do know that in case of date changes, the Eticket has to be revalidated to show the new dates (in addition to making the reservation for the new flight ).

Another point to note is that Eticket is not yet common in all areas of the world. Mentioning this, since you say that you changed the dates for Moscow LHR sector in Kazhakistan. The BA flights (operated by British Meditteranean) from Almaty to London are not open for Eticketing, so it could be that the local airline/agent office where you changed your reservationswould not have been very familiar with the Eticketing procedure resulting in the original mistake.

[Boss Raptor]

Hence being old fashioned sort who got fed up over the years turning up at an airport at 0500 in the morning with a locator number and usual 20 minute wait whilst they finally found my reservation and produced the ticket (Sabena & US Awys constantly) - I will not travel with any airline that does not enable me to have a full set of ticket(s) in my hand before I leave home and ongoing thru the trip - period ;)

[Aksai Oiler]

I have a Gold BA Exec Card and I did the chages through the Executive Club telephone line in the UK (i.e the Newcastle reservations centre); not locally in Kazakhstan.

I can't tell you off the top of my head how many Exec Point I have earned so far this year; however, since my card was renewd in June, I have approximately 420 points, plus another 250 in the pipe line the in next week.

:ugh:

[apaddyinuk]

Dear Askai....

I know you need to vent your anger but copy what you wrote here and send it in writing to BA customer relations....on occasion we do make cock-ups but no point slamming an occasional problem to the whole world making it out to be a regular BA thing!!!
Also...if you know you were booked in Traveller and not club why didnt you just say that to the agent....she would have felt like a prize **** if you turned around and told her that you booked in traveller thats why you were sitting there! Just sounds like the whole thing got unneedly out of hand!
Also...be warned....apparently come 2007 IATA are trying to bring in 100% eticketing for pretty much ALL airlines!!!! Apparently its the way of the future but im like you....Id rather have that peice of cardboard in my hand!

[Final 3 Greens]

Dear Aksai

I now revise my opinion.

You were a gold card holder, travelling on a full fare Y ticket, BA messed up your reservation and then made an issue out of it in the middle of the check in area.

Their local staff must be barking mad and a letter to Rod would be my response.

Dear Paddy

I am generally supportive of BA on this forum, as a reference to my past posts will show, but many others dislike BA because of perceived arrogance. Your posting does rather give them ammunition. Are you sure that you are from BA and not the dirty tricks dept of a rival?

[Avman]

As automation (e-tickets, self check-in, pilotless aeroplanes :eek: )continues to take away jobs and income, as is also happening in so many other industries, I wonder if sometime in the future anyone will be able to afford flying at all, bar of course the privileged FAT CATS who are the only ones profiting from all this.

[Aksai Oiler]

The letter to Rod will be on it's way once I have written it on the flight to TLV tomorrow

Thanks for the support. As a finale - BA lost my baggage on the MAN-LHR sector this morning; the Hotel Hopper decided to provide an hourly schedule instead of the publish 12-15 minutes; and finally The Marriott @ Heathrow decided the check-in computer was having a wobbly; and I couldn't check-in.

:E

[Final 3 Greens]

Make sure that your dog doesn't bite you when you get home ;)