BA's online booking system

[IB4138]

Yesterday I attempted to book some flights for Mrs IB and myself online.

Mrs IB is travelling AGP-LHR to go to the UK and I am travelling AGP-MAN. Return for both of us is on the same flight, on same day , MAN-AGP.

Whilst my booking could be accomodated by BA's system, Mrs IB's could not. You are only allowed to change your airport of arrival on return, not the one of departure, using the online system.

As I wished to leave options open, should a telephone call to BA fail to resolve the problem and carriage by another airline was the only way, I did not book my ticket on line first.

On telephoning BA, I was informed that, it was possible for Mrs IB's request to be accomodated, but not on line, as the online system is not as sophisticated as the one BA ticket agents use.
I complained that this would involve an additional £30 charge, as I had not booked on line, which they then agreed to waive.

However, when I requested that they then make my booking, as we were travelling back on the same flight and they could make one credit card charge for the total, more problems appeared.

Mrs IB's flight was classed as a seperate booking and as an electronic ticket was being issued, she would have to pay for her flights with a credit card in her name, which was done.

I was then told, that as my flights were bookable on line, I would have to use that system or pay the additional £30 charge. They would not waive the fee for me and I would have to pay for my flights with a credit card in my name. They would not accept that this was one booking.

Someone in BA needs to get a life and sort out their ticket agents, systems and regulations....or do they want to make life as difficult as possible for potential passengers.

The only reason for chosing BA this time, is that the flights are operated by GB Airways....far superior to mainline!

[Avman]

Don't start me off on BA and their online reservation system and policies. I just gave up and stopped flying with them. Three other colleagues did the same For one, we couldn't book online from BRU or DUS (much nearer to southern Netherlands than AMS) with Dutch credit cards.

I wonder how much business they're losing with their outdated policies?

[apaddyinuk]

And did you bother to put pen to paper in a constructive way to inform BA that you were having such problems??? Im sure they are not mind readers!

[HKPAX]

Appadyinuk, you can rest assured that the pages of PPrune are diligently scanned by the airlines, if only because they are also scanned by journos. This is an excellent site to have a temperate rant.

My main grouse with airline sites (especially Cathy Pathetic) is that you can get better deals through a travel agent rather than on their web-site. It DOES pay to shop around, even if you are looking for a standard re-routable / refundable ticket, or one with only moderate restrictions. How airlines expect "loyalty" when they don't give best-available-price terms for a given type of ticket when bought via their web-site beats me.

[PAXboy]

To save a new thread ... I notice in the June 2005 edition of BA's 'Business Life' magazine the following item on Page 73, that does show that they listen ...

"BA.COM Expands Credit Card Policy
BA has extended it's online credit card acceptance policy to allow customers to use a credit card issued in any country to book and pay for a journey originating in their country of residence or from most [note 'most'] of it's major worldwide destinations."

There are another four paragraphs that I cannot be bothered to transcribe for you and I cannot see any announcement on the BA web site - it may be at some lower (and murkier) level! Also, most of it is just PR blurb from 'Simon Parks-Smith BA Head of Product Management'. I'm sure he's a top fellow but that job title is very amusing.

He states that, "This change will particualrly benefit expatriate customers who, although living in one country, will often have credit cards issued and billed in the home country. In addtion, customers with friends and relatives overseas will now be able to purchase flights for them using their own credit card."

This is good news. I have been seriously inconvienienced by their earlier policy.

--------------------
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[Final 3 Greens]

And did you bother to put pen to paper in a constructive way to inform BA that you were having such problems??? Im sure they are not mind readers! Not mind readers, eh? We used to call it understanding the market wwhen I was in sales & marketing.

We used to do it, shock horror, by pro-actively seeking out our customers and talking with them, not by expecting them to use their valuable time and resources to tell us how to correct the faults in our system, that had already frustrated them.

I think you need to take the customer service 101 class ;)

[Avman]

YES at the time I and three other inconvenienced colleagues did put pen to paper. We received standard yukspeak bureaucratic replies which implied that they either did not read or grasp the point we were making. A year later there was still no change.

From what I read above, it appears that things have recently changed for the better. It took two years! Well, it's too late now BA, I found alternatives and they now have my loyalty.