BA customer service, what a joke!!

[man friday]

Just been informed by BA that my flights, booked a month ago, from GIB to MCO via LGW have been cancelled

Reroute of GIB LHR LGW MCO offered with no assistance with the connection between LHR LGW for 2 adults a 7 year old and an infant.Bearing in mind the original route was chosen to enable us to check our bags right through with minimal fuss.

When enquiring of BA if i could route GIB LHR MIA i was told i could if i was willing to pay £700 extra. Having checked BA.com the prices are the same for both route!, but as the price had gone up since my original booking i would have to stump up the extra.

The attitude was take it or leave it, put up with the reroute or take a refund!

How dare BA slag off the lowcost airlinesand their charging practices, customer service my arse, no wonder theyre going down the pan with that attitude, its the last time i book with them.

[Final 3 Greens]

Manfriday

Sue them via the small claims court.

The small claims court is less interested with the finer points of the law, than with reasonable behavour.

If you would accept a routing via LHR, IMHO you are being reasonable and BA is being unreasonable to ask you for £700 extra.

[man friday]

Finals 3 Green,


Thanks for that superb idea,hadn't thought of that, i'll get on it ASAP

Cheers

MF

[man friday]

Monkey Tennis,

thanks for the advice, i'll certainly give them a try

Cheers

MF

[bealine]

man friday - although you booked the tickets a month ago, please can you advise what the date of travel would have been? I think, regardless of whether a small claims court or watchdog consider the "finer points of the law", the decision would rest on whether or not the period of notice given to you was "fair and reasonable".

It is quite likely that the re-routing has come about through the decision by Willie Walsh to ground 16 aeroplanes for the period of the economic downturn. The inconvenience to customers is regrettable, but is it not fair and reasonable for a company to take necessary steps to control its costs?

Did you consider the feasibility of flying AGP-LGW LGW-MCO (Malaga is very often used as a diversionary airport for Gibraltar when the Rock is obscured by fog, mizzle or dangerous crosswinds make the ability to land at one of the world's most spectacular runways very precarious!)

Sorry - not trying to wind you up or anything - just trying to be helpful!

Bea

[James 1077]

The inconvenience to customers is regrettable, but is it not fair and reasonable for a company to take necessary steps to control its costs?

And I'm sure that the OP would have no problems with the change in schedule if BA were to check the bags through the whole way and provide a transfer between LHR and LGW. But they aren't - which is why BA are going down the tubes.

[CornishFlyer]

bealine:-

AGP is moving to LHR for the winter too so that option wouldn't work either

[man friday]

Bealine,

travelling ( or at least was planning on) in mid November. Yes you could argue that there was fair and reasonable notification.

the issue for me remains that i had booked with BA from Gib for the specific reason we could check bags to Mco and not have the major inconvinience of having to drag the wife and kids across southern england.

i was more than willing to accept a Gib-Lhr-Mia reroute in order to avoid the aforementioned trek, but despite as of yesterday, Gib-Lgw-Lhr-Mco being the same price as Gib-Lhr-Mia BA wanted the difference between the price i paid at booking to the price as of yesterday. With Easyjet i expect it, not with BA

The attitude that its my problem deal with it, particularly if i miss the connection due to a late flight or traffic is awful.

I booked and paid for a complete trip from Gib to Mco,i do not feel that i'm asking the earth to get to florida without having to now pay to get from Lhr to Lgw!!!

[apaddyinuk]

Man Friday, I believe you are well within in your rights to request a full refund and cancellation of your ticket. Have you attempted this? Perhaps you could get a more suitable flight to MIA via AGP and MAD? Save you a lot of grief when you find out that in the Terms and Conditions of purchase that it does state the airline may at any time change the schedule!

And I'm sure that the OP would have no problems with the change in schedule if BA were to check the bags through the whole way and provide a transfer between LHR and LGW. But they aren't - which is why BA are going down the tubes.

That old provision of transferring bags to LGW was putting BA down the tubes! Do you have any idea who much that cost? And after 9/11 it would not be allowed anyway from a security perspective so no chance of that ever happening again! And there is only one reason BA may be going down the tubes....its management not the staff!

Dozens of people have to make the connection between LHR and LGW on a daily basis. Its not as bad as it seems however I do take into account that you have a nipper with you!

[Andy_S]

Dozens of people have to make the connection between LHR and LGW on a daily basis.

True, and they have to pay for it. And the last time I checked it wasn't cheap. Plus there's the hassle of collecting bags, lugging them to the bus station, unloading them again at LGW then checking them back in. So that's money, hassle, time.

BA have given man friday and his family a ticket from GIB to MCO . Why should man friday be liable for any additional costs resulting from a change of routing? At the very least, I would have thought they would have an obligation to provide a coach ticket or reimburse costs.

[Bealzebub]

The detail will be in the contract. Undoubtably if an airline cancels a flight or an entire service its liability will be restricted to a refund of the fare paid. On top of this it may be further bound by statutory requirements in the relevant jurisdiction.

Given that BA can offer an alternative service and also market the fact that they are a "full service carrier," I would be surprised if they didn't agree to provide the re-routed service at no additional cost. From the information provided, the re-route would have involved no additional cost at the time of purchase. The airline can offer the compromise. The airline keeps the customer.

I think it is a case of pushing this, so that somebody with the relevant supervisory authority or management ability, is able to deal with the matter to the posters satisfaction.

In shutting down the original route, the airline accepted the fact that there would be costs associated with that action in the short term, that would be of benefit in the long term.

[PAXboy]

Slightly off topic as about BA's approach overall ... calling Exec Club today about booking where I could not find the information on line. After automated greeting and first selection, I was given an advert for travel insurance. No opt out, no 'Press 5 to listen for more information' just 50 odd seconds of detailed advertising. If I wanted travel insurance, that was enough to put me off. How do they imagine that unasked for advertising will please the customer? It wasted my time.

The agent was very helpful (of course) and gave me all the answers to the questions that had not been on line.

Later, I got an email advert (unrelated and a coincidental arrival) that was addressed:
Mr Sample, boost your BA Miles with British Airways and Avis
I suspect that they sampled the wrong data and wonder how many got that post, before they corrected it!

[Skipness One Echo]

I think I got that one too but as I never read the things I just binned it. I only cottoned onto something when they sent me another email the next day telling me they had filled my name in correctly this time, and THAT got my attention.
I get the impression they are losing focus on what they are supposed to be doing as the scenario of some marketing moron piping up saying "Wouldn't it be a jolly good idea to subject our busy customers to ages of wonderful advertising before we deign to answer their call?" to which the room cried "Hurrah YES!" is a terrifyingly plausible one.

That's the calibre of people running the show? Time is money and I don't have time for that nonsense thank you! To your high fare paying customers ( no, not me alas ) they will just hate it even more. Perhaps the necessary cost cutting at BA is having unintended consequences?

[bealine]

Bealine,

travelling ( or at least was planning on) in mid November. Yes you could argue that there was fair and reasonable notification.

the issue for me remains that i had booked with BA from Gib for the specific reason we could check bags to Mco and not have the major inconvinience of having to drag the wife and kids across southern england.

i was more than willing to accept a Gib-Lhr-Mia reroute in order to avoid the aforementioned trek, but despite as of yesterday, Gib-Lgw-Lhr-Mco being the same price as Gib-Lhr-Mia BA wanted the difference between the price i paid at booking to the price as of yesterday. With Easyjet i expect it, not with BA

The attitude that its my problem deal with it, particularly if i miss the connection due to a late flight or traffic is awful.

I booked and paid for a complete trip from Gib to Mco,i do not feel that i'm asking the earth to get to florida without having to now pay to get from Lhr to Lgw!!!

Hi Man Friday - I think bealzebub is on the right track. There is a solution available that would suit both parties. Perhaps the answer lies in completing a pleasantly worded form to Customer Relations, laying on with a trowel how much inconvenience, extra cost, added length to your journey time (yada-yada-yada, you get the drift!) and then explain that you would be perfectly happy to change to GIB-LHR-MIA but that the reservations staff have refused to do this without saddling you with huge additional costs.:

British Airways - contact customer relations

You then go on to explain that if you had been forewarned about BA's changes, you would have booked GIB-LHR-MIA in the first place and taken advantage of the low fares associated with early booking. I really like British Airways, and we do prefer to travel with you etc etc, but given the "take it or leave it attitude" I have experienced, I would appreciate your looking into the situation to see if we can find a mutually agreeable solution.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[man friday]

Thanks for all the advice guys, had a long talk to customer services yesterday and finally managed to get my points passed up the food chain to supervisor level.

didnt get to speak to her myself but was told that she was going to look into things and call me back.

still waiting for that call................. but who knows it might come today!

[Seat62K]

I've just heard about someone who's had a trip to Spain cancelled by BA - apparently with no offer to route the passenger via Madrid an onward on Iberia.

I thought the two carriers co-operated?

Now, in the last year I had bookings cancelled by easyJet and Ryanair because of schedule changes, but any customer who thinks that "upgrading to British Airways" makes any difference to how one is treated in such a situation should think again because BA's treatment of the customer in the case cited above is no different to what happened to me. I.e., all we got was a refund.

[Scumbag O'Riley]

The airline is foolish not to accept your generous offer to accept travel to MIA for the same fare after they already accepted your money to take you to MCO. You could always take the refund, book convenient travel to MCO at lowest reasonable cost, and request BA compensate you for any losses you have incurred due to their breach of contract. If you live in GIB then you will have your own version of Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations. They would be sensible to take you to MIA as you very reasonably offered.

[Michael SWS]

Originally Posted by Seat62K

I've just heard about someone... - apparently...

Hearsay and assumption don't really make a very convincing case.

Originally Posted by Scumbag O'Riley

You could always take the refund, book convenient travel to MCO at lowest reasonable cost, and request BA compensate you for any losses you have incurred due to their breach of contract.

You'll probably find that the action that BA has apparently taken, while regrettable and somewhat puzzling, does not constitute an actual breach of contract.

From what man friday has said, it is difficult to understand why BA took the action they did. But we have only heard his version of events, and it would be useful to hear BA's side of the story, to get a balanced impression of the circumstances that led to the change in routing and apparent intransigence on the airline's part. After all, BA's terms and conditions state that

Passengers whose flight is cancelled, shall have the choice of either:

• Re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to the final destination of the ticket presented at check-in at the earliest opportunity or at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability; or
• A refund payable to the person who purchased the ticket.

These are rights under EC Regulation No 261/2004, not at the airline's whim, and thus it all seems to hinge on the definition of "under comparable transport conditions".

[Scumbag O'Riley]

Not a contract? I wonder what it is then. After all there has been an offer, an acceptance, and the airline took the money. What more do you need that is missing?

Those terms you quote do not limit the airlines liability.

[Michael SWS]

I am not saying that there was no contract, merely that advising the passenger of a change of schedule 5 months ahead of the travel date and offering the choice of alternative routing or full refund almost certainly does not breach that contract.