Sometimes it's hard to love BA....
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Sometimes it's hard to love BA....
In August I and two travelling companions were involuntarily downgraded on a BA Cityflyer flight from Zurich to London City. The flight was packed with families, kids and various forms of lowlife and, needless to say, was hell.
However, I accept that sometimes these things happen so I sent an email to BA asking them if they would kindly refund to my account the BA Miles I had spent to upgrade us. Today, four weeks later, I received a reply, in which they apologised for the fact that we had not been able to have the extra legroom seats we had requested, and offered a £30 travel voucher as compensation. This, of course, has no relevance to my actual complaint.
But this isn't just a moan: I do have a couple of questions for anyone who might work for BA customer service. Am I entitled to get my BA Miles back, or is there some clause in BA's booking conditions that means I forfeit them? And the £30 voucher is only redeemable by telephone - if I choose to accept the voucher will I therefore be liable to pay the additional fee imposed on phone bookings?
However, I accept that sometimes these things happen so I sent an email to BA asking them if they would kindly refund to my account the BA Miles I had spent to upgrade us. Today, four weeks later, I received a reply, in which they apologised for the fact that we had not been able to have the extra legroom seats we had requested, and offered a £30 travel voucher as compensation. This, of course, has no relevance to my actual complaint.
But this isn't just a moan: I do have a couple of questions for anyone who might work for BA customer service. Am I entitled to get my BA Miles back, or is there some clause in BA's booking conditions that means I forfeit them? And the £30 voucher is only redeemable by telephone - if I choose to accept the voucher will I therefore be liable to pay the additional fee imposed on phone bookings?
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Rusland 17,
Will have a go at helping but not sure whether I'll be able to as it was City Flyer rather than BA mainline. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained! PM sent.
Jsl
Will have a go at helping but not sure whether I'll be able to as it was City Flyer rather than BA mainline. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained! PM sent.
Jsl
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Hi JSL.
Thanks for the reply, and the offer of help, but I'm more than happy to continue this discussion with BA customer services myself if I think it will achieve anything. All I really need to know is whether I am entitled to get my BA Miles back as a result of the involuntary downgrade. After all, BA Miles have no cash value so I'm unsure whether I have actually suffered any loss that a court would recognise.
(In fact, it was worse than a simple downgrade: the flight was operated "on behalf of" British Airways by some cowboy outfit called Titan Airways, who were on a par with Ryanair in terms of service and onboard ambience. The fear that BA will again subcontract their service to Titan means that I have already booked with Swiss for my next two trips to Zurich).
Thanks for the reply, and the offer of help, but I'm more than happy to continue this discussion with BA customer services myself if I think it will achieve anything. All I really need to know is whether I am entitled to get my BA Miles back as a result of the involuntary downgrade. After all, BA Miles have no cash value so I'm unsure whether I have actually suffered any loss that a court would recognise.
(In fact, it was worse than a simple downgrade: the flight was operated "on behalf of" British Airways by some cowboy outfit called Titan Airways, who were on a par with Ryanair in terms of service and onboard ambience. The fear that BA will again subcontract their service to Titan means that I have already booked with Swiss for my next two trips to Zurich).
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Rusland 17,
I'd have thought so as it doesn't sound right but in all honesty, I don't know for sure. I will see what I can find out as I am working over the next 4 days but hopefully, in the meantime, someone in the know will see your post and be able to answer you one way or the other! I'd now like to know the answer myself in case it crops up with a passenger on one of my flights.
I'd have thought so as it doesn't sound right but in all honesty, I don't know for sure. I will see what I can find out as I am working over the next 4 days but hopefully, in the meantime, someone in the know will see your post and be able to answer you one way or the other! I'd now like to know the answer myself in case it crops up with a passenger on one of my flights.
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I did a secondment in BA Customer Relations. You probably will find that in a downgrade situation, that this is the standard compensation you are entitled to. BA will not compensate for outsourcing the flight.
I advise that you write a simple, non-emotional letter stating the card number and status of each person travelling and address it to Willie Walsh. That way, your letter will be sent to Waterside and not to India or Newcastle. It will be read by senior staff who operate directly for the Leadership Team and will hopefully READ your letter.
In the letter mention that it is the MILES that you want and not vouchers. The actual cash value of miles is suprisingly very little and a simple transaction for them. If they want to protect your relationship with the airline, they should be able to do this as a 'goodwill gesture', particularly as you have chosen to fly with Swiss in the future.
As for the redeeming the voucers, I cannot remember if there is a telephone fee involved. Knowing BA, there probably IS a charge, which I think is pretty lame. Perhaps that is something you can mention in your letter as well. Good luck with it all.
JSL, I recommend you call the CSD hotline.
I advise that you write a simple, non-emotional letter stating the card number and status of each person travelling and address it to Willie Walsh. That way, your letter will be sent to Waterside and not to India or Newcastle. It will be read by senior staff who operate directly for the Leadership Team and will hopefully READ your letter.
In the letter mention that it is the MILES that you want and not vouchers. The actual cash value of miles is suprisingly very little and a simple transaction for them. If they want to protect your relationship with the airline, they should be able to do this as a 'goodwill gesture', particularly as you have chosen to fly with Swiss in the future.
As for the redeeming the voucers, I cannot remember if there is a telephone fee involved. Knowing BA, there probably IS a charge, which I think is pretty lame. Perhaps that is something you can mention in your letter as well. Good luck with it all.
JSL, I recommend you call the CSD hotline.
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The flight was packed with families, kids and various forms of lowlife and, needless to say, was hell.
the flight was operated "on behalf of" British Airways by some cowboy outfit called Titan Airways, who were on a par with Ryanair in terms of service and onboard ambience
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sorry to hear you did not enjoy your flight but Titan is a fairly well respected airline and not the cowboys you think. For City Flyer to get titan in to run a flight costs a lot of money and would of been done to enable the flight to operate. The choice was cancel the flight or do the right thing and bring in a well respected airline to operate for them to mean you can still fly. I suspect your loco would of left you high and dry. BTW just as much chance of Swiss using titan should they have a problem as they one of the few carriers who can operate into LCY adhoc. Or they may just cancel on you!. As for the air miles thing, Keep onto BA customer services that`s what there there.
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Rusland 17 - You've now mentioned this 'incident' on three different threads in two different forums: I wondered if this one might be the last, or should we all hold something back for later threads on the subject?
If this was a sub-charter, then these are the passengers that you would have travelled with on the BA metal, had it operated - Does the standard of your fellow passengers rise and fall according to the owner of the aircraft?
The flight was packed with families, kids and various forms of lowlife
Paxing All Over The World
Do tell BA that you have already booked with Swiss. Give dates that you have booked and even flight numbers - to help convince them that they have already lost business.
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Do tell BA that you have already booked with Swiss. Give dates that you have booked and even flight numbers - to help convince them that they have already lost business.
They are past caring.
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Capetonian
Just curious, but does the customer service you received at least 5 years ago mean that one should expect the same service now, under a different CEO and economic circumstance? I appreciate you are a lost cause to BA, but does saying "BOAC were bad to me under RE, I will never fly with them again" mean a great deal?
Once you become a lost cause your opinions no longer really matter to the company in question as there is nothing they can do to woo you back.
What this does illustrate is that once a customer is lost for good they can be bitter and will tell everyone they once had a bad experience. As time goes by this matters less as people stop listening when they find out that the experience was so long ago as to be a virtually different airline. For example moaning about T5 from its opening is now so irrelevant as the place is very different, it works well and is a pleasant place to transit, so continuing to moan just demonstrates that that person likes to moan.
Ultimately I guess what I am getting at is that because you think they are past caring because of an experince some 5 years or so ago does not mean that they do not care now.
Once you become a lost cause your opinions no longer really matter to the company in question as there is nothing they can do to woo you back.
What this does illustrate is that once a customer is lost for good they can be bitter and will tell everyone they once had a bad experience. As time goes by this matters less as people stop listening when they find out that the experience was so long ago as to be a virtually different airline. For example moaning about T5 from its opening is now so irrelevant as the place is very different, it works well and is a pleasant place to transit, so continuing to moan just demonstrates that that person likes to moan.
Ultimately I guess what I am getting at is that because you think they are past caring because of an experince some 5 years or so ago does not mean that they do not care now.
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about 8 return trips for 4 people so 32 segments, nearly half in Premium Economy and a couple in Club
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Ultimately I guess what I am getting at is that because you think they are past caring because of an experince some 5 years or so ago does not mean that they do not care now.
I wrote to the company with two fairly serious complaints requiring action and despite this being was 6 weeks ago and I have not had a reply. I know they received the letter as I did a trace on it, using the registered number.
One can only conclude that customer service is not the priority, since I am a gold card holder.
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Service recovery is not determined by the route, so claiming an indifferent response based on South African business is nothing but speculation. Probably not something a BA employee should be stating to passengers on an open forum.
I worked very hard on my letters when I was in Customer Relations and don't appreciate my work being refered to a 'cut and paste bull****'. The team in Customer Relations at Waterside DO care and do a great job under VERY trying circumstances sometimes.
When I was there, I dealt with the LGW crewing crisis, the BA38 crash, severe LHR fog disruption and the T5 opening and managed to treat every customer I had contact with with respect and empathy.
As has been mentioned by Tight Slot in other threads, this forum is not for taking shots at airline staff. Maybe you should take your hatred to one of the customer service websites as suggested.
Never thought I'd actually miss F3G.
I worked very hard on my letters when I was in Customer Relations and don't appreciate my work being refered to a 'cut and paste bull****'. The team in Customer Relations at Waterside DO care and do a great job under VERY trying circumstances sometimes.
When I was there, I dealt with the LGW crewing crisis, the BA38 crash, severe LHR fog disruption and the T5 opening and managed to treat every customer I had contact with with respect and empathy.
As has been mentioned by Tight Slot in other threads, this forum is not for taking shots at airline staff. Maybe you should take your hatred to one of the customer service websites as suggested.
Never thought I'd actually miss F3G.
