heartface

Just had a depressing birthday weekend after BA scuppered all my plans and put 0 effort into rectifying the situation. Am I wrong to book them thinking they will go the extra mile when things go wrong? That's what I thought the premium price was for. Which airlines do you recommend that look after their passengers? I'm ready to switch.

I recently did BUD - DUB via LHR with an overnight stay in London, the BUD - LHR segment arrived 2 hours late and the LHR-DUB segment was cancelled resulting in my arriving 9 hours late in Dublin for my weekend birthday plans (most of which ended up being cancelled).

Call center staff refused to rebook me onto the Aer Lingus code share (which would have got me in to Dublin at a decent hour) instead putting me on a flight 7 hours later, which was 2 hours late. I chose not to buy a new ticket on Aer Lingus because my suitcase was checked through to Dublin...said suitcase didn't get loaded onto the DUB flight and I wasted another hour filling in paperwork.

I eventually got my suitcase in DUB on the morning of my flight back to London.

I sent an angry email to complain about the appalling service and the impact it had on my plans all I got back was a generic "I absolutely agree we’ve let you down" and "I hope you’ll see an improvement in our service soon. We value your loyalty as a Gold member of our Executive Club".

Is that really the best reply BA can muster these days? Am I wrong to expect anything else?

Cap'n Benj

In the days of EU compensation, this is sadly how things work.

You get your recompense there now as opposed to what seems like the airline actually giving a monkeys

windowontheAside

I loathe that patronising "I absolutely agree..." followed by no remedy.

I'd rather be told that they don't agree with the complaint, and that's why they won't act.

simons1

Sad but really you would be better off flying Easyjet through somewhere less congested even if it means separate flights.

BA has little operating contingency and will wash their hands of you given half a chance. Things will only change if you vote with your feet.

Wozza2404

Not a great solution for you now, but given the outrageous cost of flying to BUD with BA, I almost always fly Easyjet or Jet2 (I loathe Wizzair but they are another option).

EU 261 them is the only option, I'm afraid.

Their service recover has been appalling for the past year or so, on all issues.

heartface

It was a good reality check. Thanks for all the feedback, I'll vote with my wallet where practical to do so.

Paralytic

Can they put things right? Sometimes.

Do they care? Rarely.

corporate-wage-slave

That's probably the right approach but out of interest what sort of remediation would have worked for you?

heartface

For some reason I thought having a gold card could get me on the next available flight or they'd put me on a code share ( I even offered to fly from any London airport).

A gesture of goodwill opup (can't cost much to them) would have been nice.

I'm not usually a demanding customer (I've turned a blind eye to many mistakes made in club world over the last 12 months - I even had a can of sprite explode on me after the cabin crew didn't tell me she dropped it) but I just expected a bit of customer service.

Paralytic

Golds are really nothing to BA. There's thousands of us. You might have been treated differently if a GGL or Prem.

Wozza2404

Possibly if you'd called the GGL line and asked for help. But the service recovery is equally poor for Golds and GGLs alike when it comes to complaint resolution.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartface

I recently did BUD - DUB via LHR with an overnight stay in London, the BUD - LHR segment arrived 2 hours late and the LHR-DUB segment was cancelled resulting in my arriving 9 hours late in Dublin for my weekend birthday plans (most of which ended up being cancelled).

Call center staff refused to rebook me onto the Aer Lingus code share (which would have got me in to Dublin at a decent hour) instead putting me on a flight 7 hours later, which was 2 hours late.

You didn't mention when you found out about the cancellation (few days ahead, at the airport, etc.) but I noticed you spoke to call centre staff - these are limited to booking the next BA operated flight (unless it's a joint business route, which LHR-DUB is not). See http://www.speedbirdclub.com/en/all-...ordelaycancsc/

What did the airport staff say when you asked them to be rebooked?

heartface

I was booked on the 11:35am to DUB and received an email about the cancellation at 5am (I woke up at 8am and called the gold card helpline around 9am shortly after noticing the cancellation).

Good information about LHR-DUB not being a joint business route. Thanks JAXBA

seanyjmuc

Do they care? Sadly not.

As a friend who is cabin crew recently told me, as long as their middle management staff, of which there seems to be a ton, report to the upper echelons at BA that transatlantic flight loads are above 75%, then everyone else who flies BA can go whistle.

Hence the widespread amazement when all you get as a reply to your genuine complaint is a "we're sorry to let you down, we look forward to welcoming you back on board soon" platitude.

BA could do so much better, but they positively choose not to. Such a shame and it's a real kick in the teeth to all their customer-facing staff.

FlyerTalker7654

When you are making the profits they do why would you care? Don't agree with it but that's the way it is. If you want, we could lease a couple of 787's, start our own airline?