Originally Posted by
orbitmic
One follow up question if you don't mind. I know that among the service recovery options, BA (and many other airlines) can award passengers a space available upgrade (usually for fairly serious problems). Very often, from the point of view of frequent flyers this can be a more attractive form of compensation than many others. Is this also an option on your system?
Originally Posted by
Machine27
People normally write after their return journey and they have yet to book another trip on which they could be upgraded, so this is possible a lot less often than you might think.
Interesting... I agree that upgrading frequent flyers in the event of (serious) IRROPs could be a more attractive form of compensation than many others. (As I think has been said elsewhere, for many people, the real measure of an airline is not what happens when all goes well, but what happens when things go wrong). IRROPs can be particularly frustrating for pax, and a negative experience can easily put people off flying with that airline again. However, being upgraded as a result is likely to make the disrupted pax feel much more positive towards the airline (and, unlike other forms of upgrade, it does
not devalue the premium product - as no-one wants or expects IRROPs...)
However, I don't think this is an issue that should (primarily) be addressed by Customer Service after the fact. Ideally, it should be addressed in real-time, by the staff handling the rebooking for the IRROPs. (eg: if IRROPs meant an FB E+ pax was going to be more than XXhrs late arriving at their destination, they could be given a complimentary upgrade on that flight (subject to availability, of course).
That said - the one time I can recall having a 24hrs delayed arrival recently, I was already travelling in KLM WBC, so no upgrade would have been possible anyway. (And it was caused by a birdstrike to the incoming aircraft, so 'exceptional circumstances' and really not anyone's fault...)
PS And welcome
Machine27 - great to have you here!