George K

Hey folks,
I’ve had quite a long phone call with the Silver line earlier today in which I asked to have an infant added to the household account (fairly straightforward) and then book an RFS for two adults and the aforementioned new member of the family to the south of France.

Adding the baby went fine, but trouble began during the booking process. At first the agent advised me that the kid’s middle name could not be added to the booking so he just used an initial (him saying that he’d add a note to the booking and with this being a European flight, I wasn’t particularly concerned.. at the beginning).

Then after confirming the flights for 3 economy [peak outbound, off-peak inbound] tickets, he quoted me £45 for the taxes and a number of avios, before asking for a credit card number. I kindly asked whether the price was correct, as I was expecting more along the lines of £80. He said that £45 was the right price but I asked him to double-check once again. He then apologised and agreed that the correct figure was £80, alongside 18850 avios.

Again, I asked him to make sure that the avios figure was correct – having done a rough calculation myself before I called, I came up with 17850, so was keen to find out why he was quoting 1k avios more. He told me that the number was indeed correct so I proceeded to break down my calculation (8500 per adult ticket, and 10% of that for the baby). He apologised once again and admitted that my figure was the correct one.

At that point, I became concerned about every other aspect of the trip. If the two things that are fairly automated (calculating RFS price) were being quoted so wildly incorrectly, I was worried that other bits would not have be done properly too. I asked to proceed with the booking with the proviso that as soon as I get the confirmation, I will be able to make amendments with no trouble should I spot anything wrong. He agreed and also opened up a complaint (on the basis of the two incorrect prices I was quoted).

12 hours later, I still have yet to receive an email confirmation of the flights and the booking does not appear on my account ( I stupidly forgot to ask for a confirmation number over the phone). The money has been drawn from the card, BUT, according to ‘My Recent Transations’ on BA.com, 17158 avios have been deducted (as opposed to 17850).

So once again, this appears to be a mistake. [EDIT: This indeed is because the rest was drawn from the other member of the household account]

The Silver line is closed now so will be calling tomorrow, but wanted to get a sounding from the good people of this board, as to whether I’ve been particularly unlucky with this agent, or whether this is the standard that I should have expected (and whether I should have done anything differently . I was perfectly willing to book the RFS online, but the agent advised me that it’d be best to do it over the phone.

Thoughts welcome!