turntheheatdown

I think as a BA customer we are inured now to poor customer service. What a revelation AA were recently. I booked two tickets from Glasgow to St Kitts for my wife and I in business class, AA fare £2353. BA fare for the exact same flights £9616 (4 of the flights were on BA). Something came up and my wife couldn't go. I called AA 40 hours after booking. It took 2 minutes for someone to speak to me. They very courteously split the booking and advised me what to say to try to get a refund. The refund was declined but a full credit given. BA cancelled my flight at 20.01 the night before I was due to leave. BA Executive Club close at 20.00. Is that a coincidence? I had spoken to them several times during the day and they had not told me the flight was cancelled. Appalling customer service. This would then have resulted in all of my flights being cancelled. I spoke to someone at AA and they stayed on the line for an hour and a half to get my ticket validated from London. I took a train to London (it arrived in over 2 hours late) and BA in person were wonderful. I had a great driver from Euston who got me to Terminal 5 in 33 minutes. 8 minutes from outside Terminal 5 to being on the bus to an aircraft due to leave 20 minutes later including checking in a bag, clearing security etc. All the other flights were great and the Flagship Lounge at Miami is outstanding. After I got back I again contacted AA and pointed out that the flight they gave a credit for was actually cancelled. They agreed and 48 hours later refunded my AMEX account the full amount of my wife's fare.

Throughout the people at AA were superb to deal with. BA was awful except when there was a person in front of me. Her name was Michelle. They still haven't dealt with the cancelled flight. I emailed Doug Parker to let him know. I got a lovely reply from his office. I would not hesitate to book with AA over BA in the future as I now know that they know how to deal with customers. I think BA has forgotten unless you are in their face.

FlightDetective

Why, may I ask, did you speak to British Airways "several times during the day" for a single booking? I never have to speak to the airline on a standard ticket, so I am curious as to why you were ringing them so much.

Also, you would have had to deal with AA on this ticket, because you bought it through AA. It is up to AA to speak to you about cancellations and so on in this instance, as you purchased the ticket through them.

Basically you're saying you're upset with BA because they cancelled a flight and didn't tell you... when actually, it was AA who would have been responsible for notifying you. BA also are not responsible to give you anything for the cancelled flight, so you're waiting for nothing here, as AA are ultimately responsible for making you whole.

Unless I am missing something here, your anger at BA seems somewhat misplaced.

Dave Noble

BA was responsible under the 261 regulation for dealing with the cancelled flight since it was the operating carrier, however it seems that the OP chose to deal direclty with AA to make the change to the booking. Since the passenger went off and made the change with the travel agent in this case, I suspect that BA may be able to not pay expenses since it wasn't given the chance to fix it

I can't see where there was anything wrong with BA's service ; where AA did do well was being prepared to switch the voucher for a refund after the voluntary cancellation by the passenger ; that the flight was cancelled after that was done, there was no entitlement to a refund

VegasGambler

I've also found AA customer service to be great. I suspect that this is mostly due to being EXP but everyone I have talked to on the phone has been amazing.

turntheheatdown

BA were positioning aircraft and it was clear to me that they were not positioning to Glasgow or Edinburgh. That is why I spoke to them. I was concerned as I was going out to arrange a friend's funeral. They were at best economical with the truth of what they were doing. AA put me through to BA on several occasions. I am afraid that every time I spoke to BA they told me that the "flight was flying". Until it wasn't.

Dave Noble

The agent will be going by what is in the system regarding the state of the flights. AA agents would do the same thing. If the flight is still listed as operating, what do you expect the agent to say?

turntheheatdown

AA did. Superbly.

turntheheatdown

BA said eventually that it wasn't flying. AA sent me an email that it wasn't flying..................but at 10.30 that evening AA's system was still showing the customer service person that it was flying.

smartytravel

Unless I'm missing something, it does sound like bare minimum customer service. I fail to see how this can be considered "excellent"?

Dave Noble

Well - all except for AA being prepared to give a refund after the voluntary cancellation of the booking , which was prior to flight being cancelled, nothing, to me, seems particularly beyond what should be expected

If the passenger had turned up at Glasgow, then BA would either have rebooked him by the time he arrived or would rebook him, though may have been delayed getting to destination and potentially been entitled to GBP520 compensation

BA's customer service is not going to be able to address dealing with a cancelled flight before the cancellation occurs

mvoight

Responded to wrong post

navylad

Sorry to hear that your flight was cancelled, was this due to weather (my guess from the fact you said the aircraft hadn’t done the positioning leg).

Ultimately, I don’t see any failure of BA here, the agent would not necessarily had their tarot cards to predict that it was going to be cancelled, and your conspiracy theory that it was cancelled at 2001 to avoid you being able to contact the executive club doesn’t pass basic common sense (no airline would deliberately avoid sorting out issues about a cancelled flight that would otherwise potentially result in compensation due to a delay).

As pointed out upthread your ticket was with AA so you correctly contacted AA who agreed to a voluntary change at your request to fly from London. Had you not done so, and turned up at the airport or called BA once open (there is always the option to Skype to another time zone country’s number), you would have been rebooked on the next available flight. This would have included on to other carriers, so lots of options would have potentially been available which would have got there sometimes before your ETA.

If we go strictly by CoC, I can’t see how BA would be liable for your own decision to travel yourself down to London.

mikeyfly

turntheheatdown when did you travel? As this could explain the reason for the cancellation