URGENT HELP PLEASE-call centre concerns
 

Hello all,
I hope I've done this correctly as I've just found this forum when looking for advice and it's not really a points query but you seem knowledgable on all things BMI so worth a shot!
I have been conversing with reservations admin about a not receiving a reply when asking for help booking sale fares as the advertised fare was unavailable for the entire sale date range at start of sale- due to a lack of response I've not been able to get a sale fare.
Long story short , the adviser I was corresponding with stated he couldn't do anything so asked to him to forward our communication to a manager who may be able to. The next email I receive is a travel itinerary for the required flight in my name but no explanation. I sent a thank you email back to the adviser on Thurs but haven't received a response. I am flying 26th July & as the adviser is the only one who can discuss this with me & I can't get hold of him, I'm confused. It looks booked but I'm not sure- where would I stand if I speak to him tomorrow & he says it's not booked & there's nothing he can do- surely this is misleading? I showed it to several people who book online & they all agreed it was a confirmed booking in my name. As it's only a week away at busy season, I've had to book my leave & accomodation now but still am not sure what's happening! Sorry it's so much info but I'm stressing out!
Thanks in advance for your help.

go to www.checkmytrip[dot]com - if the e-ticket numbers are showing then you should be fine.

Thanks Irmster-it's on there,so fingers crossed.
 

That's a bit of relief, thanks. It's wierd that no one else at BMI reservations could confirm it on the system for me.

Do you think I'll earn points on this if they've booked it to resolve my complaint? Cheeky I know but it's longhaul so lot of points involved!

Is the booking showing up in checkmytrip with a ticket number?

There is no reason why you wouldnt recieve miles for this booking, regardless of how it was made, as long as it is booked into an eligible fare class.

Thanks, I haven't given any payment details as I didn't book it-the email was just sent to me! There is a booking ref which is 6 letters & no's & there's a Airline confirmation number when I check on checkmytrip. I don't know if it's possibly booked as a resolution to my complaint.

In checkmytrip you should see near the top of the page "Document Number" with a long string of digits after it...

This is the ticket number, if the reservation has been made.

Otherwise the booking has just been put on hold for you.

Without payment i doubt its been ticketed. You will have to call them to pay for it and get the ticket number issued.

Ah, no document number so just have to wait to speak to the adviser tomorrow.

I do feel this has been v confusing for me & I've been waiting for a reply since Thurs so I am expecting at the very least a significant discount tomorrow - any knowledge on my chances of this? Or best way to approach this?

Id say your chances are somewhere between zero and none at all :)

If you have the booking reference you can just call up the normal reservations line now and pay for the booking. They will get it ticketed for you.

A rather belated welcome to Flyertalk and the bmi board 12ellie12 ^:)

You raise an interesting point regarding non-availability of promotional fares. bmi has a rather questionable history of trumpeting promotional fare sales and then not loading them on the website until some time later. With one of the most recent fare sales, posters here reported that no sale fares appeared at all on some routes during the sale period. Well done to you for persuing this with bmi : I don't think anyone before you has managed to get a 'personal' sale fare by using the direct approach.

Update..the story so far
 

Thanks for the welcome :)

Just letting you know where I stand, I spoke to the adviser this morning who said he couldn't do anything and had reserved the ticket to try & find a cheap price but due to a schedule change this had been emailed to me. I then spoke to a manager at Donington (I think) who has investigated all day for me & can't accept that I searched the entire sale date range & was unable to find this price. I think this may be her last word on this & the reason the price she can give me now is higher than what I would have paid is because the tax has jumped since the sale. This is her last email:

"I have investigated the issue of you being unable to make an on-line booking within the sale period. I can confirm that seats where made available at the outset of the sale and again after the sale was extended. The sale fare quoted at £349 was for travel on Monday through to Thursday and for the Low season dates. The fare which would have been applicable for your requirements would have been £389 plus taxes. Therefore, as we did not respond in time to assist you with finding availability, I would like to offer you the sale fare applicable at the time for your travel dates. I have added this fare into your booking and the total amount including tax will be £618.90.



As discussed if you wish to make a complaint regarding the availability issue then please direct this to [email protected]."


I don't recall this small print & did actually check the entire date range, not just my dates, and it is low season to Barbados, I also found flights at my date range around £460. So I asked her to meet me half way , knock another £100 off to make it closer to what I actually would have paid. She stated she would be calling me again tomorrow but judging by the above email I'm not sure.

I'm sure they won't sell this flight in the next 4 days so it's all profit to them-argh!

If she wants further evidence that these fares were not available feel free to PM me...

I searched every date for the entire sale period and these fares were simply not available.

It may have been due to some technical error, but i can guarantee they were not available.

Yes, I searched exhaustively also - we even posted at the time, laughingly, that bmi don't usually manage to load the sale fares for a couple of weeks after the beginning of the sale.

What also frustrated me was that I said to her that the second mailing I got was still quoting the sale price from £349 when these had obviously all gone (if they were ever there). The first adviser in his apology to me stated these fares would have been gone already so not only is it false advertising but they're contradicting each other.

They were available but the ones I saw were for travel on Saturdays in late September and October.

I dont know how it is in the UK but IIRC it is illegal in germany to advertise fares that are not available. They would be in trouble...