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...

I booked the sale business class fare to Barbados, but had to use ebookers. Not one possible date was showing as available on flybmi.com in either business or premium economy at the sale fares, but a few were coming up on ebookers. Clearly the fares were loaded. I would guess there's some problem with bmi's booking engine not being able to find them, and the same was probably true of the economy fares.

You could report bmi to the Advertising Standards Authority. They can issue a public censure if they find that there was not sufficient availability of advertised offer fares.

UPDATE & advice re miles
 

Final word from BMI (Ithink) in response to my email below it.

I have been out of the office today so my apologies for the delayed response. Firstly may I explain that the sale fare was advertised FROM £349 and this fare was indeed available at the outset of the sale and also at the outset of the extension sale period. We did indeed advertise that travel was permitted from 12 June to 15 October and the dates that you require do fall into the UK high-season. Therefore, the sale fare offered for this travel period was £389 plus taxes.



However, as a gesture of goodwill for not responding early enough to your request for help in making the booking, we will honour the sale fare for the high season and offer you an additional 3000 miles.

To reconfirm, the total price of your ticket including tax is £618.90.

Your booking remains on hold. Please could you contact help desk, 0870 1266712, to make payment and to complete the booking.

22.07.08

Thank you for your email.

I am unsure if you are continuing to investigate this as per our telephone conversation yesterday. However I would like to add some pertinent points to our discussion:

· I don't recall this small print regarding travel Mon to Thurs & did actually check the entire date range, not just my dates. The promotional email stated “Book from 12 June 2008 until 26 June 2008, travel 12 June 2008 until 15 October 2008.” The price quoted was from £349. These were not available, each time I researched.

· The second mailing I received was still quoting the sale price from £349 when these had obviously all gone (if they were ever loaded). The first adviser, Helix in his apology to me stated these fares would have been gone already so not only is it false advertising but you now appear to be contradicting each other.

· My dates are for the low season to Barbados.

· I have discussed this in various internet forums and I am not the only person with these problems.It is clear from these comments, also mine and my friend’s experiences that there is a problem with your sales systems and your customers are rapidly losing faith in this.

I feel in light of the ongoing and lengthy communications I have endured that I should, at the very minimum, receive my flight at the advertised offer price, with double miles ( as per the offer I was also emailed for booking in June, as I would have done with a prompt reply from yourselves). I would very much appreciate a swift response as I would like purchase my ticket before I fly on Saturday, therefore please continue to hold my flight.


*Does anyone know what the taxes would have been in June on this fare because they are higher now.? How many miles would I have earned Man- BGI?
*Another query is that my Diamond Plus status runs from 25/07/07-24/07/08 so is it better for me to pay for this flight before it runs out & add to my status miles or restart the next year with these points?

Thanks again for your help.